A Shoulder Of Pork

One weighing ten pounds will require full three hours and a half to roast it. For a small family divide it, and roast one. half and corn the other. With a sharp knife score the skin in diamonds, or in strips about an inch wide. Make a dressing, as directed under the head of Stuffing of Various Kinds. Put this into deep incisions made in the thick part of the meat. Rub a little fine powdered sage into the skin where it is scored; and then rub the whole surface with sweet oil, or drippings, to prevent its blistering. Observe the directions respecting the basting and frequent turning of meat. Pork burns very easily, and both the taste and appearance are much injured by its being burnt. While cooking, flour it often.

Spare-Rib Or Chine

A spare-rib requires an hour and a half or two hours, according to the thickness. A very thin one will roast in an hour and a half. Flour it well, and take care it does not burn. Baste it often. The chine requires a longer time, being a thicker piece. It is more healthy, because less fat than the spare-rib, and having more meat in proportion to the bone, is a more economical piece. Before roasting either, trim off neatly, with a sharp knife, all the fat which can be removed without disfiguring the piece, and set it aside to be tried and used as lard.

Pork Steaks

Cut slices from the loin or neck.

To fry pork steaks requires twenty-five or thirty minutes. Turn them often. If they are quite fat, pour off all that fries out when they are half done, and reserve it for some other use. Then dip the steaks in crumbs of bread with a little powdered sage, and lay them back into the frying-pan. When dona through, take them up, dredge a little browned flour into the gravy, put in salt, pour in a gill of boiling water, and turn it instantly, as it boils up, upon the dish of steaks.

How To Fry Ham And Eggs

Cut thin slices, and take off the rind; if very salt, pour hot water upon them, but do not suffer them to lie long in it, as the juices of the meat will be lost. Wipe them in a cloth; have the spider ready hot, lay in the pieces and turn them in a minute or two. They will cook in a very short time. The secret of having good fried ham is in cooking it quick, and not too much. The practice of cutting thick slices, laying them into a cold spider and frying a long time, makes ham black and hard. It needs nothing added, but to be laid upon a hot covered dish. For directions about the eggs, see p. 173.

How To Broil Ham

Cut the slices very thin, for which you must have a sharp knife; pare off the rind; lay them on the gridiron over hot coals. Do not leave them a moment, as they must be almost immediately turned, and will need attention to keep the edges from burning. Two minutes will broil them.

How To Fry Salt Pork

Cut slices and lay them in cold water in the spider; boil them up two or three minutes, then pour off the water and set the spider again on the coals and brown the slices on each side. Fried pork, with baked potatoes, and baked or fried sour apples, makes a very good dinner. It is an improvement to dip the pork, after being par-boiled, into Indian meal, before frying it.

Ham Sandwiches

Shave slices of ham very thin. Then take a loaf of bread one day old, cut off the end crust, spread butter on the loaf; then cut off a thin slice, divide it across, lay a shaving of ham on one half, and lay the other over it. Do this till you have as many as you wish for. Smoked or salted tongue, cut thin, is often used instead of ham.

It is an economical and nice way to chop the remains of ham very fine, and spread between the slices of bread and butter.

Sandwiches should not be prepared till near the time when they are to be used, as bread that is cut thin dries very soon Some persons like to have mustard spread over the slices of ham.