There is a great difference in preparing mince meat. Some make it
a coarse, unsavory dish; and others make it nice and palatable. No
economical house-keeper will despise it; for broken bits of meat and
vegetables cannot so well be disposed of in any other way. If you
wish to have it nice, mash your vegetables fine, and chop your meat
very fine. Warm it with what remains of sweet gravy, or roast-meat
drippings, you may happen to have. Two or three apples, pared, cored,
sliced, and fried, to mix with it, is an improvement. Some like a
little sifted sage sprinkled in.
It is generally considered nicer to chop your meat fine, warm it in
gravy, season it, and lay it upon a large slice of toasted bread to be
brought upon the table without being mixed with potatoes; but if you
have cold vegetables, use them.
BEANS AND PEAS.
Baked beans are a very simple dish, yet few cook them well. They
should be put in cold water, and hung over the fire, the night before
they are baked. In the morning, they should be put in a colander, and
rinsed two or three times; then again placed in a kettle, with the
pork you intend to bake, covered with water, and kept scalding hot,
an hour or more. A pound of pork is quite enough for a quart of beans,
and that is a large dinner for a common family. The rind of the pork
should be slashed. Pieces of pork alternately fat and lean, are the
most suitable; the cheeks are the best. A little pepper sprinkled
among the beans, when they are placed in the bean-pot, will render
them less unhealthy. They should be just covered with water, when put
into the oven; and the pork should be sunk a little below the surface
of the beans. Bake three or four hours.
Stewed beans are prepared in the same way. The only difference is,
they are not taken out of the scalding water, but are allowed to stew
in more water, with a piece of pork and a little pepper, three hours
or more.
Dried peas need not be soaked over night. They should be stewed slowly
four or five hours in considerable water, with a piece of pork. The
older beans and peas are, the longer they should cook. Indeed, this is
the case with all vegetables.
SOUSE.
Pigs' feet, ears, &c., should be cleaned after being soaked in water
not very hot; the hoofs will then come off easily with a sharp knife;
the hard, rough places should be cut off; they should be thoroughly
singed, and then boiled as much as four or five hours, until they are
too tender to be taken out with a fork. When taken from the boiling
water, it should be put into cold water. After it is packed down
tight, boil the jelly-like liquor in which it was cooked with an equal
quantity of vinegar; salt as you think fit, and cloves, allspice, and
cinnamon, at the rate of a quarter of a pound to one hundred weight:
to be poured on scalding hot.
TRIPE.
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