WHATEVER article you pot observe that it be well covered with clarified butter, tied over with strong paper three or four fold, and well baked. When it is baked, drain it well from the gravy; the seasoning should be finely pounded. Before potting, press it well; it should be cold before the butter is poured over.
To Clarify Butter for Potting, &c.
Put the butter into a saucepan with a little water, boil, skim, and let it settle; pour it off while clear, but do not let any of the sediment go over; when it begins to thicken pour it over the meat.
Beef.
Take six pounds tender beef from the rump, or hookbone, cut it in thick slices, rub them well with a little sugar, saltpetre, and common salt; let them lie twenty-four hours, wipe and dry, then put them in a potting can, and bake them in an oven with a little butter; take them out, mince them small, and pound them in a mortar; season with salt and mixed spices finely pounded, add a little of the clear gravy they were baked in, with some fresh butter, pound and mix all together; rub the inside of the jars over with butter, pack in the beef, and press it down; have as much room as let the clarified butter be at least half an inch thick on the top; when cold tie over a bladder and set it in a cool place. It is used in slices for supper dishes; garnish with parsley.
Tongues
Are done the same way.
Veal.
Stew a fillet of veal, or take cold stewed veal, beat it to a paste with salt and spiceries to your taste, and proceed as ordered for beef. Or, after stewing the veal take a part of the liquor, set it to stew with all kinds of spiceries and the juice of lemon, till very rich; mince the veal very small, or pound it and stir in the rich gravy; pour it into the pots and proceed as above. When poured into moulds, or cups, and turned out on dishes, they make a nice appearance as side dishes at supper; garnish with green.
Marble Veal
Is made in like manner, with the addition of a tongue boiled, skinned, pounded, and mixed amongst it; the gravy need not be so very rich; pour it in shapes, and when cold turn it out on dishes.
Beef or Veal Head.
Scald and scrape off the hair, wash well and split the head in two, lay it in plenty of cold water a night to blanch; break it to go into the pot, let it be well covered with water; when the meat comes easily off the bones take out the head, cut off all the meat, mince it pretty small, skin and cut the pallet, slit the case of the eye in rings, boil the liquor it was in till pretty rich, put the mince meat into a stewpan, and pour in as much of the liquor as will cover it, first taking of all the fat, season it well with salt and spices, let it stew till it jellies, and pour it into shapes.
Or,
If you wish it very rich, take a part of the liquor it was boiled in, skim off all the fat, and put it into a stewpan with as much rich beef or veal stock as will cover the meat; stew it richly with spiceries, salt and onion, a little lemon juice and a few pickles sliced; strain through a search [thin muslin], mix in the minced head, let it boil a few minutes and pour it into shapes; when cold turn them out. A beef head must be skinned by the butcher and done the same way; garnish with green pickles, sprigs of myrtle, cabbage, or beet root. In making this dish, either of beef or veal, the addition of one or more calf or neat feet, strengthens the jelly and improves it much.
Hares and Rabbits.
Case, wash and clean the hare, cut it in joints or pieces, and season them well; put it in a pot with a pound of fresh butter over it, tie it close and bake it in an oven; when ready pick out all the bones, pound it in a mortar with the fat it was baked in and a little of the gravy, and proceed as already directed to pot it.
Turkies, Geese, and Fowls.
Dress and bone the fowls, season them high with salt and spiceries, boil a pickled or dried tongue tender, rub it well with mixed spices, put it into the fowl and the fowl within the goose or turkey.
Or,
Cut the fowls open, take out the bones, lay the one within the other and roll them up as for collaring; lay them in a pan and bake them in an oven with melted butter poured over; let them remain in the liquor till almost cold, take them out and lay them on a cloth; next day remove the binding, place them in a potting pot, take the fat from the liquor, and add as much more butter as will cover it an inch above the meat, melt and pour it over them.
Pheasants, Partridges, Chickens, Pigeons, Larks, and other Small Birds.
After drawing and cleaning, season them highly with pepper, salt, and mixed spices; pack them neatly in a pan or can, cover them with butter, bake them in an oven, drain and pack them in potting cans; purify the fat and add more to cover them well, melt it and pour over them, and when cold tie them over with paper.
Ham and Chicken.
Take slices of boiled ham and a sufficient quantity of cold chicken, or fowl, beat them separately in a mortar, with spiceries to your taste, put a layer of ham and then chickens, and proceed as ordered above.
Potting Fish.
Eels, Lampreys, Smelts, Pike, Carp, Tench, Trout, Salmon, Shrimps, Chars, and Herrings.
The eels and lampreys are skinned, cleaned, and cut in pieces; all the other kinds are scaled, well washed and cleaned, the heads taken off, the fishes split open, and the bones taken out; then seasoned with salt, pepper, and other spiceries according to taste, laid into a pan, covered with melted butter, and baked slowly. They are then drained out of the liquor, again seasoned, and packed into pots, the fat in which they were baked taken and carefully washed in water or purified, and as much more butter added as will cover them, which is melted and poured over them when they are cold.
The butter of the articles potted may be used in frying, or making crusts for pies, &c.
Sousing.
Turkey in Imitation of Sturgeon.
Prepare a large turkey, wipe it dry with a cloth and take out the bones, roll and tie it up; set a pot on the fire with equal parts of wine, vinegar, and water, and a good quantity of salt, boil and skim it clean; when ready, take it out and bind it tighter, boil it a few minutes longer and put it in a jar; make the pickle it was boiled in according to your taste, adding more vinegar, wine, or salt; boil and skim it, and when cold pour it over the turkey, and keep it in a cool place; serve in slices with a sauce of oil, vinegar and sugar.
By many it is preferred to sturgeon.
Soused Tripe.
Tripe, after being boiled tender, is laid in a pickle of salt and water, changing it daily; when used it is cut in pieces, dipped in a pancake batter, and fried a good brown; serve with melted butter.
A Pig’s Feet and Ears.
Are done in the same manner.
Sausages.
Bologna Sausages.
Take one pound each of bacon or ham, pork, veal, beef, and beef suet, shred them very fine, season it rich with mixed spices, or pepper and salt, the leaves of sage, and some sweet herbs cut small; fill and tie the gut, when the water boils put it in and prick it, otherwise it will burst; boil gently an hour, lift it carefully out and lay it on clean straw till cold.
Pork Sausages.
Chop the fat and lean together and season it according to taste with sage, pepper, salt, and pimento; fill the hog’s guts, boil and prick them as ordered above; when used, boil them a few minutes, then broil them.
Or,
Cut the pork in slices and season it very high with pounded spices and salt, let it lie six days, mince it small and mix with shalots and garlic shred very fine; fill ox guts with this stuffing, smoak them as you do ham and dry them well. Some eat them in this manner, others boil and then broil them.
Beef, Mutton, or Veal Sausages,
Are also very good. Observe to have a proper proportion of fat and lean, and seasoning to your taste. The veal requires a mixture of pork pounded in a mortar, which makes them eat very nice; they should be minced very small, and the guts well cleaned. The quickest way of filling them is with a funnel and a wooden pin; gather the gut upon the pipe of the funnel and hold it firm, put the meat into the funnel, and, with the pin, push in the meat till the gut is full; take it by both ends and tie knots at distances of six inches by turning through one end of the sausage. They may either be broiled or fried by themselves, or with eggs or apples. Sausages are often used without being put in skins, rolled in flour to any size and fried a nice brown.