Twentieth century home cook book

lYlXHE larder is the place whore meat and other food are kept. On the farm it is g|*L.5 esiDceially necessary that a phiec be provided where fresh meat may remain '|-p' sweet, to ensure a regular siqiply, and tiuis avoid a diet of salt meat in summer. There are pigs, sheep, lambs and calves available, and even the quarters of a fat heifer may be used on tiie lai'ger farms. Or the meat, not required, may be economically distributed among neighbors not so well situated. It is onl}^ a question of ice and a suitable room. The illustrations in this chapter will show, not only the dressed meat hung, but also, Ijy figures, the manner of cutting it uj). Another advantage of such a meat-room is that the meat placed in it, after killing, ripens slowly without tainting, and is both more tender and more nutritious. II. Hanging, Testing and Preserving Pork, etc. Meat, after being killed and somewhat cooled, may be hung up whole, in quar- ters, or cut as shown in the diagram of Hog Figured for Cutting. In which of these ways it shall be hung will depend entirely upon the space in the cooling-house. Pork should be firm and white as to its fat; the lean flesh light in color and fine in grain ; the skin fine and smooth. The fat must be without kernels, since these indicate that the pig may be "measly." If the flesh is clammy to the touch, it is bad. Cooling. — Pork is at its best when it has become fully cold. All other animal meats of the farm require longer hanging to reduce the fiber, and this is especially true of game. Fowls require to be kept longer than pork, but not so long as mutton; veal and lamb coming next to pork in the shortness of time they should be hung before cooking. Next come fo\^'Is and next beef. Mutton and venison ripen, for cooking, more slowly than other meat. [327] 328 TWENTIETH CENTURY HOME COOK BOOK. "Ripe" Meat. — No meat should be allowed to taint in the remotest degree before being cooked. The term " ripe " is used to denote that stage when the meat acquires tenderness, and before any change toward taint has been acquired. Cutting up a Hog. — The head should be taken off at the dotted line behind the ears as shown in the diagram. The curve, 1-2, is the line of cutting to get a shoulder of pork; 3, is the belly or bacon piece; 4, is the neck and long ribs or fore-loin; 5, the sirloin, called the hind-loin in pork; 6, is the ham. The other side HOG FIGURED FOE CUTTING. of the hog will give corresponding pieces. The roasting pieces of fresh pork are the spare-ribs, loin and leg. The other pieces are salted. The hind and fore-legs are made into hams and shoulders for smoking, and the side and flitches (belly) into bacon. Good Bacon — Good bacon has a thin rind, firm, pinkish fat when cured, and firm lean, adhering to the bone. Eusty bacon has yellowish streaks in it. If a clean thin blade or a skewer stuck into a ham or shoulder of cured smoked meat smells clean and without taint, when withdrawn, the meat is good, for the least taint will immediately be evident to the nostril. THE LARDER AND KITCHEN. 329 III. Mutton and Lamb. Boiled mutton and caper sauce (the garden nasturtium makes a good substitute for the caper), roast mutton and Worcestershire sauce, himb and mint sauce, and lamb with green peas, are dishes good enough for anybody, and any farmer may have them. When Mutton is Best. — A fat wether makes the best mutton, and the nmtton is better if the animal is over three years of age when killed, than if younger. It DRESSED CARCASS OF IMUTTON. should be dark and fat. A fat, grass-fed mutton of five years old may be had on the farm It is seldom found at the butcher's. Those who do not know mutton ask for yearling mutton. This is neither mutton nor lamb.