Mother's Cook Book: Containing Recipes for Every Day in the Week, Including ..

Mince finely a quarter of a pound of cooked ham with an anchovy boned and washed; add a little Cayenne and pounded mace; beat up two eggs; mix with the mince, and add just sufficient milk to keep it moist; make it quite hot, and serve on small rounds of toast or fried bread. [illustration: Mother's Cook Book] HEAD CHEESE. Having thoroughly cleaned a hog's head or pig's head, split it in two with a sharp knife, take out the eyes, take out the brains, cut off the ears, and pour scalding water over them and the head, and scrape them clean. Cut off any part of the nose which may be discolored so as not to be scraped clean; then rinse all in cold water, and put it into a large kettle with hot (not boiling) water to cover it, and set the kettle (having covered it) over the fire; let it boil gently taking off the scum as it rises; when boiled so that the bones leave the meat readily, take it from the water with a skimmer into a large wooden bowl or tray; take from it every particle of bone; chop the meat small and season to taste with salt and pepper, and if liked, a little chopped sage or thyme; spread a eloth in a colander or sieve; set it in a deep dish, and put the meat in, then fold the cloth closely over it, lay a weight on which may press equally the whole surface (a sufficiently large plate will serve). 'Let the weight be more or less heavy, according as you may wish the cheese to be fat or lean; a heavy weight by pressing out the fat will of course leave the cheese lean. When cold, take the weight off; take it from the colander or sieve, scrape off whatever fat may be found on the outside of the cloth, and keep the cheese in the cloth in a cool place, to be eaten sliced thin, with or without mustard, and vinegar or catsup. After the water is cold in which the head was boiled, take off the fat from it, and whatever may have drained from the sieve, or colander, and cloth; put it together in some clean water, give it one boil; then strain it through a cloth, and set it to become cold; then take off the cake of fat. It is fit for any use. [illustration: Mother's Cook Book] PIGS' FEET SOUSED. Scald and scrape clean the feet; if the covering of the toes will not come off without, Singe them in hot embers, until they are loose, then take them off. Many persons lay them in weak lime water to whiten them. Having scraped them clean and white, wash them and put them in a pot of hot (not boiling) water, with a little salt, and let them boil gently, until by turning a fork in the flesh it will easily break and the bones are loosened. Take off the scum as it rises. When done, take them from the hot water into cold vinegar, enough to cover them, add to it one-third as much of the water in which they were boiled; add whole pepper and allspice, with cloves and mace if liked, put a cloth and a tight-fitting cover over the pot or jar. Soused feet may be eaten cold from the vinegar, split in two from top to toe, or having split them, dip them in wheat flour and fry in hot lard, or broil and butter them. In either case, let them be nicely browned. TO MAKE LARD. Take the leaf fat from the inside of a bacon hog, cnt it small, and put it in an iron kettle, which must be perfectly free from any musty taste; set it over a steady, moderate fire, until nothing but scraps remain of the meat; the heat must be kept up, but gentle, that it may not burn the lard ; spread a coarse cloth in a wire sieve, and strain the liquid into tin basins which will hold two or three quarts; squeeze out all the fat from the scraps. When the lard in the pans is cold, press a piece of new muslin close upon it, trim it off at the edge of the pan, and keep it in a cold place. Or it may be kept in wooden kegs with close covers. Lard made with one-third as much beef suet as fat is supposed by many persons to keep better. [illustration: Mother's Cook Book] TO TELL GOOD EGGS.