Page:The Virginia Housewife or, Methodical Cook, Mary Randolph, 1836.djvu/57

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THE VIRGINIA HOUSEWIFE.
51

weeks. Let your souse get quite cold after boiling, before you put it in the liquor, and be sure to use pale coloured vinegar, or the souse will be dark. Some cooks singe the hair from the feet, etcetera, but this destroys the colour: good souse will always be white.


TO ROAST A PIG.

The pig must be very fat, nicely cleaned, and not too large to lie in the dish; chop the liver fine and mix it with crumbs of bread, chopped onion and parsley, with pepper and salt, make it into a paste with butter and an egg, stuff the body well with it, and sew it up, spit it, and have a clear fire to roast it; baste with salt and water at first, then rub it frequently with a lump of lard wrapped in a piece of clean linen; this will make it much more crisp than basting it from the dripping pan. When the pig is done, take off the head, separate the face from the chop, cut both in two and take off the ears, take out the stuffing, split the pig in two parts lengthways, lay it in the dish with the head, ears, and feet, which have been cut off, placed on each side, put the stuffing in a bowl with a glass of wine, and as much dripping as will make it sufficiently liquid, put some of it under the pig, and serve the rest in a boat.


TO BARBECUE SHOTE.[1]

This is the name given in the southern states to a fat young hog, which, when the head and feet are

  1. Shote being a Provincial term, and not a legitimate English word, Mrs. R. has taken the liberty of spelling it in a way that conveys the sound of the pronunciation more clearly than shoat, the usual manner of spelling it.