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Galantine of Sucking Pig
Bone a young pig, which, for this purpose, ought not to be more than three weeks old. If this cannot be done at home, the butcher will do it. Lay it flat on the table, back downwards, and spread on it alternate layers of good forcemeat, truffles, lean ham, tongue, or anything which will look and taste well when the pig is cut into. Season each layer with pepper and salt, and roll the pig tightly, binding it well with tape. It will be more succulent if a few slices of fat bacon are fastened on the outside. Wrap it in a pudding-cloth, and simmer it gently in some good veal broth, in which may be put the bones of the pig, a large carrot, a blade of mace, twelve peppercorns, and some sweet herbs. When sufficiently cooked, let it cool in its own liquor, and when taken out, press it under a weight, and let it be eaten cold. Garnish the dish with aspic jelly (see ASPIC JELLY FOR GARNISHING), made of the liquor in which it was boiled. Time, three hours to stew the pig. Probable cost, varies from 5s. to 12s. Sufficient for twelve persons, or more.
A Victorian cold buffet centrepiece that still works, provided the two things the original glosses over are handled: the boning, and the cooling. Everything else is straightforward charcuterie.
- Order the pig bonedA three-week-old suckling pig runs roughly 10-14 lb whole and must be ordered from a butcher or specialist supplier; supermarkets will not have one. Ask for it tunnel- or back-boned with the skin left intact in one sheet, since the skin is what holds the roll together.
- The hinge: never let it boilHold the broth at a bare shiver, around 175F, for the full three hours. A rolling boil bursts the forcemeat through the skin and squeezes the roll dry, which is exactly what a galantine is meant to avoid.
- Cook to temperature, not just to timeThree hours suits a pig of this size, but check with a probe into the centre of the forcemeat. Because the stuffing contains ground meat, take it to 160F rather than the 145F used for a whole pork cut.
- Cool it fast, not slowly"Let it cool in its own liquor" was safe in a cold Victorian larder and is not safe on a modern countertop. A dense 10 lb roll sitting warm for hours is textbook territory for Clostridium perfringens. Lift it out, wrap and press it, and get it below 40F within a couple of hours; chill the broth separately in a shallow pan.
- Tape and pudding-cloth"Tape" is cotton binding tape; butcher's twine at 1-inch intervals does the same job. For the pudding-cloth, use a double layer of scalded cheesecloth or a clean linen tea towel, rolled tight and tied at both ends like a bolster.
- Forcemeat proportionsThe recipe assumes you know what "good forcemeat" means: a seasoned farce of ground veal or pork with fat, breadcrumbs or panade, and egg, roughly 4-5 lb for a pig this size. Season it assertively, as cold meat tastes markedly blander than hot.
- Tongue, truffles, and substitutionsCured ox tongue and black truffle are still available and still expensive; pistachios, dried apricots, or blanched carrot batons give the same cross-section pattern for a fraction of the cost. Whatever you use, arrange it in lengthwise strips so every slice shows it.
- Press it properlySet the wrapped roll on a tray, lay a board on top and weight it with about 5 lb, then refrigerate overnight. Under-pressing leaves air pockets that make the slices crumble.
- Yield and the aspicTwelve is conservative; a boned three-week pig with forcemeat will give twenty or more slices as part of a cold table. Strain and degrease the cooking liquor before setting it as aspic, and clarify with egg white if you want it clear. "5s. to 12s." is five to twelve shillings, a substantial sum for one dish in the late Victorian period.
Galantine is generally traced to Old French galatine, a jellied or aspic-set dish, and by the eighteenth century the word was being used in something close to its modern sense: a bird or small animal boned, stuffed, rolled, poached, pressed and served cold in its own jelly. Poultry versions were the standard, so a whole suckling pig treated this way is the technique scaled up for effect. Dishes of this kind belong among the elaborate cold pieces of Victorian entertaining before mechanical refrigeration, when a dish could be built a day ahead, held in a cold larder, and carried to the table needing nothing but a knife. The cost note is telling: at five to twelve shillings this was not everyday food, and the instruction that "the butcher will do it" acknowledges that boning a pig whole was a skill not every household cook possessed.