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Meat Porcupine
Press into a plain oval mould the following:--Half a pound of pork, and one pound of rump-steak (chopped finely), one clove of garlic (shredded), a tea-spoonful of salt, pepper, and nutmeg--the whole moistened and well beaten up with two eggs. Turn the mixture out of the mould, and stick pieces of fat bacon all over it, to resemble a porcupine. Stew it for an hour in hot butter, until it is brown all over. Probable cost, 3s. 6d. Sufficient, as a supper dish, for four or five persons.
A shaped forcemeat loaf, spiked with bacon and browned slowly in butter rather than baked. The whole trick is in the shaping and in cooking it gently enough that the outside browns without the inside staying raw.
- The seasoning is ambiguous"A tea-spoonful of salt, pepper, and nutmeg" can be read as a teaspoon of each or a teaspoon in total. A teaspoon of nutmeg in 1½ lb of meat is a great deal by modern taste; a teaspoon of salt and a quarter-teaspoon each of pepper and nutmeg is the more plausible reading.
- Meat and textureHalf pork to one pound of rump steak, hand-chopped, gives a coarser bite than machine mince. Ask for a coarse grind, or pulse chilled cubes briefly in a processor. Some pork fat is essential here — very lean pork loin will produce a dry loaf.
- The mouldAny plain oval bowl or small oval pie dish will do; it is only used to pack and shape the mixture, not to cook it. Line it with cling film to turn the loaf out cleanly, then chill the shaped loaf for half an hour so it holds while you spike it.
- The quillsCut fat streaky bacon or salt pork into strips about 2 in long and press one end into the loaf so they stand out. A larding needle or the tip of a knife to make slits helps them stay put. They will shrink as they render.
- "Stew it in hot butter"There is no added liquid, so this is closer to pot-roasting than stewing; a low heat with butter is probably what is meant. Brown the loaf first on the base of a heavy casserole, then keep the heat low for the hour, turning carefully. Butter alone will scorch over an hour; add a spoonful of oil or use clarified butter.
- Cook to temperatureAn hour is about right for a loaf this size, but chopped pork should reach 71C/160F at the centre. Check with a thermometer rather than trusting the clock, since the shape and thickness vary with the mould you use.
- Yield and servingThe original figure of four or five for supper is fair. Rest it ten minutes before slicing, and spoon over the buttery pan juices, which are the only sauce the recipe offers.
- The cost3s. 6d. was the compiler's estimate of ingredient cost in Victorian shillings and pence — useful as a signal that this was a middling, not a cheap, supper dish rather than as any guide to price today.
Meat shaped and studded to imitate an animal belongs to a long tradition of the disguised dish, in which the cook's skill was displayed by making one thing look like another. The porcupine and its smaller cousin the hedgehog were stock forms: sweet versions, a moulded cream or trifle bristling with slivered almonds, appear in English cookery books well before this savoury one. Here the bristles are strips of fat bacon, which serve a practical purpose as well as a decorative one hem as as they render during the hour in butter. Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, compiled for the large middle-class Victorian household, is full of such dishes: economical in material, since chopped meat stretches further than a joint, but ambitious enough in presentation to be brought to table for supper without apology.