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Pig, Sucking, Stuffed
Remove the bones from every part of a sucking pig except the head, which should be left entire. Stuff the pig with equal parts of bacon and veal-liver cut small, and seasoned with salt, pepper, cloves, and nutmeg, as well as with some sage and basil cut as small as possible. Lay on the stuffing some slices of ham and tongue, arrange these in layers, and cut in strips some bacon, truffles, etc. Arrange the skin over these, bring the sucking pig into as natural a shape as possible, and then enclose it in a linen cloth with some slices of bacon, and basil, and sage-leaves. Put it in a pan with some stock broth, salt and pepper, and dress it at a very gentle heat. Allow it to get sufficiently cold in the vessel in which it is cooked, that it may be compressed between the hands to force out the liquid inside it. Let the sucking pig get quite cold, and remove the cloth before sending it to table.
This is a galantine in all but name: a whole boned suckling pig, layered with forcemeat and cured meats, poached in broth, then pressed and served cold in slices. Everything hinges on the boning and on keeping the poaching liquid below a simmer.
- The hinge: never let it boil"a very gentle heat" means the broth should barely tremble, well below a simmer. The recipe gives no timing, and a boned pig of this size will need several hours. A rolling boil splits the skin, forces the stuffing out through the seams and leaves the sliced galantine full of holes.
- Getting the pigA suckling pig is a milk-fed animal, usually killed at somewhere between two and six weeks and weighing roughly 10-20 lb. Order it well ahead from a butcher and ask for it to be boned out with the head left on and the skin unbroken; this is difficult work and few home cooks will want to attempt it cold.
- The clothUse unbleached muslin or cheesecloth, scalded first. Roll the pig in it firmly, as for a galantine, and tie at intervals with kitchen string so the shape holds through the long poach.
- Veal liver and trufflesCalf's liver is the intended ingredient and is still sold; it should be trimmed of membrane and chopped fine rather than minced to paste. Fresh black truffle is the original luxury here, but a good preserved truffle, or simply more tongue and ham, keeps the layered look without the expense.
- Basil in a savoury forcemeatBasil turns up in some Victorian English recipes for potted and pressed meats, where modern British cooking rarely uses it. Dried basil and basil vinegar were available; fresh gives a cleaner result, and the sage should be used with restraint or it dominates the cold slices.
- Cook it throughPork must reach 160F at the thickest part of the stuffing, which the long gentle poach will achieve easily. Check with a probe pushed through the cloth into the centre of the roll rather than trusting the clock.
- Cooling and pressingThe instruction to let it cool in its liquid is sound for texture but poor practice for safety at modern standards. Cool it only until it can be handled, press out the liquid as directed, then refrigerate the wrapped roll under a weighted board and keep it below 40F until served.
- Yield and servingBoned and stuffed, a pig of this size will give a great many portions -- enough for a large party. Slice it thin, cold, with the jelly from the poaching liquid clarified and chopped around it, plus a sharp mustard or a cumberland sauce.
What Cassell's calls a stuffed sucking pig is really a galantine, the French technique of boning a bird or small animal, packing it with forcemeat and strips of tongue, ham, fat bacon and truffle, then poaching it in a cloth and pressing it so that each cold slice shows a mosaic. The method is generally said to have been applied to capons and turkeys in nineteenth-century professional kitchens; doing it to a whole suckling pig, head left on, was a showpiece for a cold buffet or ball supper, where a large decorated dish had to sit on the sideboard for hours and be carved as guests came to it. Suckling pig itself had long been festival food in Britain and across Europe, associated with Christmas and with harvest and wedding tables, and the dictionary format of Cassell's may account for the flatness of the instructions.