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Pork, Griskin Of
A griskin of pork is a loin from a large pig with the bacon cut off, and is unfortunately often sent to table dry and hard. In order to prevent this, put it into a stewpan with as much cold water as will cover it. Bring the water to the boil, take out the meat, remove the skin, and put it down to a clear fire. A short time before it is done enough, strew over it a tea-spoonful of powdered sage mixed with an equal quantity of bread-crumbs, and a little salt and pepper. Baste liberally before the powder is strewn over the meat, but not afterwards. Send some apple sauce and gravy to table with it. If the skin is left on it will require longer roasting. Time, for a joint weighing seven pounds, an hour and a half. Probable cost, 11d. per pound.
A lean cut, briefly blanched and then roasted before an open fire. The method translates directly to an oven, but the cut itself needs finding first.
- What a griskin isThe lean loin strip left after the fat back and sides have been cut away for bacon, taken from the big, coarse bacon pigs of the period. The nearest modern equivalent is a boneless pork loin roast, which is comparably lean and dries out just as readily.
- Why the water bath comes firstThe recipe simply says to bring the joint to the boil in cold water and lift it straight out, without giving a reason; the effect is to firm the surface and give the meat a head start on the fire. Dry the meat thoroughly before it goes near heat or it will steam.
- "Put it down to a clear fire"A clear fire is one burnt down to glowing coals with no smoke or flame, with the joint hung or spitted in front of it and a dripping pan beneath. The text gives no temperature; in an oven, roughly 375F is a reasonable modern approximation, turning the pan once and basting with the drippings.
- Timing and donenessAn hour and a half for seven pounds is about thirteen minutes to the pound, which assumes the parboiling and a fierce fire. Work to a thermometer instead: 145F at the thickest point, then rest fifteen minutes under foil.
- The sage crustThe sage and crumbs go on only at the end, and the basting stops when they do, exactly as written. Added earlier they scorch, and any basting afterwards washes them off into the pan.
- Skin on or offThe recipe removes the skin after blanching. Left on, it needs the longer roasting mentioned and a dry, salted surface at high heat to crackle properly; blanched and then roasted gently, it will only turn leathery.
- PricesElevenpence a pound is pre-decimal sterling from the period of the book, roughly the 1870s to 1880s, and is no guide to what the cut costs now.
- YieldA seven-pound loin serves ten to twelve. Apple sauce and a gravy from the pan drippings are the intended accompaniments.
Griskin is an old English butcher's word, generally traced to the Norse-derived gris, a young pig, and it names what is left of the loin once the flitches have gone for bacon. It belongs to a pork economy in which the fat was the valuable part: the big Victorian bacon breeds were raised for their sides and back fat, and the lean strip along the backbone was what remained once the bacon had been taken, which is why the entry opens by conceding that it usually arrives at table dry and hard. The blanching trick, the late-added sage crust and the insistence on a clear fire are all answers to the same problem, one that modern cooks meet again in bred-lean supermarket loin. Apple sauce with roast pork was already long established by the time this dictionary appeared, the sharpness serving a cut that has little fat of its own to cut through.