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Pork, Pickled, to Boil
INGREDIENTS. - Pork; water. AVERAGE COST, 9d. per lb.
Should the pork be very salt, let it remain in water about 2 hours before it is dressed; put it into a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover it, let it gradually come to a boil, then gently simmer until quite tender. Allow ample time for it to cook, as nothing is more disagreeable than underdone pork, and when boiled fast the meat becomes hard. This is sometimes served with boiled poultry and roast veal, instead of bacon; when tender, and not over salt, it will be found equally good.
TIME. A piece of pickled pork weighing 2 lbs., 14 hours; 4 lb., rather more than 2 hours.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Pork Pies. (Warwickshire Recipe.)- INGREDIENTS. For the crust, 2 lbs. of lard to 7 lbs. of flour; milk and water. For filling the pies, to every 3 lbs. of meat allow 1 oz. of salt, 24 oz. of pepper, a small quantity of cayenne, 1 pint of water. Rub into the flour a portion of the lard; the remainder put with sufficient milk and water to mix the crust, and boil this gently for 1/4 hour. Pour it boiling on the flour, and knead and beat it till perfectly smooth.
Now raise the crust in either a round or oval form, cut up the pork into pieces the size of a nut, season it in the above proportion, and press it compactly into the pie, in alternate layers of fat and lean, and pour in a small quantity of water; lay on the lid, cut the edges smoothly round, and pinch them together. Bake in a brick oven, which should be slow, as the meat is very solid. Very frequently an inexperienced cook finds much difficulty in raising the crust. must not be allowed to get cold, or it will fall immediately. To prevent this, the operation should be performed as near the fire as possible. As considerable dexterity and expertness are necessary to raise the crust with the hand only, a jar of convenient size may be placed in the middle of the paste, and the crust moulded on this; but be particular that it is kept warm the whole time.
She should bear in mind that it SEASONABLE from September to March.
A method rather than a recipe: salt-cured pork brought slowly up to a simmer and held there until tender. Almost everything depends on the water never reaching a rolling boil.
- What pickled pork isNot pork in vinegar but pork cured in a strong salt brine, close to what is now sold as salt pork or a green (unsmoked) gammon or collar. A modern unsmoked gammon joint behaves in the same way; commercial salt pork belly is far fattier and needs shorter cooking.
- The soak mattersTwo hours in cold water for a heavily salted piece is a minimum by present standards, since older cures were much saltier than anything sold now. Taste the cooking water after twenty minutes; if it is aggressively salty, change it.
- Never let it boilThe instruction to bring it gradually to a boil and then simmer is the hinge of the whole thing. As the recipe says, meat boiled fast becomes hard, and cured pork cooked too briskly tends to turn stringy.
- TimingThe stated time for the 2 lb piece has lost its fraction and cannot be read as printed. Work instead on roughly 30 minutes per pound after the water reaches a simmer, plus 20 minutes; a 4 lb piece takes a little over two hours, which matches the second figure given.
- Judging donenessTender means a skewer slides into the thickest part with no resistance. On a cured joint the meat stays pink even when fully cooked, so colour tells you nothing.
- The cost lineNinepence a pound is pre-decimal currency and reflects mid-Victorian prices; it is of historical interest only.
- ServingUsed here as a substitute for bacon alongside boiled poultry or roast veal. Let it rest ten minutes before carving, and slice thinly across the grain.
- The cooking liquidKeep it if the pork was not excessively salt. It makes a good base for pea or lentil soup, tasted for salt before any more is added.
Pickled pork was a staple of the English larder for as long as pigs were killed in autumn and had to last the winter. A side would go into a brine tub of salt, saltpetre and sometimes sugar, and pieces were drawn out through the cold months and freshened in water before cooking. Mrs Beeton's household books treat it as an everyday standby rather than a delicacy, which is why the entry reads as a set of proportions and warnings rather than a dish: the cook already knew what pickled pork was and needed only to be told not to hurry it. The entry notes simply that pickled pork is sometimes served instead of bacon beside boiled fowl or roast veal, without saying why.