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Roast Leg of Pork
1 leg pork 2 teaspoons salt. 2 tablespoons vinegar. 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil. 1/2 teaspoon cayenne. 2 tablespoons ground sage. Rub pork with vinegar, salt, pepper and sage. Wrap pork in linen cloth, dipped in vinegar, let stand several hours, keeping the cloth damp. Rub with oil and flour, then roast, allowing 25 minutes to the pound.
A whole fresh ham with a dry rub and a long, slow roast. Two things need attention: the recipe never names an oven temperature, and its timing belongs to an era before meat thermometers.
- What cut this isA "leg of pork" is a fresh (uncured) ham, not the pink smoked kind. A whole one runs 14-18 lb; most butchers will sell you the shank or sirloin half at 6-9 lb, which is a more manageable roast.
- Oven temperatureNone is given, which was normal when ranges had no dials. For a leg this size, 325F is a reasonable modern choice; anything hotter risks scorching the sage and flour crust before the centre is done.
- Timing, and why 25 minutes a pound is too muchAt 325F that works out to over six hours on a 15 lb leg and would leave the meat dry. Cook to internal temperature instead: 145F at the thickest point away from bone, then a 20-30 minute rest, which for a half leg is usually 2 to 3 hours.
- The vinegar clothA pre-refrigeration larder practice: the acidulated cloth would have helped keep flies off and slowed surface spoilage while the seasoning penetrated, though it also works simply as a marinade. Do the same seasoning and wrapping in the refrigerator overnight rather than letting the meat stand "several hours" at room temperature.
- Two tablespoons of ground sageThat is a great deal of dried sage by modern standards. One tablespoon is closer to what most palates now want; the cayenne at half a teaspoon is fine as written.
- The flour rubFlour patted over the oiled surface sets into a dry, savoury crust and helps the drippings thicken into gravy. If the leg has its rind on, score the fat in a diamond pattern first and skip the flour on the skin if you want crackling.
- PepperThe method calls for pepper, but the only pepper in the ingredient list is the cayenne; the two may well be the same thing. If you want black pepper in addition, add a teaspoon of coarse-ground to the rub.
- YieldA half leg of 7-8 lb serves ten to twelve with leftovers; a whole leg will feed twenty and is essentially a holiday roast.
Mary A. Wilson's Mrs. Wilson's Cook Book of 1920 carries a plain, instructional voice into the postwar kitchen. A fresh leg of pork was the cheaper alternative to a cured ham, and the pairing with sage is old enough in English and American cookery to be almost automatic, the herb being credited traditionally with cutting the richness of fat pork. The vinegar-soaked linen wrap is the most dated thing here: it is a holdover from larder management, where a damp acid cloth discouraged flies and surface spoilage on a large joint that had to hang for hours before it met the fire.