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Hashed Pork
573. Cut into thin slices, and season with pepper and salt; then flour over all, and put into a stewpan, with a gravy composed of a little broth, or even water will do seasoned with a spoonful of vinegar, a chopped onion, a leaf or two of sage, and a blade of mace; boil the vinegar, onion, broth, and spices together, then strain, and add the slices for a few minutes; and when warm through, serve. Or, prepare as above, and serve with a margin of pease-pudding warmed up and laid round the dish.
A leftovers dish: the pork is already cooked, and the whole point is to warm it through in a sharp, spiced gravy without cooking it a second time. Everything else is negotiable; that is not.
- Start with cold cooked porkThe recipe assumes you have yesterday's roast or boiled pork on the sideboard; the meat is named only in the title, so the instructions begin straight in at "cut into thin slices". Leftover loin, shoulder or leg all work, sliced thin across the grain.
- "A few minutes" means barely thatCooked pork reheated in simmering liquid tightens and goes dry fast. Drop the floured slices into gravy held just below a simmer and give them 3 to 4 minutes, until hot in the centre and no longer.
- Blade of maceA blade is one piece of the dried lacy covering of nutmeg, not ground mace. If you only have ground, a pinch stirred into the strained gravy is the equivalent; whole blades are removed with the onion and sage.
- Judging the vinegar"A spoonful" against "a little broth" is vague, and a period spoonful is likelier to mean a tablespoon than a teaspoon. If you want a milder result, start short -- say 2 teaspoons of cider or malt vinegar to a cup of stock -- boil it down with the aromatics, then taste before straining; the sharpness should read as a lift against the fat, not as pickle.
- Flour the meat, not the gravyDredging the seasoned slices is what thickens the sauce as they warm. Shake off the excess or the gravy turns pasty; a scant tablespoon of flour for a pound of meat is plenty.
- Strain, then reduce if neededAfter straining out the onion, sage and mace you may have a thin liquid. Reduce it briefly before the pork goes in, since you cannot boil it down afterwards without ruining the meat.
- Pease pudding as the second versionThe alternative serving calls for cooked split-pea pudding piped or spooned in a ring around the dish. Dried yellow split peas simmered soft, drained hard, mashed with butter and seasoned will do; it wants to be stiff enough to hold a border.