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Baked Suckling Pig

Choose a small, plump pig. Use the liver, heart and lights for the dressing, after first putting them over the fire in salted boiling water, and boiling them until tender, or mincing after browning them in butter. Peel and grate an onion, put it over the fire in a fryingpan with two tablespoonfuls of butter, and fry it slowly; mince the heart, liver and kidneys, add them to the onion; soak two breakfast cupfuls of bread in cold water until soft, then squeeze it in a towel to extract the water, and put it with the minced mixture and onions; season the mixture highly with salt, pepper, ground sage, and marjoram, and stir it till it is scalding hot. Use this stuffing for the pig, sewing it up; truss it so as to keep the legs in place, put it into a dripping pan just large enough to hold it, and bake it in a moderate oven. For the first hour baste it with butter and water, after that with butter alone. If the ears and tail seem in danger of browning, wrap them in buttered paper, season it two or three times with salt and pepper while it is being basted, A medium-sized pig will take from two to two and one-half hours to bake. When the pig is done put it on a dish to keep hot after removing the stitches which retain the stuffing, and garnish with brussel sprouts and potato croquettes. Place the dripping-pan over the fire, stir in one tablespoonful of flour, and brown it; then add equal quantities of boiling water or wine, or three parts of water and one of mushroom or walnut catsup. Let the gravy thus made boil once, season it with salt and pepper, and then serve it with the baked pig. The stuffing may be varied by using mashed potatoes instead of the soaked bread. Apple sauce is the usual accompaniment. Cold-slaw and cranberry jelly or stewed cranberries are used in America with roasted or baked suckling pig. Prepare the apple sauce as follows: Peel, quarter, and core some tart apples, stew them to a pulp over a slow fire, adding at first three tablespoonfuls of water to one pint of apples to prevent their burning; when the apples are stewed to a pulp, stir with them a tablespoonful of butter to each pint of the sauce, and then use it either hot or cold.