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Pigs in Clover
1/2 lb. (2 cups) flour 1/2 teaspoonful salt 2 teaspoonfuls baking powder I oz. (2 tablespoonfuls) butter Milk or water Sausage meat Mix the flour, baking powder and salt, and sift twice. Rub in the butter with the tips of the fingers, and add sufficient milk or water to bring it to the consistency of a soft dough. Toss on a floured baking board, roll into a thin sheet, cut it into small square pieces, and wrap each piece around a roll of sausage meat. Bake and serve very hot.
A plain baking-powder pastry wrapped around bulk sausage — essentially a sausage roll in square form. The original gives no oven temperature or time, which is the main gap to fill.
- The hinge: filling and crust must finish togetherRaw sausage needs to reach 160F in the centre, and a thin dough will colour long before a thick roll of meat is done. Keep the sausage rolls no thicker than a thumb, about 1 1/2 to 2 inches long, so both are ready at once.
- OvenBake at 425F for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is browned and the sausage registers 160F on an instant-read thermometer. A hot oven is right here; the recipe itself gives no temperature or time.
- "Sausage meat"This means bulk sausage — seasoned ground pork sold loose, not in casings. Squeeze links out of their skins if that is all you can find; seasoning varies considerably by brand and by country.
- Weights and measures1/2 lb flour is given as 2 cups, which holds for a period cup of soft flour; modern all-purpose flour measures closer to 3 1/2 cups to the pound, so weigh 8 oz (225 g) if you can. The 1 oz butter is 2 tablespoons, as stated.
- Baking powderTwo teaspoons to 8 oz flour is a normal modern ratio, so no adjustment is needed.
- LiquidExpect roughly 1/2 to 2/3 cup of milk or water. Add it gradually — the dough should be soft enough to roll thin without cracking but not sticky.
- Sealing and spacingDampen the overlapping edges and set the parcels seam down on a lined sheet, spaced apart. Fat renders out of the sausage during baking and will pool if they are crowded.
- YieldAbout 18 to 24 pieces, depending on how small the squares are cut. They are meant as a hot savoury for a supper or buffet table, not a main course.
The name echoes "Pigs in Clover," a dexterity puzzle sold in large numbers around 1889, in which small balls had to be rolled into a central pen; the phrase was also established slang for someone comfortably provided for. The pastry here is not a rich pie crust but a plain baking-powder dough of the sort used for scones and biscuits, which tells you where the recipe belongs: among quick, cheap, hot things a household could assemble from a half-pound of flour and whatever sausage meat was in the larder.