ur long. Wash these quickly in tepid water, drain on a
sieve, and put over a slow fire in an iron vessel rather thick bottomed.
Add a little cold water--a cupful to a gallon of cut up fat, and let
cook gently until the lumps of fat color faintly. Increase heat till
there is a mild bubbling--keep the bubbling steady, stirring often to
make sure no lump of fat sticks to the pot and scorches, until all the
lumps are crisp brown cracklings. Bright brown, not dark--if dark the
lard will be slightly colored. Scorching taints and ruins the whole
mass. Strain through a sieve into a clean tin vessel, newly scalded and
wiped dry. Put the cracklings into a bag of stout crash, and press hard
between two clean boards, till no more fat runs from them. A jelly press
comes in handy, but is not essential. If weak, clear lye, made of green
wood ashes, is put in with the fat instead of water at the beginning,
the fat-yield will be greater, and the bulk of cracklings less, also
more nearly disintegrated.

Other fat is tried out in the same way, taking care to remove all skin
and cut away streaks of lean. Bits with much lean in them had better go
to the sausage mill--the right proportion there is two pounds of fat to
three and a half of lean. Mix well in grinding, and remove all strings,
gristle, etc. Seasoning is so much a matter of taste, do it very lightly
at first--then fry a tiny cake, test it, and add whatever it seems to
lack or need. Be rather sparing of salt--eaters can put it in but can
not take it out, and excess of it makes even new sausage taste old. A
good combination of flavors, one approved by experience, is a cupful of
powdered and sifted sage, an ounce of black pepper newly ground, and
very fine, a tablespoonful of powdered red pepper, a teaspoonful of
cayenne, a pinch of thyme in fine powder, a dozen cloves, as many grains
of alspice, beaten fine, a teaspoonful of moist sugar, and a blade of
mace in fine powder. Omit the mace, cloves, etc. if the flavor repels.
Mix all well together, then work evenly through the meat. This seasoning
should suffice for five pounds of ground meat lightly salted. More can
be used by those who like high and pronounced flavors.

Scrape feet very clean, and take off hoofs by either dipping in scalding
hot lye, or hot wet wood ashes. Wash very clean after scraping, throw in
cold water, soak an hour, then put in a clean pot with plenty of cold
water, and boil gently until very tender. If boiling