above three or
four months, or half a year at the most), in which time he is dieted with
oats and peason, and lodged on the bare planks of an uneasy coat, till his
fat be hardened sufficiently for their purpose: afterward he is killed,
scalded, and cut out, and then of his former parts is our brawn made. The
rest is nothing so fat, and therefore it beareth the name of sowse only,
and is commonly reserved for the serving-man and hind, except it please
the owner to have any part thereof baked, which are then handled of custom
after this manner: the hinder parts being cut off, they are first drawn
with lard, and then sodden; being sodden, they are soused in claret wine
and vinegar a certain space, and afterward baked in pasties, and eaten of
many instead of the wild boar, and truly it is very good meat: the pestles
may be hanged up a while to dry before they be drawn with lard, if you
will, and thereby prove the better. But hereof enough, and therefore to
come again unto our brawn. The neck pieces, being cut off round, are
called collars of brawn, the shoulders are named shilds, only the ribs
retain the former denomination, so that these aforesaid pieces deserve the
name of brawn: the bowels of the beast are commonly cast away because of
their rankness, and so were likewise his stones, till a foolish fantasy
got hold of late amongst some delicate dames, who have now found the means
to dress them also with great cost for a dainty dish, and bring them to
the board as a service among other of like sort, though not without note
of their desire to the provocation of fleshly lust, which by this their
fond curiosity is not a little revealed. When the boar is thus cut out
each piece is wrapped up, either with bulrushes, ozier, peels, tape
inkle,[180] or such like, and then sodden in a lead or caldron together,
till they be so tender that a man may thrust a bruised rush or straw clean
through the fat: which being done, they take it up and lay it abroad to
cool. Afterward, putting it into close vessels, they pour either good
small ale or beer mingled with verjuice and salt thereto till it be
covered, and so let it lie (now and then altering and changing the sousing
drink lest it should was sour) till occasion serve to spend it out of the
way. Some use to make brawn of great barrow hogs, and seethe them, and
souse the whole as they do that of the boar; and in my judgment it is the
better of both, and more easy of digestion. But of brawn