The immortal Charles Lamb on the art of roasting--An oriental luxury of
luxuries.

CHAPTER XVII.--RECIPES FOR COOKING AND SERVING PORK.

Success in the kitchen--Prize methods of best cooks--Unapproachable list
of especially prepared recipes--Roasts, pork pie, cooking bacon, pork and
beans, serving chops and cutlets, use of spare ribs, the New England
boiled dinner, ham and sausage, etc.

INTRODUCTION.

Hog killing and pork making on the farm have become almost lost arts in
these days of mammoth packing establishments which handle such enormous
numbers of swine at all seasons of the year. Yet the progressive farmer of
to-day should not only provide his own fresh and cured pork for family
use, but also should be able to supply at remunerative prices such persons
in his neighborhood as appreciate the excellence and general merit of
country or "homemade" pork product. This is true, also, though naturally
in a less degree, of the townsman who fattens one or two pigs on the
family kitchen slops, adding sufficient grain ration to finish off the
pork for autumn slaughter.

The only popular book of the kind ever published, "Home Pork Making"
furnishes in a plain manner just such detailed information as is needed to
enable the farmer, feeder, or country butcher to successfully and
economically slaughter his own hogs and cure his own pork. All stages of
the work are fully presented, so that even without experience or special
equipment any intelligent person can readily follow the instructions.
Hints are given about finishing off hogs for bacon, hams, etc. Then,
beginning with proper methods of slaughtering, the various processes are
clearly presented, including every needful detail from the scalding vat to
the kitchen baking dish and dining-room table.

The various chapters treat successively of the following, among other
branches of the art of pork making: Possibilities of profit in home
curing and marketing pork; finishing off hogs for bacon; class of rations
best adapted, flesh and fat forming foods; best methods of slaughtering
hogs, with necessary adjuncts for this preliminary work; scalding and
scraping; the construction of vats; dressing the carcass; cooling and
cutting up the meat; best disposition of the offal; the making of sausage
and scrapple; success in producing a fine quality of lard and the proper
care of it.

Several chapters are devoted to putting down and curing the different cuts
of meat in a