The frugal housewife, or complete woman cook. Now improved by an experienced cook / [Susannah Carter].

  • Susannah Carter
Date:
[1826?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The frugal housewife, or complete woman cook. Now improved by an experienced cook / [Susannah Carter]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    How to choose Pork, Brawn and Venison. smell; and for newness, and staleness, this flesh bought fresh has but few signs, the more material is its clammi- ness, and the rest your smell will inform you. If it be bruised these places will look more dusky or blacker than the rest. Pork. If young, the lean will break in pinching be- tween the fingers ; and if you nip the skin with your nails, it will make a dent; also if the fat be soft and pulpy, like lard: if the lean be tough, and the fat flabby and spungy, feeling rough, it is old, especially if the rind be stubborn, and you cannot nip it with your nails. If a boar, though young, or a hog gelded at full growth, the flesh will be hard, tough, red, and rammish of smell; the fat skinny and hard; the skin thick and rough, and pinched up, will immediately fall again. As for old or new killed, try the legs, hands, and springs, by putting the finger under the bone that comes out; if it be tainted, you will there find it by smelling the finger; besides the skin will be sweaty and clammy when stale, but cool and smooth when new. If you find little kernels in the fat of the pork, like nail-shot it is measly, and dangerous to be eaten. Pork comes in in the middle of August, and holds good till Lady-day. Howto chuse Brawn, Venison, Westphalia, Hams, fyc. Brawn is known to be hold or young by the extraordi- nary or moderate thickness of the rind; the thick is old, the moderate young. If the rind and fat be tender, it is not boar brawn, but barrow or sow. Venison. Try the haunches or shoulders under the bones that come out with your finger or knife, and as the scent is sweet or rank, it is new or stale ; and the like of the sides in the fleshy parts ; if tainted, they will look green in some places, or more than ordinary black. Look on the hoofs, and if the clefts are very wide and rough, it is old; if close and smooth it is young. The buck venison begins in May, and is in high season till Allhallow’s-day: the doe from Michaelmas to the end of December, or sometimes to the end of January. A 2 J
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