PLUM TART

_Ingredients._—½ lb. of good short crust, 1½ pint of plums, 1 lb. of moist sugar. _Mode._—Line the edges of a deep tart-dish with crust; fill the dish with plums, and place a small cup or jar, upside down, in the midst of them. Put in the sugar, cover the pie with crust, ornament the edges, and bake in a good oven from ½ to ¾ hour. When puff-crust is preferred to short crust, use that made by the given recipe, and glaze the top by brushing it over with the white of an egg beaten to a stiff froth with a knife; sprinkle over a little sifted sugar, and put the pie in the oven to set the glaze. _Time._—½ to ¾ hour. _Average cost_, 1_s._ _Sufficient_ for 5 or 6 persons. _Seasonable_, with various kinds of plums, from the beginning of August to the beginning of October.

PLUMS, French, Stewed (a Dessert dish).

_Ingredients._—1½ lb. of French plums, ¾ pint of syrup, 1 glass of port wine, the rind and juice of 1 lemon. _Mode._—Stew the plums gently in water for 1 hour; strain the water, and with it make the syrup. When it is clear, put in the plums with the port wine, lemon-juice, and rind, and simmer very gently for 1½ hour. Arrange the plums on a glass dish, take out the lemon-rind, pour the syrup over the plums, and, when cold, they will be ready for table. A little allspice stewed with the fruit is by many persons considered an improvement. _Time._—1 hour to stew the plums in water, 1½ hour in the syrup. _Average cost_, plums sufficiently good for stewing, 1_s._ per lb. _Sufficient_ for 7 or 8 persons. _Seasonable_ in winter.

PLUMS (Preserved).

_Ingredients._—To every lb. of fruit allow ¾ lb. of loaf sugar; for the thin syrup, ¼ lb. of sugar to each pint of water. _Mode._—Select large ripe plums; slightly prick them, to prevent them from bursting, and simmer them very gently in a syrup made with the above proportion of sugar and water. Put them carefully into a pan, let the syrup cool, pour it over the plums, and allow them to remain for two days. Having previously weighed the other sugar, dip the lumps quickly into water, and put them into a preserving-pan with no more water than hangs about them; and boil the sugar to a syrup, carefully skimming it. Drain the plums from the first syrup; put them into the fresh syrup, and simmer them very gently until they are clear; lift them out singly into pots, pour the syrup over, and, when cold, cover down to exclude the air. This preserve will remain good some time, if kept in a dry place, and makes a very nice addition to a dessert. The magnum-bonum plums answer for this preserve better than any other kind of plum. Greengages are also very delicious done in this manner. _Time._—¼ hour to 20 minutes to simmer the plums in the first syrup; 20 minutes to ½ hour very gentle simmering in the second. _Seasonable_ from August to October.

PLUMS, to Preserve Dry.

_Ingredients._—To every lb. of sugar allow ¼ pint of water. _Mode._—Gather the plums when they are full grown and just turning colour; prick them, put them into a saucepan of cold water, and set them on the fire until the water is on the point of boiling. Then take them out, drain them, and boil them gently in syrup made with the above proportion of sugar and water; and if the plums shrink, and will not take the sugar, prick them as they lie in the pan; give them another boil, skim, and set them by. The next day add some more sugar, boiled almost to candy, to the fruit and syrup; put all together into a wide-mouthed jar, and place them in a cool oven for 2 nights; then drain the plums from the syrup, sprinkle a little powdered sugar over, and dry them in a cool oven. _Time._—15 to 20 minutes to boil the plums in the syrup. _Seasonable_ from August to October.

In the country, where, for ordinary consumption, the pork killed for sale is usually both larger and fatter than that supplied to the London consumer, it is customary to remove the skin and fat down to the lean, and, salting that, roast what remains of the joint. Pork goes further, and is consequently a more economical food, than other meats, simply because the texture is closer, and there is less waste in the cooking, either in roasting or boiling.

In fresh pork, the leg is the most economical family joint, and the loin the richest.

Pork, to be preserved, is cured in several ways,—either by covering it with salt, or immersing it in ready-made brine, where it is kept till required; or it is only partially salted, and then hung up to dry, when the meat is called white bacon; or, after salting, it is hung in wood smoke till the flesh is impregnated with the aroma from the wood. The Wiltshire bacon, which is regarded as the finest in the kingdom, is prepared by laying the sides of a hog in large wooden troughs, and then rubbing into the flesh quantities of powdered bay-salt, made hot in a frying-pan. This process is repeated for four days; they are then left for three weeks, merely turning the flitches every other day, After that time they are hung up to dry. The hogs usually killed for purposes of bacon in England average from 18 to 20 stone; on the other hand, the hogs killed in the country for farm-house purposes, seldom weigh less than 26 stone. The legs of boars, hogs, and, in Germany, those of bears, are prepared differently, and called hams.

The practice in vogue formerly in this country was to cut out the hams and cure them separately; then to remove the ribs, which were roasted as “spare-ribs,” and, curing the remainder of the side, call it a “gammon of bacon.”

Small pork to cut for table in joints, is cut up, in most places throughout the kingdom, as represented in the engraving. The side is divided with nine ribs to the fore quarter; and the following is an enumeration of the joints in the two respective quarters:—

{1. The leg. HIND QUARTER {2. The loin. {3. The spring, or belly.

{4. The hand. FORE QUARTER {5. The fore-loin. {6. The cheek.

The weight of the several joints of a good pork pig of four stone may be as follows; viz.:—

The leg 8 lbs. The loin and spring. 7 “ The hand 6 “ The chine 7 “ The cheek from 2 to 3 “

Of a bacon pig, the legs are reserved for curing, and when cured are called hams: when the meat is separated from the shoulder-blade and bones and cured, it is called bacon. The bones, with part of the meat left on them, are divided into spare-ribs, griskins, and chines.

PORK CHEESE (an Excellent Breakfast Dish).

_Ingredients._—2 lbs. of cold roast pork, pepper and salt to taste, 1 dessertspoonful of minced parsley, 4 leaves of sage, a very small bunch of savoury herbs, 2 blades of pounded mace, a little nutmeg, ½ teaspoonful of minced lemon-peel; good strong gravy, sufficient to fill the mould. _Mode._—Cut, but do not chop, the pork into fine pieces, and allow ¼ lb. of fat to each pound of lean. Season with pepper and salt; pound well the spices, and chop finely the parsley, sage, herbs, and lemon-peel, and mix the whole nicely together. Put it into a mould, fill up with good strong well-flavoured gravy, and bake rather more than one hour. When cold, turn it out of the mould. _Time._—Rather more than 1 hour. _Seasonable_ from October to March.

_Note._—The remains of a pig’s head, after the chops are taken off, make most excellent pork cheese.

PORK CUTLETS, or Chops.

_Ingredients._—Loin of pork, pepper and salt to taste. _Mode._—Cut the cutlets from a delicate loin of pork, bone and trim them neatly, and cut away the greater portion of the fat. Season them with pepper; place the gridiron on the fire; when quite hot, lay on the chops, and broil them for about ¼ hour, turning them 3 or 4 times; and be particular that they are _thoroughly_ done, but not dry. Dish them, sprinkle over a little fine salt, and serve plain, or with tomato sauce, sauce piquante, or pickled gherkins, a few of which should be laid round the dish as a garnish. _Time._—About ¼ hour. _Average cost_, 10_d._ per lb. for chops. _Sufficient._—Allow 6 for 4 persons. _Seasonable_ from October to March.

PORK CUTLETS, or Chops.

_Ingredients._—Loin, or fore-loin, of pork, egg and bread-crumbs, salt and pepper to taste; to every tablespoonful of bread-crumbs allow ½ teaspoonful of minced sage; clarified butter. _Mode._—Cut the cutlets from a loin, or fore-loin, of pork; trim them the same as mutton cutlets, and scrape the top part of the bone. Brush them over with egg, sprinkle with bread-crumbs, with which have been mixed minced sage and a seasoning of pepper and salt; drop a little clarified butter on them, and press the crumbs well down. Put the frying-pan on the fire, put in some lard; when this is hot, lay in the cutlets, and fry them a light brown on both sides. Take them out, put them before the fire to dry the greasy moisture from them, and dish them on mashed potatoes. Serve with them any sauce that may be preferred; such as tomato sauce, sauce piquante, sauce Robert, or pickled gherkins. _Time._—From 15 to 20 minutes. _Average cost_, 10_d._ per lb. for chops. _Sufficient._—Allow 6 cutlets for 4 persons. _Seasonable_ from October to March.

_Note._—The remains of roast loin of pork may be dressed in the same manner.