PORK.—(No. 49.)
The prime season for pork is from Michaelmas to March.
Take particular care it be done enough: other meats under-done are unpleasant, but pork is absolutely uneatable; the sight of it is enough to appal the sharpest appetite, if its gravy has the least tint of redness.
Be careful of the crackling; if this be not crisp, or if it be burned, you will be scolded.
For sauces, No. 300, No. 304, and No. 342.
Obs.—Pease pudding (No. 555) is as good an accompaniment to roasted, as it is to boiled pork; and most palates are pleased with the savoury powder set down in No. 51, or[131] bread-crumbs, mixed with sage and onion, minced very fine, or zest (No. 255) sprinkled over it.
N.B. “The western pigs, from Berks, Oxford, and Bucks, possess a decided superiority over the eastern, of Essex, Sussex, and Norfolk; not to forget another qualification of the former, at which some readers may smile, a thickness of the skin; whence the crackling of the roasted pork is a fine gelatinous substance, which may be easily masticated; while the crackling of the thin-skinned breeds is roasted into good block tin, the reduction of which would almost require teeth of iron.”—Moubray on Poultry, 1816, page 242.