To Roast a Sucking Pig

Ingredients

• 0.5 pint fine bread-crumbs
• 3 heaped teaspoonsful sage, minced very small
• 3 ounces good butter
• 1 large saltspoonful salt
• 0.66 large saltspoonful pepper or cayenne
• butter
• 0.5 pint good veal gravy, thickened
• 1 glass Madeira or sherry
• gravy from the roasting pig
• pinch pounded mace and cayenne
• lemon-juice
• fine bread sauce
• plain gravy
• currant sauce
• rich melted butter
• rich brown gravy and thick tomata sauce or sauce poivrade

Instructions

1. After the pig has been scalded and prepared for the spit, wipe it as dry as possible.
2. Mix together the bread-crumbs, minced sage, three ounces of butter, salt, and pepper or cayenne to make the stuffing.
3. Put the stuffing into the body of the pig and sew it up with soft but strong cotton.
4. Truss the pig as a hare, with the fore legs skewered back and the hind legs forward.
5. Lay the pig to a strong clear fire, but keep it at a moderate distance to avoid blistering or scorching.
6. As soon as the pig becomes warm, rub it constantly with a bit of butter tied in muslin or thin cloth (or use oil applied with a bunch of feathers if available) throughout the roasting.
7. When the gravy begins to drop, place basins or small deep tureens underneath to catch it.
8. When the pig reaches a fine light amber brown and the steam draws strongly towards the fire, wipe it dry with a clean cloth and rub cold butter over it.
9. When the pig is half done, hang a pig iron (or large flat iron) in the centre of the grate to ensure the middle cooks at the same rate as the ends.
10. When ready for the table, lay the pig in a very hot dish and remove the spit.
11. Take off and open the head and split the body in two.
12. Chop together quickly the stuffing and the brains.
13. Put the chopped stuffing and brains into half a pint of good veal gravy that has been thickened.
14. Add a glass of Madeira or sherry and the gravy that has dropped from the pig.
15. Add pounded mace, cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon-juice if the flavour requires heightening.
16. Pour a small portion of this sauce under the roast and serve the remainder as hot as possible in a tureen.
17. Serve with fine bread sauce and plain gravy, or alternatively with currant sauce, rich melted butter, rich brown gravy with thick tomata sauce, or sauce poivrade according to preference.
18. Lay the body of the pig flat in the middle of the serving dish, with the head and ears at the ends and sides.