teaspoonful of pounded mace, 1/2 teaspoonful of pounded allspice, 1/2
nutmeg, pepper to taste, clarified butter.
_Mode_.--Cut some slices from the remains of a cold ham, mince them
small, and to every 2 lbs. of lean, allow the above proportion of fat.
Pound the ham in a mortar to a fine paste, with the fat, gradually add
the seasoning and spices, and be very particular that all the
ingredients are well mixed and the spices well pounded. Press the
mixture into potting-pots, pour over clarified butter, and keep it in a
cool place.
_Average cost_ for this quantity, 2s. 6d.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
IMPORTANCE OF THE BOAR'S HEAD, SCOTTISH FEUDS, &c.--The boar's
head, in ancient times, formed the most important dish on the
table, and was invariably the first placed on the board upon
Christmas-day, being preceded by a body of servitors, a flourish
of trumpets, and other marks of distinction and reverence, and
carried into the hall by the individual of next rank to the lord
of the feast. At some of our colleges and inns of court, the
serving of the boar's head on a silver platter on Christmas-day
is a custom still followed; and till very lately, a bore's head
was competed for at Christmas time by the young men of a rural
parish in Essex. Indeed, so highly was the grizzly boar's head
regarded in former times, that it passed into a cognizance of
some of the noblest families in the realm: thus it was not only
the crest of the Nevills and Warwicks, with their collateral
houses, but it was the cognizance of Richard III., that--
"Wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
In your embowell'd bosoms,"--
and whose nature it was supposed to typify; and was universally
used as a _sign_ to taverns. The Boar's Head in Eastcheap,
which, till within the last twenty-five years still stood in all
its primitive quaintness, though removed to make way for the
London-bridge approaches, will live vividly in the mind of every
reader of Shakspeare, as the resort of the prince of Wales,
Poins, and his companions, and the residence of Falstaff and his
coney-catching knaves, Bardolph, Pistol, and Nym; and whose sign
was a boar's head, carved in stone over the door, and a smaller
one in wood on each side of the doorway.
The traditions and deeds of savage vengeance recorded in
connection with this grim trophy of the chase are numerous in
all parts of Europe. But the most remarkable connected with the
subject in this country, were two events that occurred in
Scotland, about the 11th and 15th centuries.
A border family having been dispossessed of their castle and
lands by a more powerful chief, were reduced for many years to
great indigence, the expelled owner only living in the hope of
wreaking a terrible vengeance, which, agreeably to the motto of
his house, he was content to "bide his time" for. The usurper
having invited a large number of his kindred to a grand hunt in
his new domains, and a feast after in the great hall, returned
from the chase, and discovering the feast not spread, vented his
wrath in no measured terms on the heads of the tardy servitors.
At length a menial approached, followed by a line of servants,
and placing the boar's head on the table, the guests rushed
forward to begin the meal; when, to their horror, they
discovered, not a boar's but a bull's head,--a sign of death.
The doors were immediately closed, and the false servants, who
were the adherents of the dispossessed chief, threw off their
disguise, and falling on the usurper and his friends, butchered
them and every soul in the castle belonging to the rival
faction.
A tribe of caterans, or mountain robbers, in the Western
Highlands, having been greatly persecuted by a powerful chief of
the district, waylaid him and his retinue, put them all to the
sword, and cutting off the chief's head, repaired to his castle,
where they ordered the terrified wife to supply them with food
and drink. To appease their savage humour, the lady gave order
for their entertainment, and on returning to the hall to see her
orders were complied with, discovered, in place of the boar's
head that should have graced the board, her husband's bleeding
head; the savage caterans, in rude derision, as a substitute for
the apple or lemon usually placed between the jaws, having
thrust a slice of bread in the dead man's mouth.
FOR CURING HAMS (Mons. Ude's Recipe).