IND US TRIES AND FIRESIDES. 2 2 7 



Unable to dispose of all the carcass to advantage in 

 these ways, pieces were sold to neighbors and friends for 

 other commodities or were given in exchange for a similar 

 piece of meat when the neighbor at some future time 

 might have a "killing." The periods of fresh beef were 

 interesting variations in the farmers' diet, but the quality 

 of their beef was poor indeed compared with our stall-fed 

 cattle from the West. Smaller "critters," like calves and 

 sheep and pigs, were slaughtered in the summer if occa- 

 sion required and if the farmer could afford it. 



Hams were cured and smoked by hanging above smol- 

 dering corncobs for many days. Every edible portion 

 was saved for some use. Even the bits of gristle and 

 meat about the hog's head were made into a sort of 

 "cheese," and other scraps were stuffed into cleansed 

 entrails to become sausages. Calves' or sheep's heads 

 were sometimes served with bits of heart or liver or other 

 organs called the "pluck." "Calf's head and pluck" is a 

 dish still occasionally known, but formerly quite common. 



The sheets of fat from the inside of a hog's abdominal 

 cavity were rolled up as leaf lard and " tried out " for 

 future use in making doughnuts and pastries. 



The abomasum or fourth stomach of calves was care- 

 fully washed and preserved as rennet, for curdling the milk 

 in cheese making. 



Thus the economy and ingenuity of our forefathers in 

 a multitude of ways utilized the meat products of their 

 own farms. But it seems clear that in spite of their 

 roastings and broilings and stewings, those meats must 

 have made monotonous meals ; for most families had no 

 alternative but to keep eating upon any particular part in 

 the season of it until it was gone, for nothing could be 

 wasted. 



A good loin of beef well roasted upon a spit over a 

 good fire of hard wood coals might have been toothsome 

 at first, but it got quite tiresome when served for a week 



