SUCKING-PIGS. 207 



"He must be roasted. I am not ignorant that our ancestors ate 

 them seethed or boiled ; but what a sacrifice of the exterior tegu- 

 ment ! 



" There is no flavor comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, 

 tawny, well watched, not over-roasted, crackling, as it is well called ; 

 the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this ban- 

 quet, in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance, with the adhesive 

 oleaginous Oh, call it not fat ! but an indefinable sweetness grow- 

 ing up to it the tender blossoming of fat fat cropped in the bud 

 taken in the shoot in the first innocence the cream and quint- 

 essence of the child-pig's yet pure food ; the lean, no lean ; but a 

 kind of animal manna, or rather, fat and lean (if it must be so) so 

 blended and running into each other, that both together make but 

 one arnbrosian result, or common substance. 



" Behold him while he is doing ! it seemeth rather a refreshing 

 warmth than a scorching heat that he is so passive to. How equally 

 he twirleth round the string. Now he is just done. To see the ex- 

 treme sensibility of that tender age ; he hath wept out his pretty 

 eyes radiant jellies shooting stars. See him in the dish, his 

 second cradle ; how meek he lieth! wouldst thou have this innocent 

 grow up to the grossness and indocility which too often accompany 

 maturer swinehood 1 Ten to one he would have proved a glutton, 

 a sloven, an obstinate, disagreeable animal, wallowing in all filthy 

 conversation from these sins he is happily snatched away. 



Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, 

 Death came with timely care. 



" His memory is odoriferous : no clown curseth, whilst his stomach 

 half ejecteth the rank bacon ; no coalheaver bolteth him in reeking 

 sausages : he hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the 

 judicious epicure, and for such a tomb might be content to die. 



" Pig let me speak his praise is no less provocative of the 

 appetite than he is satisfactory to the criticalness of the censorious 

 palate. The strong man may batten on him, and the weakling 

 refuseth not his mild juices. 



" Unlike to mankind's mixed characters, a bundle of virtues and 

 vices, inexplicably intertwisted and not to be unravelled without 

 hazard, he is good throughout. No part of him is better or 

 worse than another. He helpeth, as far as his little means goeth, all 

 around." 



Sucking-pigs should be killed at from a fortnight to three weeks 

 old. The Chinese breed furnishes the most delicate and delicious 

 " porklings." They should be stuck ; all the blood suffered to drain 

 out; scalded and scraped gently ; and the bowels taken out, and the 

 inside sponged dry and clean. 



