1 spare-rib of pork
Flour
Butter
Sage leaves, powdered
Pepper

A bacon spare-rib usually weighs about eight or nine pounds, and will take from two to three hours to roast it thoroughly; not exactly according to its weight, but the thickness of the meat upon it, which varies very much. Lay the thick end nearest to the fire.

A proper bald spare-rib of eight pounds weight (so called because almost all the meat is pared off), with a steady fire, will be done in an hour and a quarter. There is so little meat on a bald spare-rib, that if you have a large, fierce fire, it will be burned before it is warm through. Joint it nicely, and crack the ribs across as you do ribs of lamb.

When you put it down to roast, dust on some flour, and baste it with a little butter; dry a dozen sage leaves, and rub them through a hair-sieve, and put them into the top of a pepper-box; and about a quarter of an hour before the meat is done, baste it with butter; dust the pulverized sage over it.

Make it a general rule never to pour gravy over any thing that is roasted; by so doing, the dredging, &c., is washed off, and it eats insipid.

The Cook’s Oracle by William Kitchiner, MD, New York, 1829

Comment: This recipe clearly dates to the days of cooking over a kitchen hearth, essentially a large open fireplace. A whole range of implements, usually of cast iron, were required to hold the food in place, keep it the proper distance from the heat at each stage of cooking, and also to rotate it in such a way as to expose all surfaces of the meat to the flames. The technique of “dredging” is almost universal with hearth-roasted meats but we (never having tried it) are unsure as to exactly how it works–it would seem that the fat and other juices dripping off the roast would carry the dredging material, be it flour or spices, off into the drip pan with it. If we ever get a house big enough to hold a fireplace big enough to try this in, we’ll let you know. But however you do it, may your roasts never be insipid!

          

1 quarter of a young pig
Salt and pepper
Molasses
Lemon juice
Melted butter
Wine

Take either a hind or fore quarter, rub it well with salt, pepper, and a small portion of molasses, and if practicable, let it lie for a few hours; then rinse it clean, and wipe it dry with a cloth, and place it on a large gridiron, over a bed of clear coals. Do not barbecue it hastily, but let it cook slowly for several hours, turning it over occasionally, and basting it with nothing but a little salt-water and pepper, merely to season and moisten it a little. When it is well done, serve it without a garnish, and having the skin taken off, which should be done before it is put down to roast, squeeze over it a little lemon juice, and accompany it with melted butter and wine, bread sauce, raw sallad, slaugh, or cucumbers, and stewed fruit. Beef may be barbecued in the same manner.

From The Kentucky Housewife by Mrs. Lettice Bryan, Cincinnati, 1838.

Comment: We apologize to readers who came here with great enthusiasm to find the “original, real, Civil War-period-authentic” barbecue sauce. Turns out…there isn’t one. Aside from the molasses (which you are even supposed to wash off before starting to cook, probably a good idea since the sugars would likely burn black during the cooking time required) and the water, salt and pepper used for basting, this is just grilled-on-a-grate young pork.

Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you. But the Great Debate between the propriety of tomato- versus vinegar-based barbecue sauce began in later years than the ones we examine here. Eat what you like and save the battles for the reenacting fields.

Oh, and that is indeed the way Mrs. Bryan spelled “sallad” and “slaugh.” And “barbecue” for that matter. We make enough typos on our own to want to take credit for any in the recipes we reproduce here. Standardized spelling came in later years too. At least this recipe does not require any “yelks” of eggs or drainage in a “cullender.”

          

8 lb. fresh pork
4 tsp. black pepper
4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. cloves or mace
8 tsp. sage, sweet marjoram, and thyme, mixed
1 teacup bread-crumbs (about 3/4 c.)

Lay the meat, which should be young pork, in a brine of salt and water, with a tablespoonful of saltpetre, and leave it for three days. Dry and mince it, season, and add the grated bread. Stuff in skins, and bake, closely covered, in an oven for half an hour. Or, what is better, steam over boiling water for one hour.
Eat either hot or cold.

From Common Sense in the Household by Marion Harland, New York, 1871

Comment: These are clearly fresh pork sausages, which were somewhat uncommon as such items were normally intended to be salted, smoked or both for long storage to eat in the wintertime.

The curious part, of course, is the name. The dish is English, we are told, and the name may come from the French. According to Wikipedia, “A saveloy is a very vividly red sausage served in southern English fish and chip shops, and also in takeaways in parts of Australia. It is made of pork and is highly seasoned. The name supposedly comes from the French word cervelas, a pork sausage, sometimes made of pig’s brains. The taste is similar to frankfurters... There is a reference in the musical “Oliver!” by Lionel Bart. In the song “Food, Glorious Food” workhouse boys sing rapturously of “peas, pudding and saveloys”.

Based on that entry, Mrs. Harland’s version seems to be a very mild, indeed somewhat wimpy, version of the dish. Eight teaspoons of peppers seems like a lot until you consider that you’re dealing with eight pounds of meat. Saltpeter is a preservative which is currently out of fashion as both unnecessary unless you plan to store these sausages for a long period, and possibly unhealthful. In addition to which it is rather hard to come by.

          

Boneless pork cutlets, about 4
Salt and pepper
1 or 2 eggs, beaten
Bread crumbs
Dried sage, crumbled
Finely minced onion
1/4 c. lard
14 c. flour

Cut them [the cutlets] from the leg and remove the skin; trim them and beat them and sprinkle them with pepper and salt. Prepare some beaten egg in a pan and on a flat dish a mixture of bread crumbs, minced onion & sage. Put some lard or drippings into a frying pan over the fire and when it boils put in the cutlets–having dipped every one, first in the egg and then in the seasoning. Fry them 20 or 30 minutes turning them often. After you have taken them out of the frying pan, skim the [fat off] the gravy, sprinkle on a little flour, give it one boil, and then pour it in the dish round the cutlets. Eat them with apple sauce.

From the Blackford Family Cookbook, L. M. Blackford, 1852.

Comment:  This dish, although messy in the extreme and extravagant in its use of lard both for frying and then for gravy, is very, very good. Possibly the trickiest part involved is getting the onion in the breading to the proper consistency. “Mincing” as is called for here will leave the edges of the onion bits sticking out of the bread-crumb coating, leading to a tendency to burn. We suggest grating the onion, then squeezing it in a paper towel to remove the large amount of moisture generated. After drying them as best you can, scatter them over the breadcrumb mixture and blend thoroughly before dipping the egged cutlets. We found the suggested “20 to 30 minutes” cooking time to be excessive and wonder if perhaps 19th century pork was of a different consistency–considerably tougher most likely– from that which is sold today.