feedback on: PIGS & PORK

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Now put a strip of the meat mixture down the center of the dough, roll the shuck so that the masa meets around the meat and overlaps . . . and fold the base over. This takes practice . . . the tamale should be neither too fat nor too skinny, and sturdy enough to stay to stay rolled.

Finally, get a big can (a five-gallon lard container is fine) or large pressure cooker. Spread shucks on the bottom. Then place something in the center to tent the tamales around . . . they should lean at about a 60-degree angle with the base down. Use juice from the head to moisten each tamale, and pour enough of the liquid on the bottom container to steam them. Steam at least two flours in a can, or one hour at no more than 10 pounds pressure in a pressure cooker. When the shuck separates cleanly from the masa, the tamales are ready to eat.

LIVER SAUSAGE

1 pig head, liver, kidneys and heart
Other pork or beef trimmings if desired
Salt
Black pepper
Red pepper
Sage
Garlic
Allspice
Mace
Sausage casings

Boil the head as for tamales, and save the juice. Boil the liver, kidneys and heart, adding pork trimmings if you wish (and also beef liver or bones if you have them to spare. Chop the meat into 2 to 3-inch pieces (or whatever size your grinder will take) and spread it all out. Season to taste with the spices, mix with your hands and run it through the grinder. If the meat is not thoroughly blended, regrind it or knead it with your hands. Stuff the mixture into casings and tie like regular sausage. Then simmer each sausage in juice from the head until it floats . . . 15-30 minutes. Hang in a cool place to drain.

This sausage can be dried if you have a safe place to hang it and the right climate. We find that, in this area, it spoils unless we use nitrate salt and — since we prefer not to do this — we freeze the sausage. It's eaten cold like luncheon meat.

Bill and Pat Bowles
San Antonio, Tex.

The article on "How to Butcher Pork" in MOTHER NO. 17 was generally good, but if it's intended for novices, please let me comment on two points which may be a source of grief and unnecessary work.

First, no hog in the world would agree to being rolled onto its back, while one man straddles it and grips its forelegs and another holds its chin down and cuts its throat. Very few men could perform this feat on a squirming, squealing, kicking, biting 200-pound pig without getting badly maimed. Nor could a clean stick, with the knife being kept "squarely in the center" as the article advises, be made except by accident. Hog and men would be overheated and exhausted by the time such a struggle ended, with about a 50-50 chance that a man would be stuck instead of the animal.

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