Notes on "Hotch-Potch" From the Lancaster Farmer, January, 1881

Authors

Alfred L. Shoemaker

Document Type

Notes

Files

Date

1950

Keywords

The Lancaster Farmer, Lancaster County, recipe, Hotch-Potch, Yoke Apple, pig stomach

Description

A set of handwritten notes copied from the Lancaster Farmer of January 1881, written by Alfred L. Shoemaker. Within, a recipe for a 'hotch-potch' (stuffed pig stomach) is detailed by J. G. Warwick, with additional commentary provided by the editor of the periodical.

Corresponds to:

Packet 759-9

Transcription

The Lancaster Farmer

January, 1881

Page 4: “Hotch-Potch”

I always see a good many recipes in the Lancaster Farmer for cooking, baking, stewing, etc, but there is one article that I am very fond of that I have never yet seen in The Farmer or elsewhere, and that is the stomach of a pig filled with meat and potatoes. Cut a slit in the stomach about four inches long, across the natural aperture, and after emptying it turn it inside out. Take the inner skin off, and when it is thoroughly cleaned fill it with meat and potatoes- about two parts of potatoes and one part of meat. More of the one and less of the other can be taken if desired. The meat should be cut into small pieces, from half an inch to an inch square, and the potatoes should be sliced. Any kind of meat, fresh sausage or spareribs are good, but a part of it at least must be fat. If the meat is not fat, about an equal quantity of “speck” should be added. Mix well together and season to the taste, (fresh or salted meat will do) then fill the stomach, but it must not be stuffed too full, or it will burst in boiling. Sew up the slit that was cut before it is boiled. (The bursting can be avoided by sewing a thin piece of muslin around it.) Put it in a kettle of boiling water, and boil it moderately for three of four hours, until the potatoes get soft. Then take it out of the kettle and put in a pan and roast it like a turkey. If done well it is excellent - next to turkey.

J. G. Warwick, Jan., 1881.

“That’s so,” and we thank J. G. for this revival of a good dish, that somehow in this fast age was becoming obsolete. Our mother made it more than sixty years ago. Our mother-in-law made it fifty years ago, and our wife made it forty years ago. When we first commenced housekeeping, raised our own pigs, and had our annual butchering, the stomach of one pig at least was always converted with a “Hotch-Potch”, as it was called. A little parsley or sweet marjoram was added to give it flavor, but about the best flavoring is a dozen of good fresh oysters, when the meat is fresh. It has also this advantage; there are no bones in it, (unless when made of spareribs) it is easily carved, and there is no choice in the pieces. It has been many a long year since we have seen it, or eaten of it, but we are glad to know that it has not entirely gone out of fashion in Lancaster County. It is a dish worth retaining, and all of our recollections concerning it are favorable to its qualities.

[Note. The add is by Simon Snyder Rathman, the editor. als]

Page 5. Article by a grafter from York County … “and will say that in my opinion the “Yoke Apple,” for drying purposes, stands at the head …”

Language

English

Rights Statement

This item is available courtesy of the Ursinus College Library Special Collections Department. It is not to be copied or distributed for commercial use. For permissions which fall outside of educational use, please contact the Special Collections Department.

Recommended Citation

Shoemaker, Alfred L., "Notes on "Hotch-Potch" From the Lancaster Farmer, January, 1881" (1950). Alfred L. Shoemaker Folk Cultural Documents. 82.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/82