Instructions: Set aside a large boiler of scalding water. Lay the pig in cold water for fifteen minutes; then, holding it by the hind leg, plunge it into the boiling water, and shake it about violently until you can pull the hair off by the handful. Take it out, wipe it dry, and with cloth or broom rub the hair off, brushing from the tail to the head, until the skin is perfectly clean. Cut it open, take out the entrails, and wash thoroughly with cold water, then with soda and water to remove any unpleasant odor; next with salt and water. Rinse with water and wipe inside. Then wrap in a wet cloth, and keep this saturated with cold water until you are ready to stuff it.

Mix all ingredients, except the eggs, moisten with half a cup of warm water (or milk), beat in the eggs, and stuff the pig into his natural size and shape. Sew him up, and bend his fore-feet backwards, his hind-feet forward, under and close to the body. Skewering them into the proper position. Dry the pig well, and dredge with flour. Put it to roast with a little hot water, slightly salted, in-the dripping-pan. Baste with butter and water three times as the pig gradually warms, afterward with the drippings. When it begins to smoke or steam, rub it over, every five minutes or so, with a cloth dipped in melted butter. Do not omit this precaution if you would have the skin tender and soft after it begins to brown. A month-old pig will require about an hour and three quarters or two hours-sometimes longer-to roast.

If your pig is large, you can cut off his head and split him down the back before sending to table. Do this with a sharp knife, and lay the backs together. Its best to display a whole roast, it gives a nice presentation. Place roast kneeling in a bed of green parsley, alternately with branches of whitish-green celery tops (the inner and tender leaves). Place a garland around his neck, and in his mouth a tuft of white cauliflower, surrounded by curled parsley.

Gravy: Skim your gravy well,add a little hot water, thicken with brown flour, boil up once, strain. Add half a glass of wine and half the juice of a lemon, serve in a tureen.

In carving the pig, cut off the head first; then split down the back, take off hams and shoulders, and separate the ribs.

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