The Massachusetts spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1821-1823, 1822-01-16

aiO aASatAS oC tC-aUoOEDcu Ny tue Wcdt
laying in it after being extracted by the
salt-as conceive it to be that which
produces the bugs and shippers in the
meat after it has been smoked. The
time of putting on the saltpetre is of
much more importance than is supposed
by those who have not made the trial !;
for IL put on at the first sailing, the meat
is always dry, hard, and too salt but why
it has this effect, | am not chymist
enough to determine. On giving the
meat second sailing, | add to the salt
as much brown sugar or molasses as
will mclsten or damp it, and as much of
the common red pepper as will give the
salt quite red appearance. The pods
are first dried before FIRE or on grid
die, and then pounded tolerably fine in a
mortar. The meat then lies about FIVE
or six weeks, when each piece should
be rubbed well with hickory ashes, and
hung up to smoke with the hook down.
wards, which prevents its dripping, and
thereby retains its juices. The Liver
pool sack salt is what | have generally
used, and | think it is much to be pre-
ferred to any other.
The smoke is generally made from
chips raked up from the wood-pile, with
little of the dust, doated or rotten
wood with it to prevent blaze, or clear
fire, and foo great heat; saw-dust of
hickory or oak is still better to make
the smoke, to which is added two or
three pods of the red pepper each day.
After it is sufficiently smoked, (which
it will be in five or six weeks. if regu-
larly attended to- it is taken down, and
packed away in casks or boxes, with
hickory ashes, covering the meat entire
~ with them, and between each layer is
put some thin slips of laths or boards, to
prevent each layer of meat pressing
down and touching each other, and in
the course of the summer it is taken out
and summed once or twice.
fit is intended for expectation, bran
is the best thing TO pack it in, for ship
ping, especially if it is intended for
southern market. By this mode of cur
ing, my bacon has got the reputation
(by those who have eat of itl to be equal
if not superiour to any they have ever
tasted. But concur with Mr. Coke,
the writer in your goth No. of the Sd
Vol. that "a great deal depends upon
the nature of the flesh of the several
breeds oahogs,'' and the manner of rais-
ing and feeding. From the experience
which have had, | think a cross of one
fourth of the Chinese on our common
stock, which is a mixture of the English
breed, including the Parkinson. which
we have amongst us, is the most delicate
in favour and taste, and easier to be
raised and kept fat, consuming less
grain. The meat of those which are
suffered to feed in the fields and woods,
with little feeding with grain until they
are put up TO fatten, are far superiour 10
those which are raised in the sly, and
fed on grain and slops, as is the northern
custom. Their meat is much larger
and coarser than ours, and may answer
very well for sailing and barrelling mp
as pork, but by no means answers as
well for bacon, being too coarse and
strong in favour. The manner in which
our hogs are raised and fed, and their
size, consider as the principal reasons
why our Virginia hams have been so
much approved Of both in this country
and Europe.
lam your most obedient,