Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-01-01
Curing and Preserving Meat.

Curing and Preserving Meat. .
Mr.. r. Guild read a paper short
time since before the New Jersey
Farmers Club, in which he gives the
following recipes for curing and pre-
serving meats:
What are known in commerce as
"sugar-c ured hams" are packed in
bulk with ground salt ut such times, or
from time to time, as convenience may
dictate !; the time they remain IN bulk
is also governed by convenience. They
are ut length pack d in hogsheads filed
with what is called sweet pickle-com-
posed Of salt, saltpetre and molasses.
The celebrated Burlington hams of
the olden time (Newbold, think, was
the name, were cured in this wise:
To twelve hams, eight pounds sugar,
one and one. half pounds saltpeter, five
pounds fine salt; rub the hams with
this mixture, and let them be one week
in cask with the skins downward !;
then make q pickle OF the strongest
coarse salt, of sufficient strength to
bear IN egg; add two or three quarts
of hickory ley, refined by boiling :;
when cold, cover them.
The recipe of Abraham Hunt, Of
Trenton, was: For three dozen hams,
three pounds of saltpeter, one half
bushel fine salt, and one and half
gallons of molasses mix them we'll
| together, and rub the hams we'll let
them lie twelve or fourteen days !; then
make pickle that will bear an egg,
and cover the hams with it. After ~
ing three or four weeks in pickle, rub
them with bran and hang them up to
smoke.
The recipe I have adopted for my
own use is as follows: For twelve
hams one pound of saltpeter, twelve
pounds fine salt, one-half gallon mo-
lasses. These ingredients, when we'll
mixed, will have about the consistency
and appearance of damp brown sugar.
Rub them thoroughly with this mix
ture, and lay them singly on a dry
platform. At the end of one week rub
them again; at the end of the second
week again rub them and hang them
up to smoke; let them dry thoroughly,
but do not smoke them more than ten
days.
All brine requires to be assiduously
watched and kept pure. It extracts
the juices of the meat; they being
lighter than the water saturated with
salt, rise to the top, become exposed to
tho air and soon decompose, thereby
communicating the contents of the
cask. The following recipe for making
brine, think, is the best that has
fallen within my observation
Six pounds salt, one pint molasses,
six ounces saltpeter dissolve them by
boiling iu four gallons of water. In
the pickle, when cold, keep any sort
of fresh meat sunk and closely stopped.
This pickle may be kept pure, and its
strength undiminished for almost any
length of time, by occasionally reboil-
ing it and skimming off the impurities,
but as old brine is an excellent fertil-
izer, and salt is not expensive, I would
recommend that the old brine be
thrown on the asparagus bed or COM
post heap. and fresbly-made brine be
! substituted.
l. To have cured meats in perfection
no animal should be slaughtered until
it has, in some degree at least, attained
it's natural growth.
2. All meats should be promptly and
thoroughly cooled before being sailed.
If in cold weather, by hanging in \
cold place at least forty eight hours,
and AS much longer as will be consist
ent with its keeping sound; but under
no circumstances let it freeze.
8. No more salt should he used, and
no more time should be consumed in
curing, than is necessary to it's safe
keeping, due regard being had to the
size of the pieces, the temperature of
the weather. etc.. and as little water
should be used as il consistent with
cleanliness.
4. They should be thoroughly dried
before slowing away, but smoke is not
essential 10 their preservation.
5. To preserve them after being
cured, they should be slowed away in
q cool and we'll ventilated department
before the fly can possibly reach them.
In this climate I should say not later
than the middle of February.