The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1879-12-20
COLUMN.


Curing Meat.
This is the season of the year for sailing
meat, and, as the profit of many farmer
and the comfort of many family depend
upon its being done properly, some sugges-
tions may be timely. We will premise by
siying that the prejudice against salt meat
has little foundation in fact, Scurvy among
sailors is attributed to it; but this disease
oftener arises from the want Of fresh vegeta-
bles than of fresh meat. 1t seldom, if ever,
occurs among farmers, even though they
may be confined to diet Of fpolluck six days
out of seven every week. We cannot com
mend such a diet; but, with suitable mix
ture of potatoes, cabbage, onions, and other
vegetables, we should have no fear of sour
vey, certainly if the pot luck dinner was
washed down wthtpure water and accom-
panied with abundant exercise in the open
air. Salt pork was never intended as a
steady diet for sedentary personsj but il
one is working in the open air he can eat
pork with impunity, and if he Is constantly
out in the cold, it is just the food he needs
to keep up animal heat. IF well cured
there are few dishes more relishable and
more easily digested than corned beef, and
70 healthy stomachs few are more acceptable
than delicate slices of smoked ham. From
beef or ham that is salted till all the natural
juices are absorbed and the lean meat i:
tough and indigestible as leather we beg tc
be delivered.
The salting of clean side-pork is a very
simple process, and he must be simpletor
to make a mistake in this business. There
is no danger of sailing it too much, as it viii
only absorb az certain amount. The only
danger in curing clear pork is in packing i
before the animal heat is all gone. More
pork is lost from this cause than from al
others combined. No definite rule can b.
lail down as to the time required Tor pork
becoming thoroughly cool. This will de
pend somewhat on the thickness of the
pork, but more on the state of the weather
The outside often feels cool when the inside
may be warm. In ordinary November
weather hog should be allowed to hans
thirty-siX hours before it is packed, and if
on cutting it up, the thermometer applied tC
the fresh cut surface indicates rise of tenn
perature packing should be deferred still
longer. The pork should be cut in strip;
about four inches wide, and packed with the
skin next to the sides of the barrel, layer
of best rock salt being first placed on the
bottom, and so alternating with layers oi
salt and pork till the barrel is full, care be-
ing taken to pack each layer of pork so COM
pactly that it will not rise. Some make a
brine and add it to the pork after it has lain
in the salt for two or three days but pure
water is just as good, if sufficient salt has
been used in the packing. If brine is used
it must be thoroughly COLI before it is APP
piled. A little satpeter half pound to a
barrel, will give the pork a slight rosy tinge
much admired by many, while others prefer
the pure white which salt alone gives.
The curing of bacon is an entirely differ
ent process. In cutting up pork for bacon
it is usual to leave some lean meat in the
strips; and if these We're sated as thorough
ly as is clear fat pork this lean meat would
become intolerably hard and stringy. Bacon
is, therefore, better if dry salted, as it is
caled-that is not put into brine but rubbed
with fine salt and sugar or lnolasses mixed
together. 1.-THE rubbing is thoroughly done,
using six pounds Of salt and a pound of su.
gar or pint ofmolasses to a hundred pounds
of pork, sufficient salt will be absorbed to
keep these strips of bacon sweet for an in
definite time. IT, heweyer, the strips are
unusually thick, the rubbing must be repeat.
ed after ten days or a fortnight. Bacon is
the every day breakfast of Southern plant
ers, and if New England farmers used more
bacon and less clear salt pork, they would
find it economical and healthy.
Beef is best cured much in the same way
as recommended for bacon, only we should
put in quarter of a pound of saltpcter
along with the six pounds of salt and The
pound of sugar. A redish hue in beefis de-
sired by every one, and the saltpeter also
has antiseptic effect. With large pieces oil
beef the rubbing must be repeated, except
when 1t is designed for drying, when one
rubbing is sufficient, as the drying forms Il
tight covering, which keeps out the air and
prevents the putrefactlon tendency. In some
warm and dry climates all the curing which
beef requires is hanging in the sun on some
branch of tree, where the air circulates or
all sides of it and soon forms menbranou
like covering. Our climate in too moist fo
this, and besides, most persons like tast,
OF salt in their cured meat. The common
practice of putting beef and hams into ,
BRINE is Objectionable, as the brine extract.
more or less of the juices of the meat, whicl
are mostly retained if the meat is dr.,
cured.
Another process in curing hams and driet
beef is smoking Most persons think thi
gives good as we'll as an additional flavo
to the meat; but some cannot endure tb
smoky flavor, and think it a reict of th
barbarsm Of oar Celtic fathers, who cure
their meats in their big chimueys. WhetE
er the flavor is good or bad depends much o
the material used in generating the smok,
Corn cobs make a good smoke, as also d
birch and hickery chips; but pine and mo-
light woods communicate an unpleasant fl,
yor. Great care must be exercised, IN smol
ing not to create so much heat as TO cook, ,
well as to cure the meat. To avoid this
is well to have two apartments in the smol
house-one for the cobs or chips and Il
other for the meat but one is sufficient
only the meat is hung up high enough IN
the fire is kept smouldering. Massachusct
PiOUgimaa.
How TO Judge the Weather.
The enioTs of the sky at different ii m