The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-11-06
A Plea for Bacon.

Col. F. ID. Curtis writes to the NeU
York Tribune: / want to urge upon
farmer readers idea of curing their
pork into bacon, and keeping some of
it for their own tables and making q
home market for such as they can spare.
If they will have it on their own tables
people unused to it may find out It's
value as a staple article of meat, and a
little sold in town will prepare the way
for more demand another year. The
truth is, the public, as a body in the
north, do not know anything about ba-
con, and it is time they did. Pork has
started in our local market at Sc per
hundred, and will probably run down
within two months to 81. What non
sense it is for farmers to force their
pigs upon such a market. Many of
them will do it and get rid of their pigs,
and because their families do not like
pork (pickled pork) they will buy beet
fattened in Texas or Colorado. This
is sort of economy which is largely
practiced in this vicinity. If the pigs
should be killed when they weigh about
one hundred pounds, and the entire
sides with all the lean left on be made
into bacon, the farmer can have in
store as nice meat and as palatable as
any beef he may buy, and for the sur
plus he may realize price which will
compensate him for his gain and trou-
BILE. With the sides made into bacon
pig can be turned into good account.
The hams and shoulders make the best
food, and cost the possessor no extra
profits which he has to pay over and
above the cost of the beef, besides the
freight. In other words, when a farm
er buys beef he pays more than twice
the cost of the meat to the producer,
and when he cures his own pigs into
hams, shoulders, bacon and lard, and
sells them to the consumer direct, he
makes the profit others make out of
him when he sells his pigs at the pork
price, "a per cwt.
When he sells his pork and buys beef,
he loses both ways, and if the extra
price he pays for his beef over his pork
was subtracted from the price of his
pork he would really get nothing for
it, but when he fits it for food so that
it takes the place of the beef and he
does not buy it, he really doubles its
value and trebles it, as beef retails at
an average of more than twelve cents a
pound. Pigs must not be extra fat to
make the best of bacon, and the spare
rib lean must be left on the ribs, the
bone must be cut out, and the sides cut
square and smooth; the trimming can
be made into sausage or go with the
fat into the lard. The first six months
is the most growing age for pig, and
at this age they are suitable for the
purpose. After that they begin to get
too thick and fat. Bacon may be cured
the same as hams and shoulders, only
it does not require so long sailing.
Usually the salt is rubbed on the pieces,
and they are piled up for few days to
let it strike through. Three rubbings
are enough. 1t should never be allowed
to freeze during the curing, and if
frozen it must be thawed out by soak
ing in water. Bacon will take in salt
enough, unless the sides are very thick,
in three weeks, when it is ready to be
smoked. After smoking it may be hung
in dry, cool place or packed in dry
salt or in tight boxes. 1t is always
ready for use, and a rasher of good
bacon is a treat for breakfast or any
meal. As a side dish it has no superior.
1t may be broiled in dainty bits or fried
in more generous slices. 1t is excellent
to flavor chickens or stews, and for a
staple meat is far preferable to pork.
The black and red Berkshire pigs make
the best bacon, as they have more lean
meat mixed with the fat, the red being
the best of the two, as they retain more
than the others the old characteristics
of the Berkshire breed, not having been
made so fine and thick in the body by
the so-called improvements.