The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-16
Curing Meats.

Hams. shoulders and breakfast bacon
can be sugar-cured in tight or open
vessel. The open vessel is best Pack
the meats closely in the vessel, and aft
er preparing the pickle pour.it over
the meats, and if the vessel be open
put weight on the meat to hold it
under the pickle. If the vessel is tight
turn it half over every third day for
twenty days. The vessel must be kept
full of pickle. The pickle is made as
follows: For each 300 pounds of meat
placed in tierce or hogshead put in
twenty-four pounds of salt, three quarts
of good strip, twelve ounces of salt
peter, and fill the barrel with water. If
curing in an open vessel take the meats
out of the vessel and repack as often as
you would turn the vessel if tight. This
is to be done to change the pc ition of
the pieces, that the pickle may reach
every part. 1t is best to let the meats
remain in the pickle until taken out to
noe. The temperature should be
kept below fifty degrees while the pickle
remains on the meats. Picked pork
(mess or clear pork is made by sprink-
ling rock salt at the bottom of the barrel
and packing the pieces closely, placing
them on edge, sprinkling sat between
the layers, using thirty pounds of salt
to 100 pounds of meat. A brine of full
strength should then be made and the
barrel filled. See thatthe barrel is kept
full of pickle, or if the vessel is an open
one, that the pickle covers the meats.
If the pickle should begin to ferment
at any time more rock salt should be
added, When meats cured in this man.
ner are to be smoked, putthem in YES
sci or cold water to soak for six or ten
hours to remove the surplus salt; then
wash in rain water, rubbing well
with scrub brush or cloth; then hang fer
twenty-four hours before supplying
smoke. Sweet picked meats should not
be soaked in water before smoking, but
should be washed in rain water the
same as in dry salt-cured meats. The
meat should he hung for smoking as
high above the fire as possible. The
meat should be smoked from ten DAYS
to two weeks. Sugar-cured meats
should be scrubbed or placed in a dark
room before the fly appears in the early
spring. A Kentucky method of cur
ing hams and bacon is furnished by a
gentleman from that State, who knows
It to be good and absolutely proof
against shippers, Leave the meat in a
strong brine for seven or eight weeks,
then wash it in luke-warm water and
dry. When dry roll it in a mixture of
equal parts of pepper and saltpeter,
rubbing it thoroughly with the hand.
Hang in the smoke-house under a slow
fire, only partially smoking it. In the
spring, before the flies come, paint the
meat with New Orleans molasses, then
smoke thoroughly. Another method:
The following method of curing hams
is recommended: Rub the flesh side of
the hams with fine salt, using no more
than will adhere to it. Let them re-
main forty-eight hours, then put them
into a cask, sink down and cover with
a pickle made by dissolving fifteen
pounds of salt and two and one-half
ounces crude East India saltpeter in
ten gallons of water and adding three
quarts of molasses> Keep them
weighted down. They will cure ready
for smoking in forty to forty-fve days.
Still another: A well-recommended
pickle for curing hams is made of one
and one-half pounds Of salt. one-half
pound of sugar, one half-ounce of
potash. Boil together till the scum
has risen to the top, and then skim.
After cooling, pour it over the meat
and leave the latter in the solution four
or five weeks Encyclopedia.