The Bossier banner., 1894-01-18

salt will not save it, and under some
conditions salt hastens decay instead
of retarding it.
When the weather is clear and tha
temperature ranges from three degrees
below freezing at night to fifteen or
twenty degrees above freezing durinu
the day, fresh meat will keep perfectly
fresh and sweet for two weeks or move
without salt, if hung in a dry place
where the air freely circulates Az
long as the temperature is below freez-
ing day and night, there is no need of
cutting up and sailing any meat we
desire to use fresh only as we need it.
Under such conditions carcass of beef
hung up will keep fresh all winter and
improve all the time
1t is the fashion with many farmers
if the weather should turn Iittla
warm when they kill hogs, to be in a.
hurry to cut them up and salt, think
ing that it is the proper thing to do. But,
cutting up and sailing is the very thing
that should not be done in hurry,
Hogs should hang until all the animal
heat has escaped and until they be-
come stiff and firm. The warmer the
weather the more need of this being
done. Animal heat escapes faster and
more effectually from carcass hang
ing 1han in any other position. If the
weather is unreasonable when meat is
salted the joints sour near the bone If
the animal heat is not all out.
Sometimes hogs are cut up as soon as
possible after being slaughtered and
the pices spread out to cool. There is
nothing particularly wrong in cutting
up hogs while warm, if the pieces es-
pecially the joints, were hung up in
stead of being placed on something.
But the plan is not near so good as let
ting the hogs hang untR cool aud stiff.
There is nothing wrong in the rapid
cooling of meat. The sooner the heat
is taken from dead carcass in warm
weather, the greater are the chances
for it to keep or be converted into
sound bacon. For this reason hogs
should be cleaned as soon as possible
after killed, hung up Gnd the sptrails
taken out The leaf lard should be-
either loosened from the ribs or taken
out, and the ribs should be separated
from the backbone, and if well spread
the hog will soon cool.
Letting meat become just saltv
enough to keep, and not salty enough
to injure it for the table, requires great
care and the exercise of considerable
Judgment. Condition of seasons are So
variable that the exact time for meat
to lay in salt can not be given. Our
eyes are our best help in matters of
this kind. AS soon as meat
has lost it's fresh, bright color
and looks salty, it is in most
cases ready to hang. If the
weather is cold enough to make bacon,
spare ribs and back bones should be
hung up in the meat house, and not
salted until wanted to cook. In ease
the weather becomes little warm and
damp they should be taken down and
placed in brine made moderately strong.
Dry sailing of backbones and spare
ribs, so common with some farmers, is
simply ruinous, and should be strictly
avoided.
The great secret in keeping sausage
meat fresh and sweet is to pack it into
solid mass in stone jars, and then
cover it so as to exclude the air. If any
loose places are left in the meat then
it will sour. Some people are in the
habit of washing meat out of which
they intend to make sausage just be-
fore they grind it, but meat intended
for sausage should be so handled that
it needs no washing, as water is inju.
rious to it in more ways than one.--A.
P. Farnsley, in Home and Farm.