The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1904-12-20
To Make Good Hams.

The following recipe is the one used by Mr.. S..
L. Patterson, Commissioner of Agriculture, who
vouches for it's good qualities when the directions
are carefully followed:
To make good bacon will require good hogs.
By that is meant a medium weight hog which has
been properly corn fed, and watered with clean
water. The choicest bacon is made from hogs
from twelve to eighteen months old and weighing
1875 or 200 pounds.
They are killed on the farms on a cold morning;
well bled, we'll scalded and we'll cleaned. They
should hang all day, be housed at night, not allow
ed to come in contact with each other, and cut
and sailed next morning.
Do not cut them up the day of killing.
Do not salt the meat before the animal heat has
cooled out. More meat is spoiled by the sailing
and packing in bulk before it is thoroughly cooled
than from any other cause.
Cut out the backbone and pull out the ribs.
Trim the hams and shoulders close. Leave no
surplus bumps or points and make the cuts as
shapely as possible. The trimmings are worth
more made into sausage and lard than if left to
mar the appearance of the cured meat. The sides
or middlings should also be carefully trimmed, and
one or two four-inch strips cut lengthways from
the thin part to be cured as breakfast bacon. This
is important, as these cuts are much sought after,
and bring 212 cents more per pound than the
whole sides, when properly cured.
When the meat has been properly trimmed.
then the curing begins; use about one pound of
ground %saltpetre to 400 pounds of meat. That is
a heaping teaspoonful to the ham, more or less,
according to size. This is rubbed in on the flesh
sides and around the bones. Use fine salt, and
rub It IN we'll, heaping it up on the flesh sides to
some extent. Don't cut a cash for salt in the
ham. If desired, one pound of sugar may be
added to each twenty pounds of salt. The meat
should then be packed up in piles on plank floor
ing of some kind, and raised off of the ground; a
plank frame or large trough is better. The plat
form on which the meat is packed should be
slanted so as to allow the melted salt to drip away.
In about a week take down the pile, resalt and
replace the pieces in the pile and let them cure
for four or five weeks longer, according to size.
When the meat is again taken up, brush off the
salt and rub we'll with a tablespoonful of mixed
ground pepper-red and black. If you prefer a
body to hold this pepper, use a small quantity of
good quality molasses, we'll rubbed on; then the
mixed peppers. The joints are now ready to hang
for smoking. With large wire needle or small
knife, insert strong Irvine and hang in the upper
part Of the smoke-house, hook end down, and start
a "smudge" or small fire made of green hickory
(preferred), or red oak, beech wood or corn cobs.
Smoke every day for about three weeks, or until
the meat has taken on the rich brown color de-
sired; and your hams are now ready for b%agging:
or if preferred, bagging may be done at time of
first hanging.
To bag the hams, make bags of common I'M
bleached s%heeting; drop the hams into the bags.
hook down, and sew or tie up tight at the top.
Then saturate the sacked hams thoroughly in a
thick solution of ashes and hot water; or as 9th
ers prefer, into lime bath, made up as for white
washing. These dips serve to exclude all insect
pests and to preserve the color and flavor of the
meat enclosed.
It is better to hang the hams in the darkest
part of the smoke-house.
Shoulders and breakfast strips treated like hams
will pay well for the trouble.