The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1909-09-01
THE FARMERS, PORK BARREL.
How the Parts of a Hog May be
Saved and Used.

"edlHeT lHdl thelT lieou uSdl 10 Ou
the verge of spelling with an unpleas-
ant odor while cooking. 1t is entirely
proper for merchants and mechanics
to patronize these travelling markets,
because they have not the time nor
the conveniences to fatten animals
and make meats so cheaply as farmers,
says the Country Gentleman. With
farmers the case is entirely different.
They have "byproducts' and things
that will go far toward fattening pigs,
for which products there is no market.
1t is p6 jr financial policy for farmers
to sell hog to the butcher at six or
seven cents pound and buy it back
in small pieces at II or Is cents a
pound. Economical farmers endeavor
TO salt down pork enough in the fall
to supply their families with smoked
bacon hams and shoulders for a year,
The jowls are also better smoked.
There are pieces of lean meat and
scraps that can be made into sausage
to last all winter after butchering. 1t
is not necessary to put the sausage
meat into entrails, which requires
much labor to properly clean nor into
cloth bags as is the method of some
II will keep just as well packed in
small tin basins covered with melted
lard, and kept in cool place. Kept
in small basins, the contents of one
gets consumed before being exposed
long to air. Unless large quantity
of lard is desirable, hogs intended for
family use should not be too large, nor
too fat When at the right temperature
for cutting up (cold, but not frozen),
a hog is taken down and laid on the
chopping bench square on his back
The head Is first taken off by cut
just back of ears and thence down
through the sticking hole to the throat,
and laid aside TO be cut up later.
Then with a sharp ak the hog Is split
down through the center of the back
bone from neck TO tail; but is only
chopped through the bone: the meat is
u
knife. Some people cut on both sides Of
the backbone and take it out by itself
for roasting, like the spareribs, After
being split open, one-half is laid aside
the other kept on the bench. The first
and most difficult operation is 10 take
out the spare rib without making it
too spare, or too generous or spoil its
beauty by haggling.
There are twaBsmall strips of lean
meat along the backbone called the
| ''tenderloins" which should be eaten
| fresh, when tender and sweet. They
are not good after being sailed. There
are two larger strips of purely lean
meat along the back under the spare
| ribs which should be laid out for sau-
sage. When sailed, this meat is coarse
gralne, dry and unsavOry, but in
sausage is excellent. The hams and
| shoulders are next taken off cutting
smoothly in an oval shape to give
them a handsome appearance, Food
| that looks fine tastes better. There is
! great deal in looks to tempt the ap-
| petite or disgust it, We should take as
much pains in preparing our own pro-
| visions with an eye to beauty as if
we intended them for sale. In this re-
spect, our women are superior to our
| men. The trimmings from the hams
and shoulders should, with all the
| neck, go into the sausage The side
| pork, or bacon, is cut in strips from
back to belly about four inches wide,
Western packers cut them wider than
| this, but for farmers pork three or
| four inches is wide enough. The pieces
| are more easily packed when placed
on the edge and coiled around in the
| barrel
The head must be cut up with an old
ak, as the teeth, If hit with sharp
AK, would surely nick it. The iowls
are usually very bloody and should
| be soaked and washed to get the
blood off before sailing, The pork bar
rels, unless new, should be thoroughly
scalded and scrubbed with boiling wat
err before the pork is packed. Pork
cannot be kept sweet and palatable,
no matter how much salt is used. un-
less the barrels are as sweet as if they
| had just come from the coopers.
Many farmers salt the hams and
shoulders of their hogs in the same
barrel with their side pork. This is
not the best way, as the hams and
| shoulders become too salt for eating
and when freshened by soaking or
| parboiling, lose their finest flavor.
The writer packs hams, shoulders,
| iovk and some thin pieces of side
| pork, called bacon, in barrel by it.
| self, putting no salt on 1t, only a
strong brine, prepared as follows For
| 100 pounds of meat, take eight pounds
| Of salt, two pounds of sugar, one pint
| Of New Orleans molasses, and two
ounces Of saltpeter. PulveriZe the salt
| L@.ar, dissolve it in water, and, mixed
with sugar and molasses stir into the
| brine, 1t requires three gallons Of wat
ct with eight pounds of salt to make
the brine strong enough.
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The fellow who is always bowling
about bad business is the fellow who
hasn't much of a business to howl