Weekly journal-miner., 1919-11-12

Red Cross gathered the women to- gether and left the nucleus of many clubs. There is not neighborhood in Yavapai county but needs some thing of the sort, some excuse and reason for friendly getting together If any woman who IS interested in such things will write to Mrs. Guild, president of the Arizona Federation of Woman's Clubs, at Phoenix, she will receive all information necessary for beginning the work.
 We have a sort of informal, unor- ganized farmers club here at Orchard Ranch; our farmer neighbors drop in and exchange ideas and methods and give us pointers on lot of things. One of them came in yesterday-a young rancher who would make about the liveliest farm club president pos sible-if he didn't live half the coun- try away from neighbors.
 He sniffed the atmosphere of the kitchen--asked if we expected 10 board the Kaiser and his family this winter-and then offered to swap tried and true recipe for Westphalia hams and bacon for the sauer kraut recipe-and a generous sample.
 We were rather proud of that recipe because it is another good native Arizonan, though quite widely copied elsewhere and called Liberty Cab bage." Ii is proof of what variety of good things our Arizona agricul- tural extension service has to offer, for this is one of the recipes which they sent out during the wartime shortage of food. Liberty Cabbage calls for good, crisp cabbage; it IS useless to try to make good food out of something that has begun to decay or is poor to begin with. We were lucky enough to find an old-time hardwood cabbage shredder which cut the heads quickly into thin shreds like delicate spaghetti The cut sabbage was put into clean stone jars and into a small vinegar barrel cleaned and scalded. A pint of saft was mixed with a pint of granulated sugar and a small handful sprinkled on the bottom of the container. The shredded cabbage was sprinkled to depth of six inches in the the barrel, then a tablespoonful of the salt and sugar mixture shaken over and the cabbage tamped down hard with heavy mallet Another layer of cab bage, more salt and sugar, and more tamping, till the container was full. Then clean inner leaves of cabbage laid over the top, clean cloth over the leaves, large plate on top, and to weight it down a heavy rock secured clean.
 The jars should be kept in rather warm place and in about three days the juice will come to the top of the jar and fermentation begin. In cool weather 1t may take longer and if a week passes without this water GOV ering the cabbage add little warm water salted but not briny.
 The characteristic odor, as unmis- takable as that of salt-rising bread, will mark the beginning of fermenta- ton and in about month the cab bage will be ready to eat.
 Most kraut IS salted too much ill making; the method of krauting veg etables looks to their preservation by means of their own fermented liquor not by the salt used, which should be only enough to give pleasant taste. Liberty Cabbage may be packed tightly in fruit jars, when fully rip ened," the lids adjusted as for cold pack canning, and boiled for an hour in the usual cold-pack way, then seal ed and kept indefinitely.
 The "Westphalian" hams and ba- con recipe for which we were very glad to exchange both the rule and a sample of Liberty Cabbage has been tried out by this young rancher and proven exceptionally fine. His home cured pork was delicious ill flavor and kept perfectly. Anyone who has attempted to cure bacon and ham i'll the changing temperature of Arizona knows that it Is no easy work. Often the meat takes a rancid flavor before it has taken salt enough and again the most carefully prepared bacon will dry out until woody and taste less. This method is easy and in sures success.
 This is brine-curcd pork and calls for clean barrels or kegs. Barrels that have been standing full oI water for a long time are not tIt for use as the flavor will ruin the meat.
 Small barrels in which salt meat Is shipped can be gotten of butchers and grocers but do not make the mistake of using d barrel in which fish or tripe was salted.
 Make brine by using two pounds of salt for every gallon of water and for every 100 pounds of meat add 1OI pounds of sugar. A very small quan tity of salepetre is often used to pre- serve inc color of the meat but IS likely to harden and tougher the fiber if too much is put in. The hams, shoulders and bacon strips, neatly cut up, arc packed in the barrel and