Year: 1870

1 nave ALREADY 0utllye0 DV SeEeral


years the Biblical statute of ifes limi


tation, and have eaten pork and hams


out Of many strange barrels and smoke.


houses, but never any quite as good as


of my own curing, not even excepting


Westphalia, North Carolina, New Jer-


sey or Cincinnati. Scores Of competent


witnesses who have eaten at my table,


will testify to the same. My mode OF


procedure has uniformly been as fol-
lows:


Before cooking, first make sure OF


your rabbit-that is, see that your meat


is of the first quality. To secure this


begin with young pig. Feed him at
first on milk and soaked corh-and


give the swill to hogs that are sold in


market for the gross and unapprecia-


tive feeders, who dine at Delmonico s.or
the Fifth Avenue Hotel. AS piggy


grows older, drop the milk and give


hard corn and water only (be sure Of


this), and let him have plenty Of room


for exercise. Do not kill him until the


weather is quite cold. He should not
weigh less than $50 pounds dressed, or
more than 200 (the mean is the mark. J.
Let him hang twenty-four to thirty-six


hours, or until the meat is en-
tirely cool, and no longer. Cut him
up artistically, which may be well done
in twenty minutes, and be sure that not
stain of blood goes with the pieces to
be salted. Do not touch these with
water if the pig has been well dressed,
as it takes out the sweetness. Next see
that the barrel is sweet and clean, and
by no means use one in which beef has
been cured, or one which has stood long
in the vicinity Of saltpetre pickle. Now
get your salt-and send to the West
Indies by express rather than take up
with any but real Turk S Island-for it
is indispensable in making good salt
pork. Cover well the bottom of your
barrel with this, and pack your layer
of pork closely. Cover it with. salt
half an inch or SO thick, and pack an
other layer, and so on. Do not
fear that you will make your meat
too salt-for if you bury pound of
pork in a ton Of salt, unlike beef, it |
will not absorb more than the neces-
sary quantity to cure it. When the bar
rel is full put two or three inches Of salt |
on top, and next day fill it up carefully |
and slowly with fresh pure water drawn
from the bottom Of the well-replenish
the water, if necessary to keep the meat
covered, in day or two, and your work !
is done. Pork salted in this way will
keep sweet for two years, as | have
proved again and again, and far exceed
in taste looking and quality, the tiabby,
greasy, soft, potato, meal or still-slop fed
stuff that yon get with chickens at
our first-class hotels, as salmon does
goldfish.


Now for the hams, shoulders and
cheeks; and oh, what cheeks-how de
lcious-exeeeding If possible, even the
hams in flavor Get for these plenty
Of the best Liverpool blown salt, and
about an ounce Of saltpetre to every
ten pounds of meat Provide box, or
a clean floor is just as good, which cover
well with the salt; on this pack layer
of hams in circular form, shanks out,
which cover well with salt-the
shanks need ne only partially COW
cred; sprinkle the due portion
of saltpetre over this carelesslv, 1t
such is your habit, for it will be sure to
equalize itself throughout the mass.
Repeat the LAYERS in pyramidal form,
and treat them all the same with salt
and saltpetre Do not be too sparing
Of salt for the SaItpetre would permit !
only just so much of it being absorbed
if YOU were to use a cargo To pile up |
a good heap in this way will require
ten minutes or less by the watch. |
Let the pile lie just three weeks.


Now comes the smoking, in which !
more than half the secret lies. Of
course you have boarded smoke house,
apart from everything else. Hang up
your meat in this high enough not 10
be heated too much. Avoid the use Of
chips, even hickory | have known
some graceless scamps to use damp
chips, and even log-wood chips from the
dye-rat, to smoke both meat and fish
because, forsooth, they make the most
smoke. Such men should be com
PEELED by statute law to live on fish
and bacon of their own curing.
| could wish nobody worse pun
ishment. Fresh clean corn-cobs shonld
be used for smoke, and nothing else;
and if there is here and there scatter
ing grain of corn on them, all the bet
ter. Make two fires day only, one i'll
the morning and one in the evening, so
that the meat may cool off between
spells. Continue this course for three
or four weeks, and you will have more
delicious hams (and of what a color ,
than ever were or can be made in West
phalia, for the simple reason, if no
other, that nothing but hard Indian
corn will make good bacon and nothing
but corn-cobs is fit to smoke it with.


Vaucluse. r. |. T. R. H