Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1879 — A Plea for Bacon. [ARTICLE]

A Plea for Bacon.

I WAX* to urge upon farmer refers the tos of ettnng their pork into bacon, and keeping some of it for their own tables and making a home market for such as they can spare. If they wfal have it on toeir own tables, people unused to 1* may find out its value as a staple artitte Of meat, and' a little sold ink town, will:prepare the way for more MirffftSrii £*ks£ ft not know anything about bacon, and it is tone they has started in oar> local market at six doflarWper Mi-' died, -and will probably run down within two months to four dollars. What nonsense it is for farmers to force their pigs upon such a market Many of them will do R and get rid of their pigs, and because their families do not like pork (pickled pork) they wffl bay beef fattened in Texas or Colorado. This if a sort of economy which is largely practiced in this vicinity. If thO pigs should be killed when they weigh about one hundred pounds, ana the entire sides, with all of toe lean left an* to made into bacon, thb farmer can have in. store aa nice meat and as pala- , table as any beef he may buy, and for the sdrplus he may realise a prioe which will compensate him for his grain and trouble. With the sides made into baoon a pigoan be turned into good account The hams and shoulders make the best of food, and cost toe possessor no extra profits which he has to pay over and above the cost of the beef, besides the freight In Other words, when a farmer buys beef he pays more than twice the cost of the meat to the producer, and when he cures his own pigs into hams, shoulders, bacon and lam, and sells them to the consumer direct he makes toe profit others make out of him when he sells his pigs at the pork prioe, four dollars per hundred weight. When fie sells his pork and buys beef, he loses both ways, and if the extra price he pays for his beef over his pork was subtracted from the price of his pork, he would really get nothing for it; but when he fits it for food so that it takes the place of the beef and he does not buy it, he really doubles its value and trebles ft, as beef retails at an average of more than twelve cents a pound. Pigs mutt not be extra fat to make the best of bacon, and the spare-rib lean must be left on the ribs, the bone must be cut ont, and the sides cut square and smooth; the trimmings can be made into sausage or go with the fat into lard. The first six months is the most growing age for a pig, and at this age they are suitable for thepuqsose. After that they begin to get too thick and fat. Bacon may be cured the same as hams and shoulders, only it does not require so lofcg salting. Usually the salt is rubbed on the pieces, and they are piled up for a few days to let it strike through. Tnree rubbings are enough. It should never 1 be allowed to freeze during the curing, and if frozen it must be thawed out by soaking in water.’ Bacon will take m salt enough, unless the sides are very thick, in three weeks, when it is ready to be smoked. After smoking it may be hung in a dry, cool place or packed in dry salt or in tight boxes. It is always ready for use, and a rasher of good bacon is a treat for breakfast or any meal. As a side dish it has no superior. It may be broiled in dainty bits or fried in more generous slices. It is excellent to flavor chickens or stews, and for a staple meat is far preferable to pork. The black and red Berkshire pigs makefthe best bacon, as they have more lean meat mixed with the fat, the red being the best of the two, as they retain more than the others the old characteristics of the Berkshire breed, not having been made so fine and thick in the body by the so-called improvements.— Cor. N. T. Tribune.