Rensselaer Republican, Volume 12, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 November 1879 — How to Cure Hams and Bacon. [ARTICLE]

How to Cure Hams and Bacon.

There are different methods of caring bacon and hams. The essential thing is to have the meat absorb a sufficient amount of salt to prevent putrefaction. This is the science at preserving meat, and salt produces this chemical effect. -If there is too much salt, the meat is rendered tough and hard and unpalatable, while at the same time enough salt must be used to insure the preserving of the meat. The common and a safe method is to make a brine strong enough to swim a ham or float a potato, ana immerse the meat In this until enough salt is absorbed. For hams of the average size twenty-five days is long enough to leave them in this pickle. Large hams should be left from a full month to six weeks, according to size. The relative proportions for making the brine are six pounds of salt for every hundred pounds of meat, with a fourth of a pound of saltpeter. The saltpeter is put in to preserve the red and fresh color of the meat, and it is also beneficial to arrest and prevent putrefaction. It is a dangerous thing to use, and no larger quantity should ever be put into the mixture than onefourth of a pound for one hundred pounds of meat, or else the persons who eat the meat may he injured, as saltpeter is destructive to the ooats of the stomach. On this account, some careful people do not use it; but the hams of commerce are impregnated with it, and it is this which gives them their rosy and fresh appearance. Brine can be made by pouring cold water upon the salt and letting it slowly dissolve; or it may be made much sooner by using bouing water. Care must always be had, in curing meat, in any form or by any method, that it is not frozen, as frozen meat will not absorb either salt or brine. The meat will often freeze in the brine when the brine is not frozen, and when in this condition it will not cure.

Bacon is usually cured by dry salting —that is, it is not put into a pickle; but the salt is put on the surface and allowed to penetrate, which it will do. Six pounds of salt to 100 pounds of bacon is also the rule, with the one-fourth of a pound of salueter made fine And mixed with it. Hams can be cured the same way. The pieces of bacon are first washed with brine, to moisten the surface, and then the salt is sprinkled on and the pieces are piled one above he other, as high as convenient. Weting the surface with brine makes the salt stick to the meat, aud, as it gathers dampness from the meat, it soon melts or dissolves, and is taken off by the meat. The pieces should remain for eight days undisturbed after the salt is put on. and at the end of this time they should be sprinkled again. If the bacon is light and thin, by this time it will be salt enough; but if it is thick and heavy, it should be treated again and left a week longer. When suffi.ciently cured, the meat will be dry on the surface, or, at all events, not slimy and wet. It is an easy matter to test the degree of saltness by tasting the meat raw or by cooking a small piece. The hams or pieces of bacon should be washed in warm water, to make them look neat and clean, before being smoked. When the meat is found to be frozen, which may be known by running a sharp iron through it, it must be thrown into fresh water. When cured in the summer-time, the salt is rubbed into the bacon to insure its active absorption. This is not necessary in cold weather, as the low temperature will arrest putrefaction until the salt has taken effect, Molasses and sugar are often added to the salt or mixed with the pickle, to impart a sweet taste to the meat. To get just the right degree of saltness to meat, so as to insure its preservation and at the same time not have it too salt, requires experience and skill—at least, to £et it perfect. One dealer used to pack is hams in tight barrels and fi’l them half full of brine, and then turn them down on the sides every day, rolling them over. This plan kept the hams in the brine half of the time, and had the effect of making them softer and more popular.' This was his secret; and others have modes differing, which each one claims to be supenor and which makes his wares preferable to others. Close observation and experience will enable any one to secure success. If meat is to be kept a long time, it requires more salt, as the action of the air upon it will draw out a portion of the salt. Many dealers have a special trade, and fit their meat to suit the taste of their customers and adapt it to the conditions required. Bacon—that is, the sides of a nig—is not generally used by farmers in the North in this form, but as pork, kept in pickle* When cured and smoked, these parts of a pig are more palatable and decidedly more fashionable. A breakfast on bacon is considered recherche, while a plate of pork is styled vulgar or common. At all events, bacon would make a change now and then for farmers, and, for breakfast or as a side-dish for dinner, help the* good. housewife to make her table more attractive. All of the lean on the sides should be left on, as it makes the bacon much better. Bacon is improved, like other meats, by being broiled. Pigs weighing not more than forty pounds, when dressed, make choice bacon, which will sell for twice as much as the pork will bring. This is the minimum weight, while larger ones may be used in the same way with more profit than to go into pork.- N. Y. Tribune.

—ln 1798 a worthy Parisian bourgeois, after dining at a restaurant, set out for a walk to Montmartre. No one was then allowed to leave the city without presenting his carte de surete, on which his personal appearance was described, as in a modern passport, a regulation of which the worthy bourgeois was unaware; so when at the barriers the guard asked him for his carte, though surprised at the nature of the request, he, like a docile Parisian, pulled out the carte of his dinner. “ ‘Calf’s head,’ ” said the official, reading, and glancing at the bearer; “well, that’s accurate enough, but not especially polite. ‘Pig’s feet’—the citizen that drew up this passport was drunk! ‘ Breast of veal, stuffed ril bet a ream of assignats he was. ‘Legof mutton’—citizen, pass on! I don’t precisely understand this passport, but you are evidently a harmless individual. Vive la Republiqtie /” —A man can never pass around a on the sidewalk without kicking it; yet a hat mav be passed around in a church aisle, and everybody will feel obliged to put money in it and treat it respectfully. It all depends upon the style and location of the hat.— N. 0, picayune.