K. DOMESTIC AND HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 477 



air. Any vacant spaces in the barrel, after heading up, are 

 to be filled with brine, of one part of the soda salt to three 

 of water. The old pickle may be evaporated to half of the 

 original bulk employed, and recovered for subsequent use. 



For cooking, the meat thus 23repared is to be soaked from 

 twelve to twenty-four hours in tepid water containing one 

 hundred and fifty grains of sal ammoniac to the quart. This 

 salt decomposes the acetate of soda in the meat, forming 

 common salt, and an ammoniacal acetate which causes the 

 meat to swell, and restores to it the odor of fresh meat. It 

 is claimed by the author of this process that, by simply re- 

 moving the intestines, animals may be readily preserved 

 whole. Fish, poultry, and game have been so treated. After 

 salting, meat may be dried in the stove, losing thereby one 

 fourth in weight. Fish can not be subjected to this opera- 

 tion of drying. Vegetables may be treated by this process, 

 but before salting they should be heated until they lose their 

 rigidity. In twenty-four hours they may be pressed, and 

 dried in the air. When used, they must be steeped tw^elve 

 hours in fresh water. 



A necessary condition of the employment of this process 

 is the keeping of the food thus prepared perfectly dry, as the 

 salt is hygrometric, and absorbs moisture from the atmos- 

 phere. 3 A, August 3, 1872, 79. 



KEW PKOCESS FOR PRESERVING MEAT. 



According to the London Athe7icman, Mr. Mariotta has late- 

 ly been calling attention to a new process for preserving meat 

 fresh. This consists in dipping the fresh meat into melted 

 butter and then packing it in salt. The examination of the 

 specimens furnished by him is said to have been quite satis- 

 factory ; but, in the opinion of the Athenceum, it does not dif- 

 fer essentially from that of dipping the meat in paraffine, 

 which answered for a temperate climate, but failed in a trop- 

 ical region. 15 A, December 21, 1872, 1834. 



PRESERVATION OF FOOD BY COLD. 



A hint at what may possibly become an important method 

 of preserving animal and vegetable substances for an indefi- 

 nite length of time, without subjecting them, as at present, 

 to the action of heat, and thereby materially affecting their 



