sheep. 99 



a very moist one, or in some dry room where they will not freeze. 

 Do not let them touch anything. Do not cut them until they 

 have hung at least five weeks, then saw off the neck for a stew 

 or pot roast ; next take the flank and ribs and cut in squares for 

 stews, and so on as you need meat on the table, until when you 

 get to the thick chops and loins you will have a food that million- 

 aires would envy. It will keep any length of time, if you keep 

 it hung up and keep the air fresh. If the inside gathers a blue 

 mould, it will do no harm. Carry the meat out and lay it on the 

 saw horse in the sun an hour if you want to get rid of the mould, 

 or wipe it off with a dry cloth. In this way, all winter long you 

 can now and then have a choice piece of sweet, tender, healthful 

 meat at small expense. In my opinion, mutton is very much 

 better after it has hung about two months. Then instead of 

 the fat being distasteful it is as palatable as butter and will not 

 cleave to the roof of the mouth like fresh killed mutton. But if 

 you lay the meat down or hang it against anything, it will soon 

 spoil. Hung as it should be, it will never spoil. 



Let me give you a recipe for cooking a leg or shoulder. Clean 

 it, but do not soak it. Put it in a pot with water enough to cover 

 it well, and keep a record of the number of cups of water it takes 

 to cover it. Put in a little red pepper, — a pepper of your own 

 raising cut up is best. Let it boil slowly until you think that 

 fifty minutes more will make it tender. Skim off the extra fat 

 so that the water is as high in the pot as when you began, salt 

 and pepper. Then put in one cup of washed Carolina rice for 

 each five cups of water. Do not stir the meat or the rice but 

 cover at once and boil for fifty minutes. Take it hot to the table 

 and serve the rice instead of potatoes. 



Meat of itself never spoils, it can only be assailed through 

 moisture on the outside. Hung where it can dry on the outside 

 it always remains sweet and improves in flavor and tenderness 

 with time. 



