276 [Assembly 



Question 2. Also of pork ? 



Ans. Pack with a light quantity of salt say thirty pounds per 

 barrel of two hundred pounds, and pickle with a strong pickle. 

 No saltpeter is required for pork ; repack early in the spring with 

 forty pounds of salt and a neAV strong pickle ; hams should be 

 packed with from seven to fifteen pounds of salt ; the lesser 

 quantity will make the finer ham ; pickle with a strong pickle, 

 adding about a pint of molasses and six ounces of saltpeter for 

 every hundred pounds of ham. All pork intended for smoking 

 should have saltpeter applied to give the lean a lively cherry 

 color ; as also pork packed for the English market, the use of 

 saltpeter being general with the English packers on all descrip- 

 tions of pork. 



Question 3. Is there more difficulty in preserving one than 

 the other ? 



Ans. Beef is more readily cured than pork but is less tena- 

 cious of cure, or more liable to spoil by exposure to the heat of 

 summer. That it cures the more rapidly of the two, is I think 

 evident from the fact that it absorbs or dissolves salt with much 

 greater rapidity. The comparatively open or spongy nature of 

 beef, containing a large percentage of blood and watery juices, 

 readily yields to the action of salt which is brought in contact 

 with every particle of the beef. Pork from Its more compact 

 fiber absorbs or combines with salt more slowly. 



Question. 4. What is the effect of putting too much salt on 

 meat? 



Ans. By hardening or constricting the fiber, the juices of the 

 meat are expelled instead of combining with the salt. The meat 

 is thus left to the caustic action of the salt, and is rendered hard 

 and colorless ( black ) possessing neither the flavor nor nutritive 

 qualities of meats properly salted. Beef always loses in weight 

 immediately after salting, but if a proper quantity only is used, it 

 regains that loss and afterwards increases in weight by absorption, 

 three or four per cent ; if over salted it will exhibit no increase. 

 This is owing to its hardness causing enlargement of the cells,ii I 

 may use the expression, preventing the meat by capillary attrac 



