SLAUGHTERING AXD CURING 517 



as a preservative. Salting with and without brine are 

 botii popnhir and both are satisfactory. It brine or 

 "pickle" is used, no danger is to be apprehended from 

 insects during the pickHng process; the brine extracts 

 tlie blood and other juices from the meat, which rise to 

 the surface (more rapidly in warm weather), and there 

 decomposing, are likely to contaminate the entire con- 

 tents of the cask, unless given occasional attention. The 

 preventive of trouble in this direction is to occasionally 

 subject the brine to boiling; the impurities will rise to the 

 top, and are to be skimmed off ; in this way the brine may 

 be kept pure, and its strength undiminished, for any de- 

 sired length of time. 



In "dry salting," or salting in barrels, boxes or piles 

 without the addition of water to form a brine, it is of the 

 utmost importance that no chance be afforded for flies to 

 deposit eggs, or even to come in contact with the meat. 

 If flies have had access to the pork it cannot then be 

 saved, unless at once put into brine, or kept in a tem- 

 perature so low the eggs cannot hatch, the latter being 

 not often practicable. 



Pork is cut to suit dift'erent demands and the various 

 uses for which it is intended, but the aim should be, in 

 all cases, to ha\e it in such form as to pack snugly, and 

 never to pack it until thoroughly cooled throughout. 



CURING HAMS AND SHOULDERS 



Fulton, in his "Home Pork-Making,"* gives the fol- 

 lowing directions for the treatment of hams and shoul- 



*H.iitic Pi)rk-Making, by A. W. Fulton, Orange Jiuld Company, New York. 

 124 pp. 



