86 FORTY YEARS' EXPERIENCE OF A PRACTICAL HOG MAN 



Home-Made Sausage. It is the writer's job to make the Berk- 

 shire sausage at Love joy Farm and in doing this I take much of 

 the choice meat that might be used for other purposes, often using 

 the entire shoulder of the hog as well as all trimmings from the 

 ham, sides, etc., using about equal proportions of the fat meat and 

 lean, although sometimes making sausage largely all lean meat, 

 yet I do not think this gives as good or as tender, well flavored 

 sausage as where the fat and lean are of about equal proportions. 

 We often use. the tenderloin strips also in the sausage meat yet this 

 is almost too delicious a dish, when fried by itself, to be given 

 up by placing it in the sausage. After all meat is prepared for 

 sausage it is run through a grinding chopper and made very fine. 

 We also pulverize sage through this same meat grinder, then 

 flavor the meat with salt, pepper and sage to taste. Dsuring cold 

 weather it is kept in large crocks and cooked as needed. Where 

 large quantities are made to be kept through the summer, it is 

 cooked and placed in muslin sacks of about twelve inches in length 

 and three or four inches in diameter, which are then dipped in 

 hot lard until the cloth is well filled with the lard, then taken 

 out and placed in a cool, dark cellar to be used as desired. 



Curing Thick White Fat Pork. Where one wishes to put up 

 the very thick fat pork for home use, he may cure this by what 

 is known as dry salting. Take a large earthen jar, large enough to 

 hold all one wishes to pack, put a layer of salt in the bottom 

 of the jar, then pack the square cut pieces of pork snugly together 

 and fill all spaces with salt, and a light covering over the top, 

 then another layer of fat meat as before and continue this until 

 all is packed and thickly covered over the top with 'salt. Set 

 this in a cool place where rats or mice cannot get to it, and let 

 it remain, using from it whenever the real fat pork is needed. 



Home-Made Lard. It is best for the farmer to make his own 

 lard when possible for the simple reason that it is cheaper than 

 to sell his hogs on the market and then purchase lard; besides, 

 when the housewife makes lard for home use she knows what 

 she is using. Lard is almost a pure oil of a permanent composi- 

 tion, and moisture and air have little affect on it. Care should 

 be taken to see that the lard is pure, such as the leaf lard, especially 

 if it is to be kept for any length of time. Stone, jars are the best 

 vessels to keep the lard in after being rendered, and should always 

 be kept in a cool, dry place. 



Besides the lard made from the leaf lard, there is much more 

 of the animal fat that can be used for this purpose. All the 

 trimmings of fat from the hams or shoulders, and all the gut fat 

 may be rendered into a good quality of lard. Many persons who 

 do not care for the fat pork, or at least as much of it as is furnished 

 from the fat hog carcass, can use all that is not needed for fat pork 

 for the manufacture of lard. 



A Recipe for Curing Hams. Many years ago, at a show in 

 New York State, a farmer won a $100 prize for the best home- 



