576 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



fried out from them is much more useful 

 than that of smoked meat. 



If your meat is to be dry salted, allow 

 one teaspoonful of pulverized saltpetre to 

 one gallon of salt, and keep the mixture 

 warm beside you. Put on a hog's ear as 

 a mitten, and rub each piece of meat 

 thoroughly. Then pack skin side down, 

 ham upon ham, side upon side, strewing 

 on salt abundantly. It is best to put 

 large and small pieces in different boxes 

 for the convenience of getting at them to 

 hang up at the different times they will 

 come into readiness. The weather has 

 so much to do with the time that meat 

 requires to take salt that no particular 

 time can be specified for leaving it in. 



The best test is to try a medium-sized 

 ham ; if salt enough, all similar and 

 smaller pieces are surely ready, and it is 

 well to remember that the saltness in- 

 creases in drying. 



Ribs and steaks should be kept in a 

 cold, dark place, without salting, until 

 ready for use. If you have many, or the 

 weather is warm, they keep better in 

 pickle than dry salt. Many persons turn 

 and rub their meat frequently. We have 

 never practiced this, and have never lost 

 any. 



When the meat is ready for smoking, 

 dip the hocks of the joints in ground 

 black pepper and dust the raw surface 

 thickly with it. Sacks, after this treat- 

 ment, may be used for double security, 

 and I think bacon high and dry is sweeter 

 than packed in any substance. For sugar- 

 cured hams we append the best recipe we 

 have ever used, though troublesome. 



English Recipe for Sugar- Curing Hams. 

 So soon as the meat comes from the 

 butcher's hand rub it thoroughly with fine 

 salt. Repeat this four days, keeping the 

 meat where it can drain. The fourth day 

 rub it with saltpetre and a handful of 

 common salt, allowing one pound ot 

 saltpetre to seventy pounds of meat. Now 

 mix one pound of brown sugar and one 

 of molasses, rub over the ham every day 

 for a fortnight, and then smoke with 

 hickory chips or cobs. Hams should be 

 hung highest in meat-houses, because 

 there they are less liable to the attacks of 



insects, for insects do not so much infest 

 high places — unlike human pests. 



Fickle. — Make eight gallons of brine 

 strong enough to float an egg ; add two 

 pounds of brown sugar or a quart of 

 molasses, and four ounces of saltpetre; 

 boil and skim clean, and pour cold on 

 your meat. Meat intended for smoking 

 should remain in pickle about four weeks. 

 This pickle can be boiled over, and with a 

 fresh cup of sugar and salt used all summer. 

 Some persons use as much soda as salt- 

 petre. It will correct acidity, but we think 

 impairs the meat 



WASHING PREPARATION.— Take 



a ^ of a pound of soap, a Jjf of a pound 

 of soda, and a ^ of a pound of quick- 

 lime. Cut up the soap and dissolve it in 

 i quart of boiling water ; pour i quart of 

 boiling water over the soda, and 3 quarts 

 of boiling water upon the quicklime. The 

 lime must be quick and fresh ; if it is 

 good it will bubble up on pouring the hot 

 water upon it. Each must be prepared 

 in separate vessels. The lime must settle 

 so as to leave the water on the top per- 

 fectly clear ; then strain it carefully (not 

 disturbing the settlings) into the washj 

 boiler with the soda and soap ; let it scald 

 long enough to dissolve the soap, then add 

 6 gallons of soap water. The clothes 

 must be put in soak over night, after rub- 

 bing soap upon the dirtiest parts of them. 

 After having the above in readiness, 

 wring out the clothes which have been- 

 put in soak, put them on to boil, and let 

 each lot boil half an hour ; the same wa 

 ter will answer for the whole washing. 

 After boiling each lot half an hour drain 

 them from the boiling water, put them in 

 a tub and pour upon them two or three 

 pailsful of clear, hot water; after this 

 they will want but very little rubbing; 

 then rinse through two waters, blueing the 

 last. When dried they will be a beautiftu" 

 white. After washing the cleanest part 

 of the white clothes, take 2 pails of the 

 suds in which they have been washed, 

 put it over the fire and scald, and this 

 will wash all the flannels and colored 

 clothes without any extra soap. The 

 white flannels, after being well washed 

 in the suds, will require to be scalded 

 by turning on a teakettle of boiling wa- 

 ter. 



