WHERE PIGS IS PROFITS 1OQ 



terly we have had to augment it by cutting up a 

 shoulder, which otherwise makes a good roast- 

 either fresh or pickled or steaks. There is usually 

 as much fresh meat as we can handle in the loin. 



After sausage meat has been ground and sea- 

 soned it can be eaten, as is, in cakes; but it will 

 keep longer uncooked and handle better if run 

 into links. I have never made my own casing be- 

 cause my mother tells me it is a long, hard job to 

 get it perfectly clean, and because salted casing, 

 enough of it to do three pigs, can be bought at the 

 local butcher shop for two bits. The casing is 

 soaked in water, then run on the nozzle of a little 

 machine called a sausage stuffer, and the meat 

 forced into it. Of all parts of the pig fresh sausage 

 spoils quickest, so beyond a week's supply we cook 

 it and pack it down in a stone crock and cover it 

 with lard. That way it will keep all winter. Here- 

 abouts a good many people pickle it and smoke it 

 very good, too but I have never done this. 



Lard is made by trying out the fat over a slow 

 fire. This takes time and, at the start, a good deal 

 of care to prevent burning. When the crackling 

 begins to disintegrate, which is some time after it 

 will actually crackle when squeezed against the 

 container wall with a spoon, the lard is done. It is 

 strained through cheesecloth into a large, friction- 

 top tin and stowed away in a cool cellar. It will 

 keep through summer heat if it has been made 



