236 DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



cumstances perfectly easy. The machine acts as a force-pump or syringe. 

 Its extremity is inserted into the meat, and the handle worked ; the 

 brine, wliich must be very strong, is thnsfoi-ced through the grain of the 

 meat, and it is effectually impregnated with it, and well cured long ere 

 it could turn : there can be no doubt but that this instrument is, under 

 the circumstances described, eminently useful — but it is no less cer- 

 tain that meat so cured is not equal to that saved under ordinary cir- 

 cumstances and in the ordinary manner; the grain of the meat is too 

 much loosened by the use of the machine, and the texture is thus de-» 

 teriorated ; it should therefore only be used when necessity requires, 

 and never by preference^ where the ordinary process can be adopted. 



To extract the superabundant salt from your meat, prior to use, has 

 long been a desideratum. The steeping it in water to which carbonate 

 of soda has been added, is found useful ; so is the addition of the same 

 substance, or of lime, to the water in which it is boiled; so is changing 

 the water, after the meat has been about half-boiled. Sailors find wash- 

 ing the meat in sea-water very efficacious, but I have made the discovery 

 that this object can be attained to a far fuller extent by a very simple 

 chemical process. 



Put your meat to steep in tepid water, and after it has lain in it 

 for some hours, add a small quantity of sulphuric acid. In three or four 

 hours take it out, and wash it two or three times in water; to the third 

 water add a small portion of carbonate of soda. Take your meat out, 

 wash it again, and boil it for dinner. You will find the salt nearly, if 

 not wholly discharged ; but you need not be surpi-ised should the color 

 of the meat be somewhat darkened — the deterioration does not extend 

 farther; the flavor remains the same as when first corned, and the 

 article becomes as wholesome as fresh meat. It is possible that this 

 simple process maybe found useful in long voyages, for a long-continued 

 use of salted animal food, without a free use of vegetables, is found to 

 contribute to the production of many diseases. 



The following communication, coming from a curer by profession, 

 will be found at once interesting and useful : 



"The hog is usually kept fasting for twenty-four hours previous to 

 being killed. He is then brought to the slaughter-house, and dispatched 

 in the following manner : the butcher takes a mall (a hammer with a long 

 handle, like those used for breaking stones on a road), and with it strikes 

 the hog on the forehead ; if he be an expert hand, a single blow will 

 suffice to knock the hog down and render him quite senseless. A knife 

 is then taken, and the butcher sticks the animal in the lower part of 

 the throat, just between the fore-legs. A boiler or tub, full of very hot 

 or boiling water, is then prepared, in which the hog is immersed until 

 the hair becomes so loose that it can be scraped off with a knife quite 

 clean; where there is no convenience of this kind, the same effect may 

 be produced by pouring boiling w.ater over the hog. The hog is then 

 hang up by the hind-legs, cut up the middle, and the entrails taken out; 

 after this, the carcass is left there for about twelve hours, to cool and 

 become firm, when it is fit for boning or cutting up. Sometimes, instead 

 of scalding, the hog is singed by fire — burned straw is generally used 

 for this purpose; and this is called 'singed pork.' 



I 



