PORK / 253 



a large extent upon conditions. The brine curing usually 

 gives the best results. 



Dry curing. When pork is dry cured more work is 

 involved, although the actual expense is often much less. 

 Each piece of meat must be rubbed over several times 

 with the dry salt mixture. The most usual plan is to 

 use 6 pounds of salt, 2 pounds of sugar, 2 ounces of salt- 

 peter, thoroughly mixed, to every 100 pounds of pork. 

 The meat is rubbed once every four days with a fourth 

 of the mixture. After each rubbing it is repacked into 

 a tight box or barrel. After it has stayed in the cure for 

 a week after the last rubbing it may then be taken out, 

 brushed off and hung up for smoking, if it is to be smoked. 

 Pork will not dry cure well if the place is too hot and 

 dry, a cool, moist place being much more desirable. 



Brine curing. The only thing necessary is to pack the 

 cooled meat into a clean barrel and pour over it a prop- 

 erly prepared brine. This gives better protection to the 

 meat from insects and rodents. Of course, the brine will 

 have to be watched carefully, and if it shows signs of be- 

 coming ropy it should be either reboiled or new brine 

 should be made. For proper brine curing of pork a cool, 

 damp cellar is best. Any part of the carcass may be 

 brine cured, but ordinarily fat backs and middlings cut 

 into strips or 6-inch squares are more commonly used. 



The time the meat is to remain in the brine will de- 

 pend on several factors, the principal one being the size 

 of the pieces of meat. Smaller pieces should stay not 

 longer than six weeks, while larger pieces may stay eight 

 weeks or longer without becoming too salty. If the 

 brine is not too strong the cuts can be left in the brine 



