106 



SILK MANUAL. AND 



[From the Albany Cultivator.] 

 PRESERVING MEATS. 



The intrinsic value of salted meats, whether for 

 family use or for market, depends materially upon 

 the manner in which they are preserved. An ex- 

 cess of salt renders lean meats, as beef and hams, 

 hard, tough and impalatable, besides destroying 

 much of their nutritious properties ; while too 

 little salt, or au equivalent of some other a,nti- 

 se[itic, will not preserve them in a healthful state. 

 It is as easy and as cheap to preserve meats well, 

 as it is to do it badly, if we are furnished with 

 good rules, and duly observe them. There are 

 no doubt many rules adapted to this end. We 

 have tried many, and have finally, for some years, 

 adopted, with perfect satisfaction, for family use, 

 the pickle which we give below, for the curing of 

 beef and hams. It is said to be equafy good for 

 pork, though we have not used it for this purpose, 

 us we lay down none but the fat part of the hog, 

 which is not injured by an excess of salt. This 

 has been denominated the 



Knickerbocker Pickle. — Take 6 galls, of water, 

 9 lbs. of salt, 3 lbs. coarse brown sugar, 1 quart 

 of molasses, 3 ounces salt petre and 1 oz. pearlash : 

 mix ami boil tho whole well, taking care to skim 

 off all the impurities wliich rise to the surface. 

 Tnis constitutes the piclve. When the meat is 

 cut it should be slightly rubbed with fine salt, and 

 suffered to lay a day or two that the salt may ex- 

 tract the blood ; it may then be packed tight in 

 the cask, and the j/ickle, having become coid, may 

 be turned upon and should cover the meat. A fol- 

 lower, to fit the inside of the cask, should then be 

 laid on, and a weight put on it, in order to keep 

 the meat at all times covered with pickle. The 

 su^'ar may b^ omitted without material detriment. 

 In the spri;ig thj pickle must be turned oti', b(.i ed 

 with some additional sa:t and molasses, skimmed, 

 and when cold returned to the cask. 



For domestic use, beef and pork hams should 

 not be, salted the day the animals are killed, but 

 kej)t^nutil its fibre has becoine sliort and tender, 

 as these changes do not take place after it has 

 been acted upon by the salt. 



Meat that is to be dried and smoked, requires 

 less salt than that which is to renjaiu in pickle, on 

 account of the preserving qualities of the pyroiig- 

 nic acid, which is supplied by the smoke of the 

 wood. The great art in smoking meat well seems 

 to consist in having the meat dried by smoke, and 

 not by heat. The hams ot Westphalia, and the 

 smoked beef of Hamburgh, whicii are unrivalled 

 in reputation, are managed in this way. The 

 Westijhalian farmers have a closet in the garret, 

 joining the cliimney, made tight, to retain smoke, 

 in which thsy hang their hams and bacon to dry, 

 out of the effect of the heat of the fire. Two ap- 

 ertures are made from the closet into the chimney, 



and a place is made for an iron stopper to be thrust 

 into the funnel of the chimney, to force the smoke 

 through the lower hole into the closet. The up- 

 per hole must not be too big, because the closet 

 must be always full of smoke, and that from wood 

 fires. 



The Hatnburgh method of making their supe- 

 rior smoked beef is this: Fires of oak chips are 

 built in the cellars, from whence the smoke is con- 

 veyed by two chimnies into the fourth story, and 

 thrown into a chamber, by two openings jdaced 

 opposite to each other. The size of the chamber 

 is proportioned to the quantity of meat to be 

 smoked, but the ceiling is not raised more that! 

 five feet and a half from the floor. Above this 

 c'lamb.^r there is another made with boards, into 

 which the smoke passes through a hole in the ceil- 

 ing of the first, whence it escapes by openings 

 formed in the sides. Ihe pieces of meat are 

 hung up at the distance of a foot and a half from 

 each other, and a fire is kept up night and day for 

 a month ,or six weeks, according to the size of the 

 pieces. 



iFrom t'le rariner and Gardeiier.J 

 RIBBON GRASS. 



i^LAiNFiELD, Windham co., Ct. 



Dear Sir: I received a letter from yon, a short 

 time tigo, lequesting information concerning the 

 ribbon grass [Phalaris Americana]. The gVass 

 you savvat Plainfiel l,oii Mr Woodward's farm, two 

 years since, I was informed originated from the 

 ribbon gras:?. It was originally cultivated in the 

 garden for ornament, where it spread, to the great 

 annoyance of the vegetables. Mr W. became dis- 

 satisfied with it, dug it up, and threw it over the 

 wall into the mowing lot, where it continued to 

 grow luxuriantly. Hcing determined to get rid of 

 it, he again took it up and threw into the brook. 

 li was iO tenacious of life, that it seized upon the 

 watery element and spread rajiidly down the 

 brook, so that in a li w years it extended down the 

 brook more than a mile ; its progress towards dry 

 land was more slow, but has eventually spread 

 over a number of acres, converting a bog mead- 

 ow into the best of mowing. Mr Biwjn, who 

 lived on the farm, informed me that he mowed it 

 twice in the season, and that it produc d about 

 three tons to the acre, annually, of excellent hay,, 

 which the cattle consumed with as much avidity 

 as any tliat was cut on the farm. 



'Ihe meadow was so miry in miny places, that 

 cattle could not pass, but the grass roots formed 

 such an imjeuetrable surface, that they could cart 

 over it, in getting hay without ditiiculty ; and, in 

 some places, they entirely united across the brook, 

 forming a natural bridge that a person might pass 

 over. The brook is sufficiently large to o,.erate a 

 cotton factory which has been erected about a 

 mile below. 



