CUBING BACON. 213 



years as it was when first begun. The sugar is considered to impart 

 a finer and richer flavor than saltpetre, although the latter is most 

 commonly used. There is no reason why both sugar and saltpetre 

 may not be advantageously combined with the salt in pickling pork, 

 as well as in salting beef, for in this latter process there can be no 

 question that a pickle composed of three parts salt, one part salt- 

 petre, and one sugar, is the very best that can be used, making the 

 meat tender, juicy, well flavored, and fine colored. 



CURING BACON. 



Bacon is the next form in which we eat pig's flesh. There has 

 been some dispute as to the derivation of this word ; some authors 

 have suggested that it may be a corruption of the Scotch baken^ 

 (dried,) while others suggest that it is derived from becchen, as the 

 finest flitches were considered to be those furnished by animals that 

 were fattened on the fruit of the beech-tree, and this opinion is borne 

 out by the fact that in the old Lancashire dialect the word bacon is 

 both spelt and pronounced beechen. A bacon hog will in general befit 

 for killing at about a twelve-month old, when he will weigh some 200 

 or 240 Ibs. ; those persons who care most about the hams will find it 

 answer their purpose best not to let the animals be too fat, or so fat 

 as a bacon-hog, and after having taken off the hams to cut up the 

 carcass for fresh or pickling pork. 



There are various methods of curing bacon and hams, practised 

 in the different counties of England, as well as in Scotland, America, 

 and the Continent. We will proceed to describe a few of the best 

 and most successful. 



In Hampshire and Berkshire the practice is to choose a dry day, 

 when the wind is blowing from the north, and kill the hog early in 

 the morning (it having fasted the day before.) When dressed hang 

 him up in some airy place for 24 hours, then proceed to cut him up. 

 This being done, lay the flitches on the ground, and sprinkle them 

 with salt lightly, so let them remain for six or eight hours ; then 

 turn them up edgeways, and let the brine run off. In the mean time 

 take two or three gallons of best salt, and two ounces of saltpetre, 

 oounded very fine, and well mixed together ; and the salting bench 

 being made of the best seasoned oak, proceed to salt the flitches by 

 rubbing in the salt on the back side of the flitch. This being done, 

 turn the inside upwards, and lay on the salt about a quarter of an 

 inch in thickness : in like manner treat ev*ery flitoh. On the third 

 day afterwards change the flitches, viz., take off the uppermost and 

 reverse them, at the same time lay on salt a quarter of an inch in 

 thickness. There will be no need of rubbing as before-mentioned, 

 neither should the saltpetre be repeated, otherwise the lean of the 

 bacon will be hard. The changing and salting should be done every 



