288 MAKING BACON. 



is length of time that produces the result. The meat 

 is to be laid, with the skin side down, in good casks ; 

 the hams and shoulders first, and then the smaller 

 pieces. Salt must be sprinkled over the bottom of the 

 cask before the meat is laid in. At the fourth or fifth 

 day, the meat must be taken up and again thoroughly 

 rubbed with the salt. At this period of the process, 

 some use a teaspoonful of powdered red pepper to each 

 piece, and the whole is replaced, after any bloody or 

 impure brine that may have formed in the cask is re- 

 moved. In about two weeks, the smaller pieces will 

 be fully salted, and should be taken from the cask, and 

 the remainder repacked ; those that were at the top 

 being now placed at the bottom, as pressure will pre- 

 vent the passage of the brine through the meat, if the 

 position of the pieces is not changed. The shoulders 

 will be struck through in about three weeks, -and the 

 hams in four. 



Smoking is the next important part of the business, 

 and should be well done, or good bacon cannot be 

 made. Smoke-houses are usually too small ; the meat 

 hangs too crowded, and too near the fire. The pieces 

 should by no means touch the wall, or each other ; but 

 space for the free circulation of the smoke should in 

 all cases be allowed. The time required for smoking 

 is the same as that for salting, — four weeks for hams, 

 three weeks for shoulders, and two weeks for the other 

 pieces, or middlings. Damp weather is improper for 

 smoking meat, as the bacon, from the dampness that is 

 apt to settle on the meat, acquires a bitter flavor, in 

 some respects like that given by pyroligneous acid. 

 Sound maple chips, or blocks of hickory-wood, are 

 chosen for smoking meat ; though the celebrated Ham- 

 burg hams are smoked with oak-wood alone. The 

 smoke-house should be at a moderate temperature, as 

 that will greatly assist in preventing the appearance of 

 dampness on the meat. Two fires a day, if properly 

 made, will finish the smoking in the time specified 



