258 BEER. 



The above is also an excellent method for curing 

 pork and hams. When hams have been sufficiently cur- 

 ed in this, or any other way, they should be smeared 

 over with molasses ; smoaked sufficiently and suddenly ; 

 the quicker the better; and let them be vvell sprinkled 

 over with slaked lime, and put away in casks, filled 

 with bran or oacs, to keep during the summer. The 

 box or cask in whieii they are put ought to be perfectly 

 tight, raised about 6 inches from the ground, and the 

 bran or oats packed in quite tight. 



By the use of charcoal^ (which is a very powerful an- 

 tiseptick,) it is said, meat mav^e^ preserved froia the rava- 

 ges of all small animals^ andvu%, and sound for any length 

 of time.^ and 'hi any climate. Take a tierce or Ijox, and 

 cover the bottom with charcoal, reduced to small pieces, 

 but not to dust ; cover the legs or pieces of meat with 

 stout brown paper, sewed around so as to exclude all 

 dust ; lay them down on the coal in compact order, then 

 cover the layer with coal, and so on till the whole is 

 finished, and cover the top with a good thickness of 

 coal. 



The use of charcoal, properly prepared in boxes, is 

 of great benefit in preserving fresh provisions, but- 

 ter, and fruits, in warm weather ; also, in recovering 

 meats of any kind, when partially damaged, by cover- 

 ing the same a i'ew hours in the coal. 



Meat ought always to be salted as soon as it is cold. 

 Tendency to putrefaction soon commences ; and long be- 

 fore it is discernible. Salting should precede this ten- 

 dency, and so prevent it ; for salt cannot so effectually 

 itop putrefaction, as it Ccunprevent its commencement. 



BEER. 



Spruce Beer. Boil some spruce boughs with some 

 wheat bran till the water tastes sufficiently of the spruce ; 

 strain the water, and stir in at the rate of two quarts of 

 molasses to a half barrel ; work it with the emptyings of 

 beer, or with yeast. After working sufficiently, bung 

 up the cask, or, which is better, bottle its contents. 



Molasses Beer. Take 5 pounds of'^tilvl'^sses, half a 

 pint of yeast, and a spoonful of powdered giUjger ; put 

 these into a vessel, and pour on two gallons of scalding 

 hot soft water; shake the whole till a fermentation i» 



