A MANUAL ON THE HOG. 71 



If properly prepared, it will last, entirely sweet, for 

 more than a year. Baked with white beans, it makes a 

 delicious winter dish, and cannot be distinguished from 

 fresh shoat. For frying, it is very economical, superior 

 to lard, and helps greatly a short supply of the latter. 



The housekeeper who once enjoys the economy and 

 convenience of one or two hundred pounds of family 

 pickled pork, will never be without it. It has no rela- 

 tions to the pickled, or salt pork of the West. It is an 

 extremely delicate article. In five or six weeks after 

 the brine is poured on, it will be ready for use." 



The alum salt is known in our markets, also, as Turk's 

 Island salt, is made by the slow process of solar evapora- 

 tion, and is much stronger than Liverpool, or the finer 

 grades. 



COOKING PORK AND BACON. 

 The great desideratum in cooking pig, shoat, pork, or 

 bacon is to have it well done. It is disgusting to one Very 

 fond of good ham to have it brought upon the table half 

 cooked. A sucking pig, well roasted, while seemingly a 

 waste, costs very little, and makes a dish fit for an epicure. 

 Perhaps the best dish that can be placed before one fond 

 of good living is barbecued shoat. It should not be over 

 fat, but moderately so, and should weigh from fifteen to 

 thirty pounds. The pig should be dressed the night be- 

 fore, or very early in the morning of the day on which it is 

 to be used. The following is the manner of preparing this 

 delicious dish : Dig out a pit in the ground, a foot deep, 

 and of length and width to suit the size of the carcass ; lay 

 sticks of wood an inch and a- half in diameter across the pit 

 and, from a fire of green wood or oak bark near by, keep 

 in the bottom of the pit a constant supply of live coals, to 

 keep up a slow, moderate heat. Dress the shoat in the 

 usual way, remove" the head and feet, cut the ribs on each 

 side ot the back bone, and chop asunder the hip bones, so 

 that the carcass may be spread out flat upon the sticks. 



