II] OF PIGS 171 



The Gauls make of them flitches of much excel- 

 lence and great size. Their excellence is shown by 

 the fact that at the present time there are brought to 

 Rome every year Comacine^ and Cavaran hams and 

 II shoulders. Touching the size of the Gallic flitches, 

 Cato writes in these terms: *' In Italy (Lombardy), 

 the Insubres salt three or four thousand flitches; 

 the sow gets so fat than she cannot unaided keep 



• Comacinae et Cavarae. Comaci (?) and Cavari were, prob- 

 ably, both tribes of Gallia Narbonensis, as the latter certainly 

 were (Pliny, N. H., iii, 4). But the text here is very doubtful, 

 and Schneider, Scaliger, and others have proposed many 

 emendations with little to support them. Strabo (bk. iv) says 

 that the best hams come from the Sequani, oQtv at KoXKiarai 

 Topixfiai Tuiv vtitjjv Kptatv ftf ttjv 'Pa>/i)/v KaraKofiil^ovTai. Schneider 

 proves conclusively that the pemae were the hind-legs, the 

 petasones the fore-legs. 



This is Cato's (c. 162) recipe for salting hams: "When you 

 have bought your hams, cut off the hoofs. Take half a peck 

 of Roman salt ground fine for each. Lay salt over the bottom 

 of the tub; then put in a ham, the skin-side looking down- 

 wards. Cover it over with salt. Then put another ham on 

 top, taking care that meat does not touch meat. So deal with 

 them all. When you have got them all snug put salt over 

 them, so that no meat is visible, and make the surface level. 

 When they have been in salt five days take them all out, and 

 the salt with them. Then put them in again in reverse order 

 so that those which were before on top are now at the bottom. 

 Cover them over and make them snug in the same way as 

 before. After twelve days at most, take the hams out, rub off 

 all the salt and hang them up in a draught for two days. 0\\ 

 the third day wipe them well over with a sponge and rub 

 them with oil. Hang them for two days in the smoke. Then 

 take them down, rub them well with a mixture of oil and 

 vinegar and hang them up in the meat larder." 



