PRESERVATION OF FOOD BY MEANS OF SALT, &LC. 205 



for. When it is ascertained that the cask is in good order, the 

 bung is taken out, and the brine turned in till the meat is 

 saturated and covered : the less brine is required, the better 

 will the meat keep. 



After having allowed the barrels to remain five days, it is 

 necessary to examine whether they are well filled with brine, 

 and if not, it must be added till they can contain no more : 

 they must then be again blown into to be certain that they 

 can lose none, and then the operation is ended. 



Tongues are salted in separate casks. 



The manner in which pork is salted does not differ fi-om 

 that which I have just described as used for beef, excepting 

 that the fat is rubbed less. 



In Hamburg the art of smoking beef has been carried 

 to a degree of perfection not attained elsewhere ; and the 

 smoked beef of Hamburg enjoys everywhere the highest 

 reputation. 



For this purpose the fattest cattle of Jutland and Holstein 

 are preferred, and these must be of a middling age. The 

 meat is salted with English salt ; the stronger salts, as those 

 of Portugal, deprive the meat of its natural taste, and as the 

 process of smoking contributes to preserve it from injury, 

 that of salting does not require so much care. 



To preserve the red color of the meat as much as possible, 

 a certain quantity of salt-petre is added to the English salt, 

 and the meat is allowed to remain in it eight days before 

 being smoked. 



Fires of oak chips are built in cellars, from whence the 

 smoke is conveyed by two chimneys into the fourth story, 

 and thrown into a chamber by two openings placed the one 

 opposite the other. The size of the chamber is proportion- 

 ed to the quantity of meat to be smoked, but the ceiling is 

 not raised more than five feet and a half from the floor. 

 Above this chamber there is another made of boards, into 

 which the smoke passes through a hole in the ceiling of the 

 first, whence it escapes by openings formed in the sides. 

 The pieces of meat are hung up in the first chamber, at the 

 distance of a foot and a half from each other, and a fire is 

 kept up night and day for a month or six weeks, according 

 to the size of the pieces. 



The sausages are suspended in the second chamber, and 

 the largest of them allowed to remain there six or eight 

 months. 



In this process two means of preservation are combined : 

 18 



