1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



165 



though its invigorating power is much lower than 

 theirs. 



Within a few years the trichina having infested 

 a number of hogs, which have transmitted their 

 baleful effects to those who have eaten of the pork, 

 has led to much false alarm in the matter. Their 

 presence, however can always be detected in the 

 raw flesh, and thus the evil be avoided. "As 

 "measly" pork they have always more or less 

 troubled the pig-raisers. Small lumps, like oblong 

 white pimples, resembling grains of wheat, scat- 

 tered through the fatty portions of pork, being 

 these pests. No part of any animal where these 

 are seen is fit to be eaten. 



It is good economy for the head of a large fam- 

 ily, who has a garden, or enough yard-room for a 

 pig pen, to buy a little porker in the spring and 

 raise his own pork ; one is sure then that it is 

 properly fed and cared for. Of course this advice 

 does not apply to farmers or farmers' wives, who 

 always have plenty of corn fed pork that is healthy 

 and nice. But those who cannot manage thus will 

 find it for their advantage to purchase half a 

 slaughtered pig in the early part of the winter, so 

 that they can salt enough for cooking purposes 

 through the next year, cure their own hams, make 

 what sausages they desire, and try out the lard 

 they need ; beside supplying the table with roast, 

 or baked, or broiled, or fried, for some weeks. 



The spare ribs of pork are the most juicy parts 

 for roasting ; the chine, having more solid meat, is 

 the most substantial for the same mode of cook- 

 ing ; the upper part of the shoulder and the cheeks, 

 are also suitable for roasting. Steaks for frying 

 or broiling cut from the neck, leg or loin. The 

 legs and shoulders, and the cheeks, may be corned 

 or pickled and smoked. 



Cut the clear pork into strips four or five inches 

 wide for salting. Be sure that it has lost its nat- 

 ural heat before you salt it. Procure a clean 

 oaken, ash or maple barrel or firkin, with a cover 

 and sinker, and stone similar to those used in your 

 beef barrel. Then get half a bushel of rock salt 

 for a hundred weight of pork — a peck for fifty 

 pounds. Scatter enough salt on the bottom of the 

 barrel to make a layer an inch thick ; then arrange 

 a layer of pork ; fit the pieces so that they lie 

 closely. Then sprinkle as much salt upon this as 

 on the bottom of the barrel. Follow this with 

 pork, and then that with salt, till all is packed and 

 the upper layer is of salt. Pour in then cold wa- 

 ter enough to cover it, and place your sinker and 

 weight and cover. After two days see if the salt 

 is all dissolved ; if so, throw in two or three quarts 

 more, for the pork will not keep sweet unless there 

 is a good deal of undissolved salt among and 

 around it. As the pork is loosened from its pack- 

 ing, and thus set floating, take pains to keep it 

 wholly in the brine by means of the sinker, — it 

 Boon gets rancid and rusty if the least portion 

 rises from the brine. It will be salt enough to use 

 in five or six weeks, and will keep years if the 



brine is kept strong by adding salt enough from 

 time to time to keep a good body of it undissolved. 



To pickle hams take for fifty pounds two quarts 

 of molasses, and half a pound of saltpetre, with 

 three quarts of salt, and dissolve them in two gal- 

 lons of warm water. Let it cool, then pour it over 

 the hams in a keg or firkin. If there is not enough 

 liquor to cover them, pour in water. At the end 

 of a week take out the hams and place the top 

 ones at the bottom of the vessel, and the lower 

 ones at the top; and change them thus every 

 week till they are thoroughly pickled — six weeks 

 is the usual time. The chteks and shoulders may 

 be cured in the same way. 



To make bacon of pork or beef, a smoke-house 

 is very convenient ; but they can be smoked just 

 as well in the common fire-place of some unoc- 

 cupied room. Arrange the pieces along the crane, 

 suspending them by stout strings, or hooks, about 

 a foot above the materials to be burnt for smoke. 

 Sawdust and corn cobs used together make the 

 best smoke, and impart an agreeable flavor. The 

 fire should be continued smouldering night and 

 day, for a fortnight or three weeks. At the end 

 of that time take them to a dark, cool closet, or 

 put them in tight cloth bags till they are needed. 

 It is now the most general plan to send these 

 pieces to some establishment where creosote is 

 used instead of smoke for making bacon, and the 

 business is conducted on a large scale. But this 

 simple domestic method is much to be preferred, 

 as you are sure of having your own pork, and 

 know that it is thoroughly cured and preserved. 



In preparing clear pork for salting there is al- 

 ways much to trim off, and also in cutting the 

 hams and roasting pieces a good deal to be spared, 

 which it is well to make into sausage meat. It is 

 a great deal of trouble to prepare the skins for 

 holding it. A much better way — and greatly to 

 be preferred to the method of stufiing it into bags 

 of cotton cloth — is to make the meat into round 

 cakes about three inches in diameter and three 

 quarters of an inch in thickness ; which should be 

 spread on dishes or clean tables, in an airy room, 

 till they are a little dry, and then set away with 

 other fresh meat till needed for the table. 



Sausages are improved by the addition of a third 

 part of beef to the pork of which they are made. 

 Chop it all together till it is quite fine. If frozen 

 a little it will chop easier and more quickly. There 

 is no danger of chopping it too fine ; none of it 

 should be larger than half a small pea. To season 

 the meat, after mixing it well, (adding cold water 

 enough to give it the consistency of dough) stir 

 into ten pounds of the material two tablespoonfuls 

 of fine salt, one of ground pepper, and four of pul- 

 verized and sifted sage. Before making the cakes 

 —they must be moulded and patted into shape in 

 the hands with cold water— it is best to fry a little 

 of the meat to ascertain if the seasoning is right, 

 and if needed to add more. 



To try, or render the lard, cut the flakes into 



