THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[January 30. 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 
SALTED MEATS. 
By the Authoress of 
Bacon is so useful, nutritious, ami economical as food, 
that it is desirable to know how best to keep it; for it is 
often infected with insects called hoppers, and acquires a 
rusty taste also, if not properly managed. Bacon should be 
kept in a box or chest among finely sifted, clean and dry 
wood-ashes. A layer of these should be placed at the 
bottom, and between each flitch more ashes should be 
thickly strewed; and six or eight inches in depth should be 
put over the top of all. Malt dust may also be used. The 
j great point is to keep the air completely away from the 
bacon, as well as the flies. If the ashes get damp, as they 
will do sometimes, they should be taken out and well dried 
near the fire. This plan will keep the bacon perfectly 
j sweet and fresh, which will not be the case for any length 
of time if exposed to the air. Hams, or gammons, or 
' small portions of bacon may be covered with coarse linen 
cloth, stitched neatly and closely on—the cloth should then 
be white-washed all over, and suffered to get dry, when 
another coat should be laid on, and this method repeated 
four or five times in all, allowing each coat to dry before the 
next is laid on. This effectually prevents the attack of 
hoppers ; and is the plan in America, where the summers are 
very hot. Without such precautions, great waste and injury 
takes place both in bacon and hams, <fcc.; and nothing is so 
unpleasant as strong rusty bacon. It is cut away, and 
wasted, and what is even eatable is not good. The chest 
where the bacon is kept in ashes, &c., should be in a dry 
place. 
Hams are extravagant eating for those who have little to 
live upon. A good piece of gammon is cheaper far, and 
quite as good. If bacou is used at home, the hams would 
be more profitably left on the side, than cut off and cured as 
a delicacy. 
Very fat parts of beef and mutton may be salted and 
smoked like bacon, and will keep a long time. The lean of 
beef will not be good, and should not be used, only the fat. 
Pickled pork aud beef are excellent and economical for 
family use; but they should never be salted, which makes 
meat hard, unpalatable, and very unwholesome. The fol¬ 
lowing recipe is most excellent, and no family should be 
without it:—Boil up as much water as is required for the 
pickle, and to two gallons add when boiling, one pound of 
salt: if less water, less salt in proportion. After the salt is 
added, let the mixture boil up agaiu, and then put into it, a 
middle-sizedpotatoe, with the skin on. If it sinks, take it out, 
and add a little more salt, boil the mixture up again, taking 
oft’ whatever scum rises to the surface. Try the potatoe again, 
and when it floats, there is salt enough in the pickle. Till 
the potatoe floats, salt must very gradually be added, and 
the trial made every time the pickle boils up; but the 
potatoe must on no account be kept swimming all the time. 
In my first blundering attempt, I kept, the potatoe in the water; 
and heaped in the salt, till the potatoe itself was boiled, the 
pickle more briny than the sea, and my labour of many 
hours after all was a total failure. The pickle must be well 
stirred when salt is put in, or it will sink to the bottom. 
When the scum has ceased to rise, the pickle must be put 
into a vessel to cool; when quite cold, the pork, Ac., may be 
put into it, but not until the meat is completely drained, so 
that it may not in the least discolour the pickle, which 
should be as clear as pure water. This method of preserv¬ 
ing meat is superior to any other; it never becomes salt and 
hard, and will be as juicy ami fresh at the end of six weeks 
j as if it had been in only one. It must be constantly looked 
| at, and the hand put into it, to see if the colour is clear; as if 
j any redness tinges the pickle, it must be thrown away, and a 
fresh quantity made; and the meat must be well drained and 
put into it. Sometimes the pickle will be very clear, and yet 
a scum will have settled on the surface. In this case, pour 
off the pickle, after taking off the scum, and boil it up again 
with a little more salt, test it with a potatoe, slum, let it 
grow cold, and pour it again over the joints. A wooden 
“ M ij Flowers," Ac. 
pickling tub, or small cask, is convenient for this purpose, ; 
particularly the former, which is made larger at the bottom 
than at the top. A pan however will do, if a wooden vessel is 
not to be had ; for they are expensive to buy, aud when not 
in use must be carefully attended to. Joints of mutton may j 
be put into this pickle, if not wanted immediately, and they 
are very delicate. It is most convenient on this account, [ 
especially in the country, where a butcher’s shop is at some 
distance, for meat will never be salt in this way. A small I 
bit of pickled pork or mutton, with vegetables and a simple 
pudding, is an admirable dinner at any time, and it is a great 
comfort to an economical housekeeper to have a reserve of 
this kind to go to occasionally. Sailed meat must be soaked 
for horns before it can be dressed, and then it is quite indi¬ 
gestible and distracts one with thirst, but the “ Guernsey 
Pickle ” for meat prevents every inconvenience. 
I have known joints of meat preserved for a time, by being 
buried in dry salt, and have been told that they keep almost 
like fresh meat; but never having tasted it, I cannot speak 
from my own observation. I have no reason, however, to 
doubt the authority of my informant. But the pickle I can 
confidently recommend. 
A very small piece of fat pork makes an excellent pea 
soup, and may either be taken out of the soup and sent up 
by itself, or cut into small pieces and served up in the tureen. 
The first day that pea-soup is made, it may be sent up with 
the peas in it, and strained afterwards. It is not so refined 
a way to serve it, but it is extremely good, and goes farther 
too, which is a recommendation to some of my readers. 
It is a great mistake to suppose pea-soup cannot be made 
without meat, although it is certainly an improvement. 
Very excellent soup may he made simply with water, aud I 
do not think that a better dinner need be provided than a 
good tureen of pea-soup, with potatoes, or parsnips, or both, 
to eat with it. They give it solidity, and make a most com¬ 
fortable meal for high aud low, whose means admit not of 
luxuries. Aud better would it be for those who are rich in 
this -world, if they lived upon simpler fare. Their own 
health would be sounder, and they might bring down a fuller 
blessing upon their store, by giving yet more abundantly to 
those who need. I will venture to say, that on a dying couch 
there are few things upon which we shall look back with less 
satisfaction than upon that which we have eaten. 
ALLOTMENT FARMING FOR FEBRUARV. 
In the January advice we adverted to “ mixed cropping,” 
promising to enter into particulars in a future paper. Such, 
to lie of service, must be entered into forthwith, for the 
advent of February is, at least, a signal for all those who 
have to do with the soil, to have all things in readiness. 
There are two very important reasons why mixed cropping 
frequently becomes expedient. The first is, that by it a greater 
amount of produce can assuredly be obtained; providing, as 
was before observed, the cultivator, following such policy, 
takes care to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the I 
habits of growth of the respective crops, as well as the amount 
of light absolutely necessary for each, and their times of ma¬ 
turation ; or, at least, the period when any given crop, 
although not quite ready for removal, will endure the partial 
shade of an advancing crop. The second reason is, that by 
the occasional practice of mixed cropping, a greater variety 
of green or root crops may be indulged in than by the un¬ 
mixed system,—and this is a thing of no mean import to 
those who, holding but a limited portion of land, can afford 
to indulge in some vegetable luxuries, and desire, as much 
as possible, to combine “ the useful and the sweet," the 
greatest amount of profit with the greatest amount of culi¬ 
nary accommodations. Amongst the latter class, we may 
mainly reckon our amateur friends, many of whom we learn 
are extremely well disposed towards our labours, and who 
