puerile delusion. 
|{ ero ree 8 Je oo — 6 
308 
always too salt to be perfectly wholesome? The 
use of even this best sort, and especially of in- 
ferior sorts, as a corrector of bile and a strength- 
ener of the stomach at breakfast, is a gross and 
Though a perfectly suitable 
breakfast meal for all persons with whom it 
agrees, yet, in many constitutions, it seldom fuils 
_ to develop sebacic acid and to produce decided 
acetous fermentation. All thoroughly dried bacon 
is more trying to the gastric power than such as 
is ‘green’ or but partially dried ; and a fried por- 
tion of any one ham or flitch—a portion used in 
the prevailing ‘rasher’ fashion of bacon con- 
sumption in towns—is also more trying than a 
portion which is boiled. But, above all, the dis- 
eased and nauseous dried flesh which is hurriedly 
manufactured out of Irish pigs, and sold in the 
markets of England under the name of Irish 
bacon, and often under the names also of Lanca- 
_ shire bacon, Somersetshire bacon, and Yorkshire 
| hams, is both disagreeable to the stomach, and 
_ injurious to the health. A drove of ill-fed and 
hastily fattened swine are landed, half sea-sick, 
at Liverpool or Bristol from an Irish steam- 
| packet ; they are speedily driven across the 
es 
| its abominations. 
_ country, to the certainty of their being fevered 
| or otherwise much injured in health ; and, with- 
_ out being subjected to any restorative regimen, 
| but while they continue half prostrate with ex- 
_ haustion and disease, they are slaughtered, and, 
with the profuse aid of salt, converted into bacon 
and hams. Their flesh, of course, is soft, flabby, 
disgusting, and unwholesome, and cannot, by any 
excess or prodigality of salting, be purified from 
Real Irish bacon, indeed, or 
such as is cured in Ireland, particularly in Bel- 
fast and Newry, for exportation to England, is 
generally good in quality, sound, healthy, and 
tolerably well prepared; and the bacon of the 
best British districts for the supply of the gen- 
eral market—particularly the bacon of Hamp- 
shire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Yorkshire, Dumfries- 
shire, Kircudbrightshire, and Wigtonshire—is, 
for the most part, eminently good; yet, as a gen- 
eral rule, all bacon which is intended for the 
general market, or which is cured in any circum- 
stances with a view to pecuniary return, is both 
worse fed and worse prepared than such as is 
intended for consumption on the spot. The very 
best bacon in England is cured in Buckingham- 
shire, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, and part of Hamp- 
shire ; yet, except in the form of presents, scarcely 
an ounce from these districts ever reaches the 
markets of London. _ 
One great requisite for obtaining prime bacon 
is, that the hog be of an improved breed ; but 
this we defer for consideration to our article on 
the Hoe. Another and still greater requisite is 
that the hog be properly fed and fattened, either 
in a clean sty or upon clean ground, so that the 
| flesh and the lard shall be of firm texture and 
_ agreeable flavour. In Buckinghamshire, where 
hog’s flesh is the only animal food used by the 
BACON. 
agricultural classes, and where the local bacon is 
equal in every excellence to the best in any other 
part of Great Britain—in Gloucestershire also, 
especially in the royal forest of Dean, where 
swine’s flesh is the chief food, and where the 
forester identifies his wealth with a pair of fat 
hogs in his sty and a pair of flitches of bacon in 
his house—the swine feed heartily on beech mast, 
acorns, and the other edible productions of the 
woodlands. But we must reserve this topic also 
for the article on the Hog, and direct our pre- 
sent attention to the third great requisite, the 
manner of preparing the bacon. Yet we must 
be understood, not as interfering with the regu- 
lar ham-curer, or with any party who trades in 
pork or bacon which he does not rear, but simply 
as affording information to farmers and other 
hog feeders, who kill their swine either for do- 
mestic consumption or as part of the profits of a. 
farm. 
In order to clear the stomach of food and the 
intestines of feeces, and to prepare them for be-— 
ing properly divested of all the mudgen lard, the 
animal should be kept from eating during at least 
twelve hours previous to its being killed. The | 
proper method of slaughtering is so universally 
known, that it needs not be described ; and, in- | 
deed, is more properly the work of the village | 
butcher than of any cottier or agricultural opera- | 
tive. 
skin, is to lay the dead animal upon a table or 
broad board, to scald it piece by piece with boil- 
ing water from a tea-kettle or other vessel, and 
to scrape or shave each scalded piece with a large 
sharp-edged knife. In most farm-houses, pork 
intended for home use is merely well salted, cut 
to pieces, deposited in kits, covered with a very 
strong and well purified brine, and kept in that 
situation from a few weeks to two or even three 
The brine should be made sufficiently 
years. 
strong to float an egg, and simmered over a 
gentle fire till its impurities rise to the surface 
and be skimmed off, and ought not to be poured 
upon the pork till quite cold; and if the bacon lie 
in the brine upwards of two years before being 
used, it is superior in flavour, firmer in its fat, 
and more resistive of waste when boiled, than if 
kept for a shorter period. But the general 
method of proper killing and preparing for the 
market is described as follows by Henderson :— 
“ After the carcass has hung all night, lay it, 
upon a strong table or bench upon its back, cut: 
off the head close by the ears, and cut the hinder 
feet so far below the hough as not to disfigure 
the hams, and have plenty of room to hang them 
by. Then take a cleaving knife, and, if you 
choose, a hand mallet, and divide the carcass up 
the middle of the backbone, laying it in two 
equal halves. Then cut the ham from the side 
by the second joint of the backbone, which will 
appear on dividing the carcass; then dress the 
ham by paring a little off the flank or skinny 
HHL SHEE 
The usual manner of removing the hair , 
and producing cleanness and smoothness of the | 
