| reach within 23 or 3 feet of the floor; 
BACON. 
part, so as to shape it with a half round point, 
clearing off any top fat that may appear. Next 
take off the sharp edge along the backbone with 
the knife and mallet, and slice off the first rib 
next the shoulder, where he will perceive a bloody 
vein, which you must take out, for if it is left in, 
that part is apt to spoil. The corners must be 
squared off where the ham was cut out. In kill- 
ing a number of swine, what sides you may have 
dressed the first day lay upon some flags or boards, 
piling them up across each other, and giving each 
flitch a powdering of saltpetre, as it opens the 
pores of the flesh to receive the salt, and besides 
_ gives the ham a pleasant flavour, and makes it 
more juicy. et them lie in this state about a 
week, then turn those on the top undermost, 
| giving them a fresh salting. After lying two or 
| three weeks longer, they may be hung up to dry 
| in some chimney or smokehouse. 
Or, if the 
curer chooses, he may turn them over again, 
|} without giving them any more salt; in which 
' state they may lie for a month or two without 
catching any harm, until he has convenience for 
drying them.” But the flitches, while being 
salted, should be laid with the rind underneath, 
_and placed in such a position, either upon a gut- 
tered tray oran inclined plane, as to allow the brine 
to run from them. A smokehouse is, in general, 
a mere hut, about seven feet high, and so closed 
on all sides as to cause all the smoke to ascend 
by a small hole in the roof; the fuel is saw-dust 
| spread to the depth of five or six inches over the 
whole of the floor; the fire is a slow, smoulder- 
ing, and inflaming combustion, equally supported 
| throughout day and night; the flitches and hams 
are well rubbed with bran, and suspended from 
the roof or from cross-bars at such a height as to 
flitches 
are hung with the neck downward, and are 
usually well enough, and without much loss of 
weight, dried and smoked in a fortnight; and 
the hams, if thoroughly prepared to combine 
luxury with nutriment, require to be smoked for 
a considerably longer period, and lose one-seventh 
| or one-sixth of their weight. A very small smoke- 
house will serve for a large number of hogs, and 
can be both constructed and maintained for a 
trifling expense. But whenever wood fuel is 
used in the farmhouse or the cottage, the drying 
and smoking are usually effected by suspension 
in the chimney; and the use of oaken billets and 
oaken brushwood, in particular, is said to impart 
a very superior dest 
The bacon and hams of Buckinghamshire, 
which have the reputation of being the best in 
Great Britain, are prepared according to a dif- 
ferent method from Henderson’s. The carcass, 
instead of being scalded and shaven, is divested 
of its hair by singeing with straw amd scraping. 
The head, the tongue, the chines, and the 
shoulders, are salted in the ordinary manner of 
salting meat; and the flitches and the hams are 
placed respectively apart for separate treatment. 
309 
Two ounces of finely pulverized saltpetre are 
well rubbed over each flitch, especial care being 
used to apply a larger quantity to the parts 
whence the ham and the shoulder have been re- 
moved; the flitches are then placed, during ten 
or twelve hours, upon the salting form; a mix- 
ture of seven pounds of salt and a pound anda 
quarter of coarse moist sugar, is heated in a 
frying-pan, and so stirred as to attain an uniform 
temperature ; the flitches are rubbed all over 
with this mixture in as hot a state as the hand |. 
can possibly bear it; they are then placed, the 
one upon the other, in a salting-pan, when the 
brine immediately begins to form; they are well 
basted and rubbed with the brine and turned 
twice a-week, the under flitch being placed up- 
permost at every turning; and at the end of four 
weeks, they are hung up to dry, and afterwards 
smoked. The two hams are cured simultaneously 
with the flitches. Each ham, like each flitch, 
is well rubbed with two ounces of finely pulver- 
ized saltpetre; it is then placed, during ten or 
twelve hours, in a separate dish, with the rind or 
back part downward ; it is next rubbed with a hot 
mixture of salt and sugar, in the same manner as 
the flitches, with the simple difference that only 
four pounds of salt are mixed with the 14+ pound 
of sugar for the hams; it is then put into a salt- 
ing-pan to make its own brine; it is rubbed and 
basted with the brine and turned every day dur- 
ing five weeks; and is then hung up to dry, and 
is afterwards smoked. The two brines may now 
be mixed with each other, and with half a pound 
of moist sugar, and may be boiled, skimmed, and 
cooled, as a preparing brine for a further inser, | 
A number of neats’ tongues, salted during twenty- 
four hours to make them disgorge, and a number | 
of sheep’s, hogs’, and deer’s tongues, previously 
put in salt for a few hours, may be immersed and 
digested in this general brine for three weeks, 
preparatory to their being either immediately 
taken to the table, or to their being dried and | 
smoked. The flitches and the hams are sus- 
pended on nails or on a bacon-rack in the ceiling 
of the kitchen, till they are externally quite dry, 
and have their remaining pickle crystallized upon 
their surface ; and they are then hung in the 
chimney to undergo the action of the smoke from 
the wood fires. A considerable degree of the 
peculiar excellency of Buckinghamshire bacon is 
thus dependent on the method of curing; but 
much also arises from the domestic use of wooden 
fuel, and still more from feeding in the woodlands, 
and from cleanliness, nicety, and attentiveness of 
management. 
In Hampshire, the method of curing is very 
similar to that in Buckinghamshire, with this 
difference, that, for the flitches, four pounds of 
white and two pounds of bay salt are mixed with 
two pounds of coarse brown sugar and four ounces 
of sal prunella, and, for the hams, two pounds of 
white and one pound of bay salt are mixed with 
two pounds of brown sugar and three ounces Sat 
ple eee 
i 
~~ 
