464, QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Junz, 1900. 
The sides or middles, whichever way they are cut, are now ready for 
salting. If the weather is at all suitable, place them in a good draught for @ 
few hours, to harden, before salting. If the weather is warm, and not suitable 
for keeping, of course, get it cured as early as possible. 
The old-fashioned method of curing—namely, putting the meat on a flag, 
and rubbing with salt until the hands nearly get cured as well—is now extinct 
where any weight of bacon is cured. The method (and it is a good one) Me 
use at the present time is to put the bacon in pickle for three days before 
dry-salting. ; 
Preparing AnD Usine THe Proxne. 
The ingredients of a good pickle are as follow, and in these proportions: — 
Sodium chloride (common salt) ... — oss ay thn, 
Potassium nitrate (saltpetre) ... cH AL eles 
Water (cold) i on SH : 2 gallons. 
The above will register with a Twaddles’ hydrometer about 28, which 
gives a specific gravity of 1:14. at ordinary temperatures. If you prefer a sugat 
brine, mix as before, with the addition of 3-lb. of sugar; when the sugar 18 
added the hydrometer will register about 32, which gives a specific gravity 0 
1:16 as above. ee 
The use of a hydrometer in the mixing of brines is of great service, it being 
much more reliable than the old-fashioned method of putting a pig’s foot in t0 
see if it floats. If you are curing the carcass in sides, put it in pickle for three 
days, turning each day. Then take them out, and let them drain a little; lay 
them on the salting flag ona bed of salt. Sprinkle a little saltpetre on the lean 
Rees of the shoulder, then sprinkle salt over the entire side. Let this stay 0D 
or about three days, and then lift up the side, and dump it on the flag; 
afterwards sprinkle salt alone over it, and let it stand from nine to twelve days 
according to the size. A. 7-score to 9-score pig will take about nine days afte? 
coming from pickle; give larger pigs two or three days more, and, after this, 
take out of the salt, and wash with clean, cold water, common salt being nearly 
as soluble in cold water as hot, and hang up to dry for use. 
When middles are salted, put in pickle for two days, afterwards in salt for 
six or seven, take out and wash as before. 
When hams are cured alone, take out the hip-bone, and put in pickle for # 
few days ; then salt for twenty-one days, and place a little saltpetre in the hole 
when you take the bone out to strike the thick part. These methods shoul 
answer pretty well in home curing. y 
The following article on bacon-curing is taken from the Garden and Field, 
South Australia, and is from the pen of the Hon. John Lewis, M..C., who bas 
had a wide experience in curing bacon and hams :— 
CUTTING-UP AND SALTING. 
For many years I have cured hams and bacon, and at the request of many 
farmers I prepare this paper, which will deal with the curing, smoking, 
keeping of hams and bacon. Great care should be taken in cutting the hams 
and hands, as shapely hands always command a much better price than those 
badly cut. he quantities of the various condiments to the 100 Ib, of meat are 
as follow:—Two oz. saltpetre well powdered, 3 Ib. salt, 2 lb. black or dark- 
brown sugar, 1 Ib. allspice, 1 0z. carbonate of soda, mixed together. Rub the 
meat first with 1 Ib. of honey to the 100 1b. Then rub with the mixture, usi23 
about two-thirds of the preparation; then place it in atub or vat with the fleshy 
side up. ‘The vat or tub should be placed in a cool place, with plenty of fres 
air. In twenty-four hours turn and rub again, aH ea a little more of t 
unused mixture; after which turn and rub once every forty-eight hours Oe 
six times, using some of the mixture for each time. It should be packet 
closely in the vat, so as to raise the brine as high as possible. Always keep t 
hams and hands at the bottom of the vat. 
