FIG. 13. A CONVENIENT GAMBREL.
GALLOWS FOR DRESSED HOGS.
The accompanying device, Fig. 14, for hanging dressed hogs, consists of a stout, upright post, six or eight inches square and ten feet long, the lower three feet being set into the ground. Near the upper end are two mortises, each 2x4 inches, quite through the post, one above the other, as shown in the engraving, for the reception of the horizontal arms. The latter are six feet long and just large enough to fit closely into the mortises. They should be of white oak or hickory. At butchering time the dead hogs are hung on the scaffold by slipping the gambrels upon the horizontal crosspieces.
ADDITIONAL HINTS ON DRESSING.
Little use of the knife is required to loosen the entrails. The fingers, rightly used, will do most of the severing. Small, strong strings, cut in proper lengths, should be always at hand to quickly tie the severed ends of any small intestines cut or broken by chance. An expert will catch the entire offal in a large tin pan or wooden vessel, which is held between himself and the hog. Unskilled operators, and those opening very large hogs, need an assistant to hold this. The entrails and then the liver, heart, etc., being all removed, thoroughly rinse out any blood or filth that may have escaped inside. Removing the lard from the long intestines requires expertness that can be learned only by practice. The fingers do most of this cleaner, safer and better than a knife. A light feed the night before killing leaves the intestines less distended and less likely to be broken.
FIG. 14. SIMPLE SUPPORT FOR DRESSED HOG.
HOW TO CUT UP A HOG.
With a sharp ax and a sharp butcher’s knife at hand, lay the hog on the chopping bench, side down. With the knife make a cut near the ear clear across the neck and down to the bone. With a dextrous stroke of the ax sever the head from the body. Lay the carcass on the back, a boy holding it upright and keeping the forelegs well apart. With the ax proceed to take out the chine or backbone. If it is desired to put as much of the hog into neat meat as possible, trim to the chine very close, taking out none of the skin or outside fat with it. Otherwise, the cutter need not be particular how much meat comes away with the bone. What does not go with the neat meat will be in the offal or sausage, and nothing will be lost. Lay the chine aside and with the knife finish separating the two divisions of the hog. Next, strip off with the hands the leaves or flakes of fat from the middle to the hams. Seize the hock of the ham with the left hand and with the knife in the other, proceed to round out the ham, giving it a neat, oval shape. Be very particular in shaping the ham. If it is spoiled in the first cutting, no subsequent trimming will put it into a form to exactly suit the fastidious public eye. Trim off the surplus lean and fat and projecting pieces of bone. Cut off the foot just above the hock joint. The piece when finished should have nearly the form of a regular oval, with its projecting handle or hock.
With the ax cut the shoulder from the middling, making the cut straight across near the elbow joint. Take off the end ribs or “spare bone” from the shoulder, trim the piece and cut off the foot. For home use, trim the shoulder, as well as the other pieces, very closely, taking off all of both lean and fat that can be spared. If care is taken to cut away the head near the ear, the shoulder will be at first about as wide as long, having a good deal of the neck attached. If the meat is intended for sale and the largest quantity of bacon is the primary object, let the piece remain so. But if it is preferred to have plenty of lard and sausage, cut a smart strip from off the neck side of the shoulder and make the piece assume the form of a parallelogram, with the hock attached to one end. Trim a slice of fat from the back for lard, take off the “short ribs,” and, if preferred, remove the long ribs from the whole piece. The latter, however, is not often done by the farmers. Put the middling in nice shape by trimming it wherever needed, which, when finished, will be very much like a square in form, perhaps a little longer than broad, with a small circular piece cut out from the end next the ham.
The six pieces of neat meat are now ready for the salter. The head is next cut open longitudinally from side to side, separating the jowl from the top or “head,” so-called. The jawbone of the jowl is cut at the angle or tip and the “swallow,” which is the larynx or upper part of the windpipe, is taken out. The headpiece is next cut open vertically and the lobe of the brain is taken out, and the ears and nose are removed.
The bone of the chine is cut at several places for the convenience of the cook, and the task of the cutter is finished. Besides the six pieces of neat meat, there are the chine, souse, jowl, head, fat, sausage, two spare and two short ribs and various other small bits derived from each hog. A good cutter, with an assistant to carry away the pieces and help otherwise, can cut out from 50 to 60 hogs in a day.
CHAPTER VI.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE OFFAL.
Aside from the pieces of meat into which a hog is usually cut, there will be left as offal the chine or backbone, the jowl, the souse, the liver and lungs, pig’s feet, two spareribs and two short ribs or griskins. Nearly every housekeeper knows what disposition to make of all this, yet too often these wholesome portions of the hog are not utilized to best advantage.
PORK SAUSAGE.
Sausage has formed a highly prized article of food for a good many hundred years. Formed primarily as now, by chopping the raw meat very fine, and adding salt and other flavoring materials, and often meal or bread crumbs, the favorite varieties of to-day might not be considered any improvement over the recipes of the ancient Romans were they to pass judgment on the same. History tells us that these early Italian sausages were made of fresh pork and bacon, chopped fine, with the addition of nuts, and flavored with cumin seed, pepper, bay leaves and various pot herbs. Italy and Germany are still celebrated for their bologna sausages and with many people these smoked varieties are highly prized.
Like pure lard, sausage is too often a scarce article in the market. Most city butchers mix a good deal of beef with the pork, before it is ground, and so have a sausage composed of two sorts of meat, which does not possess that agreeable, sweet, savory taste peculiar to nice fresh pork. The bits of lean, cut off when trimming the pieces of neat meat, the tenderloins, and slices of lean from the shoulders and hams, together with some fat, are first washed nicely, cleared of bone and scraps of skin, then put into the chopper, and ground fine. If a great deal of sausage is wanted, the neat meat is trimmed very close, so as to take all the lean that can be spared from the pieces. Sometimes whole shoulders are cut up and ground. The heads, too, or the fleshy part, make good sausage. Some housekeepers have the livers and “lights,” or lungs, ground up and prepared for sausage, and they make a tolerable substitute. This preparation should be kept separate from the other, however, and be eaten while cold weather lasts, as it will not keep as long as the other kind.
After sausage is properly ground, add salt, sage, rosemary, and red or black pepper to suit the taste. The rosemary may be omitted, but sage is essential. All these articles should be made fine before mixing them with the meat. In order to determine accurately whether the sausage contains enough of these ingredients, cook a little and taste it.
If sausage is to be kept in jars, pack it away closely in them, as soon as it is ground and seasoned, and set the jars, securely closed, in a cool room. But it is much better to provide for smoking some of it, to keep through the spring and early summer. When the entrails are ready, stuff them full with the meat, after which the ends are tied and drawn together, and the sausage hung up in the smokehouse for smoking. This finishes the process of making pork sausage. Put up in this way, it deserves the name of sausage and it makes a dish good enough for any one. It is one of the luxuries of life which may be manufactured at home.
BOLOGNA SAUSAGE.
The popular theory is that these familiar sausages originated in the Italian city of that name, where the American visitor always stops for a bit of “the original.” Many formulas are used in the preparation of bologna sausages, or rather many modifications of a general formula. Lean, fresh meat trimmings are employed and some add a small proportion of heart, all chopped very fine. While being chopped, spices and seasoning are added, with a sufficient quantity of salt. The meat employed is for the most part beef, to which is added some fresh or salted pork. When almost completed, add gradually a small quantity of potato flour and a little water. The mixture being of the proper consistency, stuff in beef casings, tie the ends together into rings of fair length and smoke thoroughly. This accomplished, boil until the sausages rise to the top, when they are ready for use. Some recipes provide for two parts of beef and one part of fat pork and the addition of a little ground coriander seed to the seasoning.
WESTPHALIAN SAUSAGES
are made in much the same manner as frankforts, chopped not quite so fine, and, after being cased, are smoked about a week.
FRANKFORT SAUSAGES.
Clean bits of pork, both fat and lean, are chopped fine and well moistened with cold water. These may be placed in either sheep or hog casings through the use of the homemade filler shown on another page.
SUABIAN SAUSAGES.
Chop very finely fat and lean meat until the mass becomes nearly a paste, applying a sprinkling of cold water during the operation. Suabian sausages are prepared by either smoking or boiling, and in the latter case may be considered sufficiently cooked when they rise to the surface of the water in which they are boiled.
ITALIAN PORK SAUSAGES.
The preparation of these requires considerable care, but the product is highly prized by many. For every nine pounds of raw pork add an equal amount of boiled salt pork and an equal amount of raw veal. Then add two pounds selected sardines with all bones previously removed. Chop together to a fine mass and then add five pounds raw fat pork previously cut into small cubes. For the seasoning take six ounces salt, four ounces ground pepper, eight ounces capers, eight ounces pistachio nuts peeled and boiled in wine. All of these ingredients being thoroughly mixed, add about one dozen pickled and boiled tongues cut into narrow strips. Place the sausage in beef casings of good size. In boiling, the sausages should be wrapped in a cloth with liberal windings of stout twine and allowed to cook about an hour. Then remove to a cool place about 24 hours.
TONGUE SAUSAGE.
To every pound of meat used add two pounds of tongues, which have previously been cut into small pieces, mixing thoroughly. These are to be placed in large casings and boiled for about an hour. The flavor of the product may be improved if the tongues are previously placed for a day in spiced brine. Pickled tongues are sometimes used, steeped first in cold water for several hours.
BLACK FOREST SAUSAGES.
This is an old formula followed extensively in years gone by in Germany. Very lean pork is chopped into a fine mass and for every ten pounds, three pounds of fat bacon are added, previously cut comparatively fine. This is properly salted and spiced and sometimes a sprinkling of blood is added to improve the color. Fill into large casings, place over the fire in a kettle of cold water and simmer without boiling for nearly an hour.
LIVER SAUSAGE.
The Germans prepare this by adding to every five pounds of fat and lean pork an equal quantity of ground rind and two and one-half pounds liver. Previously partly cook the rind and pork and chop fine, then add the raw liver well chopped and press through a coarse sieve. Mix all thoroughly with sufficient seasoning. As the raw liver will swell when placed in boiling water, these sausages should be filled into large skins, leaving say a quarter of the space for expansion. Boil nearly one hour, dry, then smoke four or five days.
ROYAL CAMBRIDGE SAUSAGES
are made by adding rice in the proportion of five pounds to every ten pounds of lean meat and six pounds of fat. Previously boil the rice about ten minutes, then add gradually to the meat while being chopped fine, not forgetting the seasoning. The rice may thus be used instead of bread, and it is claimed to aid in keeping the sausages fresh and sweet.
BRAIN SAUSAGES.
Free from all skin and wash thoroughly the brain of two calves. Add one pound of lean and one pound of fat pork previously chopped fine. Use as seasoning four or five raw grated onions, one ounce salt, one-half ounce ground pepper. Mix thoroughly, place in beef casings and boil about five minutes. Afterward hang in a cool place until ready for use.
TOMATO SAUSAGES.
Add one and one-half pounds pulp of choice ripe tomatoes to every seven pounds of sausage meat, using an addition of one pound of finely crushed crackers, the last named previously mixed with a quart of water and allowed to stand for some time before using. Add the mixture of tomato and cracker powder gradually to the meat while the latter is being chopped. Season well and cook thoroughly.
SPANISH SAUSAGE
is made by using one-third each leaf lard, lean and fat pork, first thoroughly boiling and chopping fine the meat. Add to this the leaf lard previously chopped moderately fine, mix well and add a little blood to improve the color and moisten the whole. This sausage is to be placed in large casings and tied in links eight to twelve inches long. In an old recipe for Spanish sausage seasoning it is made of seven pounds ground white pepper, six ounces ground nutmeg, eight ounces ground pimento or allspice and a sprinkling of bruised garlic.
ANOTHER SAUSAGE SEASONING.
To five pounds salt add two pounds best ground white pepper, three ounces ground mace, or an equal quantity of nutmeg, four ounces ground coriander seed, two ounces powdered cayenne pepper and mix thoroughly.
ADMIXTURE OF BREAD.
Very often concerns which manufacture sausage on a large scale add considerable quantities of bread. This increases the weight at low cost, thus cheapening the finished product, and is also said to aid in keeping qualities. While this is no doubt thoroughly wholesome, it is not in vogue by our most successful farmers who have long made a business of preparing home-cured sausage. Bread used for sausages should have the crust removed, should be well soaked in cold water for some time before required, then pressed to remove the surplus moisture, and added gradually to the pork while being chopped. Some sausage manufacturers add 10 to 15 per cent in weight of crushed crackers instead of bread to sausage made during hot weather. This is to render the product firm and incidentally to increase the weight through thoroughly mixing the cracker crumbs or powder with an equal weight or more of water before adding to the meat.
SAUSAGE IN CASES.
Many prefer to pack in sausage casings, either home prepared or purchased of a dealer in packers’ supplies. Latest improved machines for rapidly filling the cases are admirably adapted to the work, and this can also be accomplished by a homemade device. Figure 15 shows a simple bench and lever arrangement to be used with the common sausage filler, which lightens the work so much that even a small boy can use it with ease, and any person can get up the whole apparatus at home with little or no expense. An inch thick pine board one foot wide and four and one-fourth feet long is fitted with four legs, two and one-half feet long, notched into its edges, with the feet spread outward to give firmness. Two oak standards eighteen inches high are set thirty-four inches apart, with a slot down the middle of each, for the admission of an oak lever eight feet long. The left upright has three or four holes, one above another, for the lever pin, as shown in the engraving. The tin filler is set into the bench nearer the left upright and projects below for receiving the skins. Above the filler is a follower fitting closely into it, and its top working very loosely in the lever to allow full play as it moves up and down. The engraving shows the parts and mode of working.
FIG. 15. HOMEMADE SAUSAGE FILLER.
PHILADELPHIA SCRAPPLE.
This is highly prized in some parts of the country, affording a breakfast dish of great relish. A leading Philadelphia manufacturer has furnished us with the following recipe: To make 200 lbs. of scrapple, take about 80 lbs. of good clean pork heads, remove the eyes, brains, snout, etc. Put in about 20 gals. of water and cook until it is thoroughly done. Then take out, separate the bones and chop the meat fine. Take about 15 gals, of the liquor left after boiling the heads, and if the water has boiled down to a quantity less than 15 gals., make up its bulk with hot water; if more than 15 gals. remain, take some of the water out, but be sure to keep some of the good fat liquor. Put this quantity of the liquor into a kettle, add the chopped meat, together with 10 oz. pure white pepper, 8 oz. sweet marjoram, 2 lbs. fine salt. Stir well until the liquor comes to a good boil. Have ready for use at this time 25 lbs. good Indian meal and 7 lbs. buckwheat flour. As soon as the liquor begins to boil add the meal and flour, the two being previously mixed dry. Be careful to put the meal in a little at a time, scattering it well and stirring briskly, that it may not burn to the kettle. Cook until well done, then place in pans to cool. The pans should be well greased, also the dipper used, to prevent the scrapple sticking to the utensils. When cold, the scrapple is cut into slices and fried in the ordinary manner as sausage. Serve hot.
SOUSE.
After being carefully cleaned and soaked in cold water, the feet, ears, nose and sometimes portions of the head may be boiled, thoroughly boned, and pressed into bowls or other vessels for cake souse. But frequently these pieces, instead of being boned, are placed whole in a vessel and covered with a vinegar, and afterwards taken a little at a time, as wanted, and fried.
JOWLS AND HEAD.
If not made into souse or sausage, these may be boiled unsmoked, with turnips, peas or beans; or smoked and cooked with cabbage or salad. The liver and accompanying parts, if not converted into sausage, may be otherwise utilized.
THE SPARERIBS AND SHORT BONES
may be cooked in meat pies with a crust, the same as chicken, or they may be fried or boiled. The large end of the chine makes a good piece for baking. The whole chine may be smoked and will keep a long time.
CRACKNELS.
This is the portion of the fat meat which is left after the lard is cooked, and is used by many as an appetizing food. The cracknels may be pressed and thus much more lard secured. This latter, however, should be used before the best lard put away in tubs. After being pressed the cracknels are worked into a dough with corn meal and together made into cracknel bread.
BRAWN
is comparatively little used in this country, though formerly a highly relished dish in Europe, where it was often prepared from the flesh of the wild boar. An ancient recipe is as follows: “The bones being taken out of the flitches (sides) or other parts, the flesh is sprinkled with salt and laid on a tray, that the blood may drain off, after which it is salted a little and rolled up as hard as possible. The length of the collar of brawn should be as much as one side of the boar will permit; so that when rolled up the piece may be nine or ten inches in diameter. After being thus rolled up, it is boiled in a copper or large kettle, till it is so tender that you may run a stiff straw through it. Then it is set aside till it is thoroughly cold, put into a pickle composed of water, salt, and wheat-bran, in the proportion of two handfuls of each of the latter to every gallon of water, which, after being well boiled together, is strained off as clear as possible from the bran, and, when quite cold, the brawn is put into it.”
HEAD CHEESE.
This article is made usually of pork, or rather from the meat off the pig’s head, skins, and coarse trimmings. After having been well boiled, the meat is cut into pieces, seasoned well with sage, salt, and pepper, and pressed a little, so as to drive out the extra fat and water. Some add the meat from a beef head to make it lean. Others add portions of heart and liver, heating all in a big pan or other vessel, and then running through a sausage mill while hot.
BLOOD PUDDINGS
are usually made from the hog’s blood with chopped pork, and seasoned, then put in casings and cooked. Some make them of beef’s blood, adding a little milk; but the former is the better, as it is thought to be the richer.
SPICED PUDDINGS.
These are made somewhat like head-cheese, and often prepared by the German dealers, some of whom make large quantities. They are also made of the meat from the pig’s chops or cheeks, etc., well spiced and boiled. Some smoke them.
CHAPTER VII.
THE FINE POINTS IN MAKING LARD.
Pure lard should contain less than one per cent of water and foreign matter. It is the fat of swine, separated from the animal tissue by the process of rendering. The choicest lard is made from the whole “leaf.” Lard is also made by the big packers from the residue after rendering the leaf and expressing a “neutral” lard, which is used in the manufacture of oleomargarine. A good quality of lard is made from back-fat and leaf rendered together. Fat from the head and intestines goes to make the cheaper grades. Lard may be either “kettle” or “steam rendered,” the kettle process being usually employed for the choicer fat parts of the animal, while head and intestinal fat furnish the so-called “steam lard.” Steam lard, however, is sometimes made from the leaf. On the other hand, other parts than the leaf are often kettle rendered. Kettle rendered lard usually has a fragrant cooked odor and a slight color, while steam lard often has a strong animal odor.
TO REFINE LARD,
a large iron pot is set over a slow fire of coals, a small quantity of water is put into the bottom of the pot, and this is then filled to the brim with the fat, after it has first been cut into small pieces and nicely washed, to free it from blood and other impurities. If necessary to keep out soot, ashes, etc., loose covers or lids are placed over the vessels, and the contents are made to simmer slowly for several hours. This work requires a careful and experienced hand to superintend it. Everything should be thoroughly clean, and the attendant must possess patience and a practical knowledge of the work. It will not do to hurry the cooking. A slow boil or simmer is the proper way. The contents are occasionally stirred as the cooking proceeds, to prevent burning. The cooking is continued until the liquid ceases to bubble and becomes clear. So long as there is any milky or cloudy appearance about the fat, it contains water, and in this condition will not keep well in summer—a matter of importance to the country housekeeper.
It requires six to eight hours constant cooking to properly refine a kettle or pot of fat. The time will depend, of course, somewhat upon the size of the vessel containing it and the thickness of the fat, and also upon the attention bestowed upon it by the cook. By close watching, so as to keep the fire just right all the time, it will cook in a shorter period, and vice versa. When the liquid appears clear the pots are set aside for the lard to cool a little before putting it into the vessels in which it is to be kept. The cracknels are first dipped from the pots and put into colanders, to allow the lard to drip from them. Some press the cracknels, and thus get a good deal more lard. As the liquid fat is dipped from the pots it is carefully strained through fine colanders or wire sieves. This is done to rid it of any bits of cracknel, etc., that may remain in the lard. Some country people when cooking lard add a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme, to impart a pleasant flavor to it. A slight taste of these herbs is not objectionable. Nothing else whatever is put into the lard as it is cooked, and if thoroughly done, nothing else is needed. A little salt is sometimes added, to make it firmer and keep it better in summer, but the benefit, if any, is slight, and too much salt is objectionable.
LEAF LARD.
In making lard, all the leaf or flake fat, the two leaves of almost solid fat that grow just above the hams on either side about the kidneys, and the choice pieces of fat meat cut off in trimming the pork should be tried or rendered first and separate from the remainder. This fat is the best and makes what is called the leaf lard. It may be put in the bottom of the cans, for use in summer, or else into separate jars or cans, and set away in a cool place. The entrail fat and bits of fat meat are cooked last and put on top of the other, or into separate vessels, to be used during cool weather. This lard is never as good as the other, and will not keep sweet as long; hence the pains taken by careful housewives to keep the two sorts apart. It must be admitted, however, that many persons, when refining lard for market, do not make any distinction, but lump all together, both in cooking and afterward. But for pure, honest “leaf” lard not a bit of entrail fat should be mixed with the flakes.
A PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT POINT
in making lard is to take plenty of time. The cooking must not be hurried in the least. It requires time to thoroughly dry out all the water, and the keeping quality of the lard depends largely upon this. A slow fire of coals only should be placed under the kettle, and great care exercised that no spark snaps into it, to set fire to the hot oil. It is well to have at hand some close-fitting covers, to be put immediately over the kettle, closing it tightly in case the oil should take fire. The mere exclusion of air will put out the fire at once. Cook slowly in order not to burn any of the fat in the least, as that will impart a very unpleasant flavor to the lard. The attendants should stir well with a long ladle or wooden stick during the whole time of cooking. It requires several hours to thoroughly cook a vessel of lard, when the cracknels will eventually rise to the top.
A cool, dry room, such as a basement, is the best place for keeping lard. Large stone jars are perhaps the best vessels to keep it in, but tins are cheaper, and wooden casks, made of oak, are very good. Any pine wood, cedar or cypress will impart a taste of the wood. The vessels must be kept closed, to exclude litter, and care should be observed to prevent ants, mice, etc., from getting to the lard. A secret in keeping lard firm and good in hot weather is first to cook it well, and then set it in a cool, dry cellar, where the temperature remains fairly uniform throughout the year. Cover the vessels after they are set away in the cellar with closely fitting tops over a layer of oiled paper.
CHAPTER VIII.
PICKLING AND BARRELING.
For salt pork, one of the first considerations is a clean barrel, which can be used over and over again after yearly renovation. A good way to clean the barrel is to place about ten gallons of water and a peck of clean wood ashes in the barrel, then throw in well-heated irons, enough to boil the water, cover closely, and by adding a hot iron occasionally, keep the mixture boiling a couple of hours. Pour out, wash thoroughly with fresh water, and it will be as sweet as a new barrel. Next cover the bottom of the barrel with coarse salt, cut the pork into strips about six inches wide, stand edgewise in the barrel, with the skin next the outside, until the bottom is covered. Cover with a thick coat of salt, so as to hide the pork entirely. Repeat in the same manner until the barrel is full, or the pork all in, covering the top thickly with another layer of salt. Let stand three or four days, then put on a heavy flat stone and sufficient cold water to cover the pork. After the water is on, sprinkle one pound best black pepper over all. An inch of salt in the bottom and between each layer and an inch and a half on top will be sufficient to keep the pork without making brine.
When it is desired to pickle pork by pouring brine over the filled barrel, the following method is a favorite: Pack closely in the barrel, first rubbing the salt well into the exposed ends of bones, and sprinkle well between each layer, using no brine until forty-eight hours after, and then let the brine be strong enough to bear an egg. After six weeks take out the hams and bacon and hang in the smokehouse. When warm weather brings danger of flies, smoke a week with hickory chips; avoid heating the air much. If one has a dark, close smokehouse, the meat can hang in it all summer; otherwise pack in boxes, putting layers of sweet, dry hay between. This method of packing is preferred by some to packing in dry salt or ashes.
FIG. 16. BOX FOR SALTING MEATS.
RENEWING PORK BRINE.
Not infrequently from insufficient salting and unclean barrels, or other cause, pork placed in brine begins to spoil, the brine smells bad, and the contents, if not soon given proper attention, will be unfit for food. As soon as this trouble is discovered, lose no time in removing the contents from the barrel, washing each piece of meat separately in clean water. Boil the brine for half an hour, frequently removing the scum and impurities that will rise to the surface. Cleanse the barrel thoroughly by washing with hot water and hard wood ashes. Replace the meat after sprinkling it with a little fresh salt, putting the purified brine back when cool, and no further trouble will be experienced, and if the work be well done, the meat will be sweet and firm. Those who pack meat for home use do not always remove the blood with salt. After meat is cut up it is better to lie in salt for a day and drain before being placed in the brine barrel.
A HANDY SALTING BOX.
A trough made as shown at Fig. 16 is very handy for salting meats, such as hams, bacon and beef, for drying. It is made of any wood which will not flavor the meat; ash, spruce or hemlock plank, one and a half inches thick, being better than any others. A good size is four feet long by two and one-half wide and one and one-half deep. The joints should be made tight with white lead spread upon strips of cloth, and screws are vastly better than nails to hold the trough together.
CHAPTER IX.
CARE OF HAMS AND SHOULDERS.
In too many instances farmers do not have the proper facilities for curing hams, and do not see to it that such are at hand, an important point in success in this direction. A general cure which would make a good ham under proper conditions would include as follows: To each 100 lbs. of ham use seven and a half pounds Liverpool fine salt, one and one-half pounds granulated sugar and four ounces saltpeter. Weigh the meat and the ingredients in the above proportions, rub the meat thoroughly with this mixture and pack closely in a tierce. Fill the tierce with water and roll every seven days until cured, which in a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees would require about fifty days for a medium ham. Large hams take about ten days more for curing. When wanted for smoking, wash the hams in water or soak for twelve hours. Hang in the smokehouse and smoke slowly forty-eight hours and you will have a very good ham. While this is not the exact formula followed in big packing houses, any more than are other special recipes given here, it is a general ham cure that will make a first-class ham in every respect if proper attention is given it.
Another method of pickling hams and shoulders, preparatory to smoking, includes the use of molasses. Though somewhat different from the above formula, the careful following of directions cannot fail to succeed admirably. To four quarts of fine salt and two ounces of pulverized saltpeter, add sufficient molasses to make a pasty mixture. The hams having hung in a dry, cool place for three or four days after cutting up, are to be covered all over with the mixture, more thickly on the flesh side, and laid skin side down for three or four days. In the meantime, make a pickle of the following proportions, the quantities here named being for 100 lbs. of hams. Coarse salt, seven pounds; brown sugar, five pounds; saltpeter, two ounces; pearlash or potash, one-half ounce; soft water, four gallons. Heat gradually and as the skim rises remove it. Continue to do this as long as any skim rises, and when it ceases, allow the pickle to cool. When the hams have remained the proper time immersed in this mixture, cover the bottom of a clean, sweet barrel with salt about half an inch deep. Pack in the hams as closely as possible, cover them with the pickle, and place over them a follower with weights to keep them down. Small hams of fifteen pounds and less, also shoulders, should remain in the pickle for five weeks; larger ones will require six to eight weeks, according to size. Let them dry well before smoking.
WESTPHALIAN HAMS.
This particular style has long been a prime favorite in certain markets of Europe, and to a small extent in this country also. Westphalia is a province of Germany in which there is a large industry in breeding swine for the express purpose of making the most tender meat with the least proportion of fat. Another reason for the peculiar and excellent qualities which have made Westphalian hams so famous, is the manner of feeding and growing for the hams, and finally the preserving, curing, and last of all, smoking the hams. The Ravensberg cross breed of swine is a favorite for this purpose. They are rather large animals, having slender bodies, flat groins, straight snouts and large heads, with big, overhanging ears. The skin is white, with straight little bristles.
A principal part of the swine food in Westphalia is potatoes; these are cooked and then mashed in the potato water. The pulp thus obtained is thoroughly mixed with wheat bran in a dry, raw state; little corn is used. In order to avoid overproduction of fat and at the same time further the growth of flesh of young pigs, some raw cut green feed, such as cabbage, is used; young pigs are also fed sour milk freely. In pickling the hams they are first vigorously rubbed with saltpeter and then with salt. The hams are pressed in the pickling vat and entirely covered with cold brine, remaining in salt three to five weeks. After this they are taken out of the pickle and hung in a shady but dry and airy place to “air-dry.” Before the pickled hams can be put in smoke they are exposed for several weeks to this drying in the open air. As long as the outside of the ham is not absolutely dry, appearing moist or sticky, it is kept away from smoke.
Smoking is done in special large chambers, the hams being hung from the ceiling. In addition to the use of sawdust and wood shavings in making smoke, branches of juniper are often used, and occasionally beech and alder woods; oak and resinous woods are positively avoided. The smoking is carried on slowly. It is recommended to smoke for a few days cautiously, that is, to have the smoke not too strong. Then expose the hams for a few days in the fresh air, repeating in this way until they are brown enough. The hams are actually in smoke two or three weeks, thus the whole process of smoking requires about six weeks. Hams are preserved after their smoking in a room which is shady, not accessible to the light, but at the same time dry, cool and airy.
THE PIG AND THE ORCHARD.
The two go together well. The pig stirs up the soil about the trees, letting in the sunshine and moisture to the roots and fertilizing them, while devouring many grubs that would otherwise prey upon the fruit. But many orchards cannot be fenced and many owners of fenced orchards, even, would like to have the pig confine his efforts around the trunk of each tree. To secure this have four fence panels made and yard the pig for a short time in succession about each tree, as suggested in the diagram, Fig. 17.
FIG. 17. FENCE FOR ORCHARD TREE.
CHAPTER X.
DRY SALTING BACON AND SIDES.
For hogs weighing not over 125 or 130 lbs. each, intended for dry curing, one bushel fine salt, two pounds brown sugar and one pound saltpeter will suffice for each 800 lbs. pork before the meat is cut out; but if the meat is large and thick, or weighs from 150 to 200 lbs. per carcass, from a gallon to a peck more of salt and a little more of both the other articles should be taken. Neither the sugar nor the saltpeter is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the meat, and they are often omitted. But both are preservatives; the sugar improves the flavor of the bacon, and the saltpeter gives it greater firmness and a finer color, if used sparingly. Bacon should not be so sweet as to suggest the “sugar-cure;” and saltpeter, used too freely, hardens the tissues of the meat, and renders it less palatable. The quantity of salt mentioned is enough for the first salting. A little more
NEW SALT IS ADDED AT THE SECOND SALTING
and used together with the old salt that has not been absorbed. If sugar and saltpeter are used, first apply about a teaspoonful of pulverized saltpeter on the flesh side of the hams and shoulders, and then taking a little sugar in the hand, apply it lightly to the flesh surface of all the pieces. A tablespoonful is enough for any one piece.
If the meat at the time of salting is moist and yielding to the touch, rubbing the skin side with the gloved hand, or the “sow’s ear,” as is sometimes insisted on, is unnecessary; the meat will take salt readily enough without this extra labor. But if the meat is rigid, and the weather very cold, or if the pieces are large and thick, rubbing the skin side to make it yielding and moist causes the salt to penetrate to the center of the meat and bone. On the flesh side it is only necessary to sprinkle the salt over all the surface. Care must be taken to get some salt into every depression and into the hock end of all joints. An experienced meat salter goes over the pieces with great expedition. Taking a handful of the salt, he applies it dextrously by a gliding motion of the hand to all the surface, and does not forget the hock end of the bones where the feet have been cut off. Only dry salt is used in this method of curing. The meat is never put into brine or “pickle,” nor is any water added to the salt to render it more moist.
BEST DISTRIBUTION OF THE SALT.
A rude platform or bench of planks is laid down, on which the meat is packed as it is salted. A boy hands the pieces to the packer, who lays down first a course of middlings and then sprinkles a little more salt on all the places that do not appear to have quite enough. Next comes a layer of shoulders and then another layer of middlings, until all these pieces have been laid. From time to time a little more salt is added, as appears to be necessary. The hams are reserved for the top layer, the object being to prevent them from becoming too salt. In a large bulk of meat the brine, as it settles down, lodges upon the lower pieces, and some of them get rather more than their quota of salt. Too much saltiness spoils the hams for first-class bacon. In fact, it spoils any meat to have it too salt, but it requires less to spoil the hams, because, as a rule, they are mostly lean meat. The jowls, heads and livers, on account of the quantity of blood about them, are put in a separate pile, after being salted. The chines and spareribs are but slightly salted and laid on top of the bulk of neat meat. The drippings of brine and blood from the meat are collected in buckets and sent to the compost heaps. If there are rats, they must be trapped or kept out in some way. Cats, also, should be excluded from the house. Close-fitting boxes, which some use to keep the rats from the meat, are not the best; the meat needs air.
In ten days to three weeks, according to weather and size of the meat, break bulk and resalt, using the old salt again, with just a little new salt added. In four to six weeks more, or sooner, if need be, break up and wash the meat nicely, preparatory to smoking it. Some farmers do not wash the salt off, but the meat receives smoke better and looks nicer, if washed.
CURING PORK FOR THE SOUTH.
This requires a little different treatment. It is dry-salted and smoked. The sides, hams and shoulders are laid on a table and rubbed thoroughly with salt and saltpeter (one ounce to five pounds of salt), clear saltpeter being rubbed in around the ends of the bones. The pieces are laid up, with salt between, and allowed to lie. The rubbing is repeated at intervals of a week until the meat is thoroughly salted through, and it is then smoked. It must afterward be left in the smokehouse, canvased or buried in a box of ashes, to protect it from the flies.
CHAPTER XI.
SMOKING AND SMOKEHOUSES.
For best quality of bacon, the proper meat is of first importance. Withes or strings of basket wood, bear’s grass, or coarse, stout twine, one in the hock end of each ham and shoulder, and two in the thick side of each middling, are fastened in the meat by which to suspend it for smoking. Before it is hung up the entire flesh surface of the hams and shoulders, and sometimes the middlings also, is sprinkled thickly with fine black pepper, using a large tin pepper box to apply it. Sometimes a mixture of about equal parts of black and red pepper helps very much to impart a good flavor to the meat. It was thought formerly that black pepper, applied to meat before smoking it, would keep the bacon bug (Dermestes) “skippers” from being troublesome. But it is now known that the skipper skips just as lively where the pepper is. The meat is hung upon sticks or on hooks overhead very close together, without actually touching, and is ready for smoking.
THE SMOKEHOUSE.
The meat house is of course one with an earth, brick, or cement floor, where the fire for the smoke is made in a depression in the center of the room, so as to be as far as possible from the walls. A few live coals are laid down, and a small fire is made of some dry stuff. As it gets well to burning, the fire is smothered with green hickory or oak wood, and a basket of green chips from the oak or hickory woodpile is kept on hand and used as required to keep the fire smothered so as to produce a great smoke and but little blaze. If the chips are too dry they are kept wet with water. Care is taken not to allow the fire to get too large and hot, so as to endanger the meat hung nearest to it. Should the fire grow too strong, as it sometimes will, a little water is thrown on, a bucketful of which is kept always on hand. The fire requires constant care and nursing to keep up a good smoke and no blaze. Oak and hickory chips or wood impart the best color to meat. Some woods, as pine, ailanthus, mulberry and persimmon, are very objectionable, imparting a disagreeable flavor to the bacon. Corn cobs make a good smoke for meat, but they must be wet before laying them on the fire. Hardwood sawdust is sometimes advantageously used in making a fire for smoking meats. No blaze is formed, and if it burns too freely can be readily checked by sprinkling a little water upon it. This is a popular method in parts of Europe, and in that country damp wheat straw is also sometimes used to some extent.
COMBINED SMOKEHOUSE AND OVEN.
The oven, shown in Fig. 18, occupies the front and that part of the interior which is represented in our illustration by the dotted lines. The smokehouse occupies the rear, and extends over the oven. The advantages of this kind of building are the perfect dryness secured, which is of great importance in preserving the meat, and the economy in building the two together, as the smoke that escapes from the oven may be turned into the smokehouse. This latter feature, however, will not commend itself to many who prefer the use of certain kinds of fuel in smoking which are not adapted to burning in a bake oven.