Ham or bacon, however well cured, will never be good unless the pork
of which it is made has been properly fed. The hogs should for well
fattened on corn, and fed with it about eight weeks, allowing ten
bushels to each hog. They are best for curing when from two to four
years old, and should not weigh more than one hundred and fifty or one
hundred and sixty pounds. The first four weeks they may be fed on
mush, or on Indian meal moistened with water; the remaining four on
corn unground; giving them always as much as they will eat. Soap-suds
may be given to them three or four times a week; or oftener if
convenient.
When killed and cut up, begin immediately to salt them. Rub the outside
of each ham with a tea-spoonful of powdered saltpetre, and the inside
with a tea-spoonful of cayenne pepper. Having mixed together two pounds
brown sugar and fine salt, in the proportion of a pound and a half of
brown sugar to a pint of salt, rub the pork well with it. This quantity
of sugar and salt will be sufficient for fifty pounds of meat. Have
ready some large tubs, the bottoms sprinkled with salt, and lay the
meat in the tubs with the skin downward. Put plenty of salt between
each layer of meat. After it has lain eight days, take it out and wipe
off all the salt, and wash the tubs. Make a pickle of soft water, equal
quantities of salt and molasses, and a little saltpetre; allowing four
ounces of saltpetre to two quarts of molasses and two quarts of salt,
which is the proportion for fifty pounds of meat. The pickle must be
strong enough to bear up an egg. Boil and skim it; and when it is cold,
pour it over the meat, which must be turned every day and basted with
the pickle. The hams should remain in the pickle at least four weeks;
the shoulders and middlings of the bacon three weeks; and the jowls
two weeks. They should then be taken out and smoked. Having washed off
the pickle, before you smoke the meat, bury it, while wet, in a tub of
bran. This will form a crust over it, and prevent evaporation of the
juices. Let the smoke-house be ready to receive the meat immediately.
Take it out of the tub after it has lain half an hour, and rub the bran
evenly over it. Then hang it up to smoke with the small end downwards.
The smoke-house should be dark and cool, and should stand alone, for
the heat occasioned by an adjoining building may spoil the meat, or
produce insects. Keep up a good smoke all day, but have no blaze.
Hickory is the best wood for a smoke-house fire. In three or four weeks
the meat will be sufficiently smoked, and fit for use. During the
process it should be occasionally taken down, examined, and hung up
again. The best way of keeping hams is to sew them in coarse cloths,
which should be white-washed. If they are to go to sea, pack them in
pounded charcoal.
An old ham will require longer to soak, and longer to boil than a new
one.
Tongues may be cured in the above manner.