This treatise comprises light and heavy salting, saccharine and
muriatic preservative fluids, drying by gentle heat and air currents,
smoking with woods, peat and turfs, marinating of fish and bucaning[A]
of meats, and the whole processes of potting, preserving, and pickling.
That there exists a necessity for such a work as this, is but too
evident from the disappointments experienced every summer, not only
by those who purchase at the shops, but the heads of families, who,
replenishing their store-rooms annually, reasonably expect that every
article, when produced at table, will meet its meed of praise.
Hams, hung meats, cured tongues, &c., as well as the more expensive
sorts of fish, as smoked and kippered salmon, are often so loaded with
salt as to be hard, tough, and barely eatable; and, on the other hand,
are often found in a state of slow decomposition, unwholesome and
disgustful.
To obtain perfection in this art, much more depends upon the fuel
made use of than is generally supposed, and I have herein adapted the
different sorts of wood, &c., to the particular articles to be acted
upon.
To render this manual available to all classes of society, from
the butteries of the nobility to the more humble cupboard of the
tradesman, as also to the proprietors of Italian warehouses, of hotels,
refreshment-rooms, and to fishmongers, pastrycooks, &c. &c., I have
laid down rules and receipts in intelligible language and arrangement,
and I trust that there is not a single instance in the whole of these
pages, where any noxious or deleterious ingredients are recommended to
be used, and by which the stomach and system are made to suffer to
please the eye and the palate.
Instructions for an exceedingly useful and cheap apparatus for curing
and smoking is appended, as well as the best method of keeping, for a
length of time, every description of goods so cured and preserved.
Amongst the marinated fish and bucaned meats will be found many of
the most delicious specimens that a nicely discerning judgment could
dictate, and which are certain of extensive patronage, after having
been once partaken of.
I beg to refer my readers to the “Notes” at the conclusion of this
work, as exponents of gross errors long cherished in the old common
practice, and of facts so self-evident as not to be resisted.
J. R., Junior.
[A] “Bucaning” is a method of preserving meats, &c., partly
by drying and partly by smoking with the _embers_ of wood
fires, and retaining all the palatable and nutritious
juices. It must have had its origin with the rude hunters of
the forests, who, for want of a chimney, laid sticks across,
at a proper distance from the heat.