Having pickled your hams with the rest of your pork as just directed,
take them, after the lapse of sixteen days, from the packing barrel,
with the shoulders and jowls. At the South they empty the cask, and
consign the “whole hog” to the smoke-house. Wash off the pickle, and,
while wet, dip in bran. Some use saw-dust, but it is not so good.
Others use neither, only wipe the meat dry and smoke. The object in
dipping in bran or saw-dust is to form a crust which prevents the
evaporation of the juices. Be sure that it is well covered with the
bran, then hang in the smoke, the hock end downward. Keep up a good
smoke, by having the fire partially smothered with hickory chips and
saw dust, for four weeks, taking care the house does not become hot.
Take down the meat, brush off the bran, examine closely, and if you
suspect insects, lay it in the hot sun for a day or two.
The various ways of keeping hams—each strongly recommended by those who
have practised it—are too numerous to mention here. Some pack in wood
ashes; others, in dry oats; others, in bran. But the best authorities
discard packing altogether. I will name one or two methods which I
know have been successful. “I hang mine on hooks from wires, at the
top of my granary, which is tight and dark,” says an excellent judge
and manufacturer of hams. “They are good and sweet when a year old.”
Another admirable housekeeper covers with brown paper, then with coarse
muslin stitched tightly and fitting closely, then whitewashes. But for
the paper, the lime would be apt to eat away the grease. Still another
covers with muslin, and coats with a mixture of bees-wax and rosin.
There is no doubt that the covers are an excellent precaution—provided
always, that the insects have not already deposited their eggs in the
meat. The bran coating tends to prevent this.
I have eaten ham twenty years old in Virginia, which had been kept
sweet in _slaked_ ashes. Unslaked will act like lime upon the fat.