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Home Pork Making
_The Art of Raising and Curing Pork on the Farm_
A complete guide for the farmer, the country butcher and the suburban
dweller, in all that pertains to hog slaughtering, curing, preserving and
storing pork product--from scalding vat to kitchen table and dining room.
By A. W. FULTON
Commercial editor American Agriculturist and Orange Judd Farmer, assisted
by Pork Specialists in the United States and England.
New York and Chicago
Orange Judd Company
1900
Of all the delicacies in the whole _mundus edibiles_, I will maintain
roast pig to be the most delicate. There is no flavor comparable, I will
contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well-watched, not over-roasted
crackling, as it is well called--the very teeth are invited to their share
of the pleasure at this banquet in overcoming the coy, brittle
resistance--with the adhesive oleaginous--oh, call it not fat! but an
indefinable sweetness growing up to it--the tender blossoming of fat--fat
cropped in the bud--taken in the shoot--in the first innocence--the cream
and quintessence of the child-pig's yet pure food--the lean, no lean, but
a kind of animal manna--or rather fat and lean (if it must be so) so
blended and running into each other that both together make but one
ambrosian result or common substance.--[Charles Lamb.
Copyright 1900 BY ORANGE JUDD COMPANY
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
Pork making on the farm nearly a lost art--General merit of homemade
pork--Acknowledgments.
CHAPTER I.--PORK MAKING ON THE FARM.
Best time for killing--A home market for farm pork--Opportunities for
profit--Farm census of live stock for a series of years.
CHAPTER II.--FINISHING OFF HOGS FOR BACON.
Flesh forming rations--Corn as a fat producer--Just the quality of bacon
wanted--Normandy Hogs.
CHAPTER III.--SLAUGHTERING.
Methods employed--Necessary apparatus--Heating water for scalding.
CHAPTER IV.--SCALDING AND SCRAPING.
Saving the bristles--Scalding tubs and vats--Temperature for
scalding--"Singeing pigs"--Methods of Singeing.
CHAPTER V.--DRESSING AND CUTTING.
Best time for dressing--Opening the carcass--Various useful
appliances--Hints on dressing--How to cut up a hog.
CHAPTER VI.--WHAT TO DO WITH THE OFFAL.
Portions classed as offal--Recipes and complete directions for utilizing
the wholesome parts, aside from the principal pieces--Sausage, scrapple,
jowls and head, brawn, head-cheese.
CHAPTER VII.--THE FINE POINTS IN MAKING LARD.
Kettle and steam rendered--Time required in making--Storing.
CHAPTER VIII.--PICKLING AND BARRELING.
A clean barrel one of the first considerations--The use of salt on pork
strips--Pickling by covering with brine--Renewing pork brine.
CHAPTER IX.--CARE OF HAMS AND SHOULDERS.
A first-class ham--A general cure for ham and shoulders--Pickling
preparatory to smoking--Westphalian hams.
CHAPTER X.--DRY SALTING BACON AND SIDES.
Proper proportion of salt to meat--Other preservatives--Applying the
salt--Best distribution of the salt--Time required in curing--Pork for the
south.
CHAPTER XI.--SMOKING AND SMOKEHOUSES.
Treatment previous to smoking--Simple but effective
smokehouses--Controlling the fire in smoke formation--Materials to produce
best flavor--The choice of weather--Variety in smokehouses.
CHAPTER XII.--KEEPING HAMS AND BACON.
The ideal meat house--Best temperature and surroundings--Precautions
against skippers--To exclude the bugs entirely.
CHAPTER XIII.--SIDE LIGHTS ON PORK MAKING.
Growth of the big packing houses--Average weight of live hogs--"Net to
gross"--Relative weights of various portions of the carcass.
CHAPTER XIV.--PACKING HOUSE CUTS OF PORK.
Descriptions of the leading cuts of meat known as the speculative
commodities in the pork product--Mess pork, short ribs, shoulders and
hams, English bacon, varieties of lard.
CHAPTER XV.--MAGNITUDE OF THE SWINE INDUSTRY.
Importance of the foreign demand--Statistics of the trade--Receipts at
leading points--Prices for a series of years--Co-operative curing houses
in Denmark.
CHAPTER XVI.--DISCOVERING THE MERITS OF ROAST PIG.
The immortal Charles Lamb on the art of roasting--An oriental luxury of
luxuries.
CHAPTER XVII.--RECIPES FOR COOKING AND SERVING PORK.
Success in the kitchen--Prize methods of best cooks--Unapproachable list
of especially prepared recipes--Roasts, pork pie, cooking bacon, pork and
beans, serving chops and cutlets, use of spare ribs, the New England
boiled dinner, ham and sausage, etc.
INTRODUCTION.
Hog killing and pork making on the farm have become almost lost arts in
these days of mammoth packing establishments which handle such enormous
numbers of swine at all seasons of the year. Yet the progressive farmer of
to-day should not only provide his own fresh and cured pork for family
use, but also should be able to supply at remunerative prices such persons
in his neighborhood as appreciate the excellence and general merit of
country or "homemade" pork product. This is true, also, though naturally
in a less degree, of the townsman who fattens one or two pigs on the
family kitchen slops, adding sufficient grain ration to finish off the
pork for autumn slaughter.
The only popular book of the kind ever published, "Home Pork Making"
furnishes in a plain manner just such detailed information as is needed to
enable the farmer, feeder, or country butcher to successfully and
economically slaughter his own hogs and cure his own pork. All stages of
the work are fully presented, so that even without experience or special
equipment any intelligent person can readily follow the instructions.
Hints are given about finishing off hogs for bacon, hams, etc. Then,
beginning with proper methods of slaughtering, the various processes are
clearly presented, including every needful detail from the scalding vat to
the kitchen baking dish and dining-room table.
The various chapters treat successively of the following, among other
branches of the art of pork making: Possibilities of profit in home
curing and marketing pork; finishing off hogs for bacon; class of rations
best adapted, flesh and fat forming foods; best methods of slaughtering
hogs, with necessary adjuncts for this preliminary work; scalding and
scraping; the construction of vats; dressing the carcass; cooling and
cutting up the meat; best disposition of the offal; the making of sausage
and scrapple; success in producing a fine quality of lard and the proper
care of it.
Several chapters are devoted to putting down and curing the different cuts
of meat in a variety of ways for many purposes. Here will be found the
prized recipes and secret processes employed in making the popular pork
specialties for which England, Virginia, Kentucky, New England and other
sections are noted. Many of these points involve the old and well-guarded
methods upon which more than one fortune has been made, as well as the
newest and latest ideas for curing pork and utilizing its products. Among
these the subject of pickling and barreling is thoroughly treated,
renewing pork brine; care of barrels, etc. The proper curing of hams and
shoulders receives minute attention, and so with the work of dry salting
bacon and sides. A chapter devoted to smoking and smokehouses affords all
necessary light on this important subject, including a number of helpful
illustrations; success in keeping bacon and hams is fully described,
together with many other features of the work of home curing. The
concluding portion of the book affords many interesting details relating
to the various cuts of meat in the big packing houses, magnitude of the
swine industry and figures covering the importance of our home and foreign
trade in pork and pork product.
In completing this preface, descriptive of the various features of the
book, the editor wishes to give credit to our friends who have added to
its value through various contributions and courtesies. A considerable
part of the chapters giving practical directions for cutting and curing
pork are the results of the actual experience of B. W. Jones of Virginia;
we desire also to give due credit to contributions by P. H. Hartwell,
Rufus B. Martin, Henry Stewart and many other practical farmers; to Hately
Brothers, leading packers at Chicago; North Packing and Provision Co. of
Boston, and to a host of intelligent women on American farms, who, through
their practical experience in the art of cooking, have furnished us with
many admirable recipes for preparing and serving pork.
CHAPTER I.
PORK MAKING ON THE FARM.
During the marvelous growth of the packing industry the past generation,
methods of slaughtering and handling pork have undergone an entire
revolution. In the days of our fathers, annual hog-killing time was as
much an event in the family as the harvesting of grain. With the coming of
good vigorous frosts and cold weather, reached in the Northern states
usually in November, every farmer would kill one, two or more hogs for
home consumption, and frequently a considerable number for distribution
through regular market channels. Nowadays, however, the big pork packing
establishments have brought things down to such a fine point, utilizing
every part of the animal (or, as has been said, "working up everything but
the pig's squeal"), that comparatively few hogs out of all the great
number fattened are slaughtered and cut up on the farm.
Unquestionably there is room for considerable business of this character,
and if properly conducted, with a thorough understanding, farmers can
profitably convert some of their hogs into cured meats, lard, hams, bacon,
sausage, etc., finding a good market at home and in villages and towns.
Methods now in use are not greatly different from those followed years
ago, although of course improvement is the order of the day, and some
important changes have taken place, as will be seen in a study of our
pages. A few fixtures and implements are necessary to properly cure and
pack pork, but these may be simple, inexpensive and at the same time
efficient. Such important portions of the work as the proper cutting of
the throat, scalding, scraping, opening and cleaning the hog should be
undertaken by someone not altogether a novice. And there is no reason why
every farmer should not advantageously slaughter one or more hogs each
year, supplying the family with the winter's requirements and have
something left over to sell.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF PROFIT
in the intelligent curing and selling of homemade pork are suggested by
the far too general custom of farmers buying their pork supplies at the
stores. This custom is increasing, to say nothing of the very large number
of townspeople who would be willing to buy home cured pork were it
properly offered them. Probably it is not practicable that every farmer
should butcher his own swine, but in nearly every neighborhood one or two
farmers could do this and make good profits. The first to do so, the first
to be known as having home cured pork to sell, and the first to make a
reputation on it, will be the one to secure the most profit.
In the farm census of live stock, hogs are given a very important place.
According to the United States census of 1890 there were on farms in this
country 57,409,583 hogs. Returns covering later years place the farm
census of hogs, according to compilations of _American Agriculturist_ and
_Orange Judd Farmer_, recognized authorities, at 47,061,000 in 1895,
46,302,000 in 1896, and 48,934,000 in 1899. According to these authorities
the average farm value of all hogs in 1899 was $4.19 per head. The
government report placed the average farm price in 1894 at $5.98, in '93,
$6.41, and in 1892, $4.60.
A TRAVELING PIGPEN.
It is often desirable to change the location of a pigpen, especially where
a single pig is kept. It may be placed in the garden at the time when
there are waste vegetables to be disposed of, or it may be penned in a
grass lot. A portable pen, with an open yard attached, is seen in the
accompanying illustrations. Figure 1 presents the pen, the engraving
showing it so clearly that no description is needed. The yard, seen in
Fig. 2, is placed with the open space next to the door of the pen, so that
the pig can go in and out freely. The yard is attached to the pen by hooks
and staples, and both of them are provided with handles, by which they can
be lifted and carried from place to place. Both the yard and pen should
be floored, to prevent the pig from tearing up the ground. The floors
should be raised a few inches from the ground, that they may be kept dry
and made durable.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. PORTABLE PEN.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. YARD ATTACHMENT.]