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.