SMOKING AND SMOKEHOUSES.
For best quality of bacon, the proper meat is of first importance. Withes
or strings of basket wood, bear's grass, or coarse, stout twine, one in
the hock end of each ham and shoulder, and two in the thick side of each
middling, are fastened in the meat by which to suspend it for smoking.
Before it is hung up the entire flesh surface of the hams and shoulders,
and sometimes the middlings also, is sprinkled thickly with fine black
pepper, using a large tin pepper box to apply it. Sometimes a mixture of
about equal parts of black and red pepper helps very much to impart a good
flavor to the meat. It was thought formerly that black pepper, applied to
meat before smoking it, would keep the bacon bug (Dermestes) "skippers"
from being troublesome. But it is now known that the skipper skips just as
lively where the pepper is. The meat is hung upon sticks or on hooks
overhead very close together, without actually touching, and is ready for
smoking.
THE SMOKEHOUSE.
The meat house is of course one with an earth, brick, or cement floor,
where the fire for the smoke is made in a depression in the center of the
room, so as to be as far as possible from the walls. A few live coals are
laid down, and a small fire is made of some dry stuff. As it gets well to
burning, the fire is smothered with green hickory or oak wood, and a
basket of green chips from the oak or hickory woodpile is kept on hand and
used as required to keep the fire smothered so as to produce a great smoke
and but little blaze. If the chips are too dry they are kept wet with
water. Care is taken not to allow the fire to get too large and hot, so as
to endanger the meat hung nearest to it. Should the fire grow too strong,
as it sometimes will, a little water is thrown on, a bucketful of which is
kept always on hand. The fire requires constant care and nursing to keep
up a good smoke and no blaze. Oak and hickory chips or wood impart the
best color to meat. Some woods, as pine, ailanthus, mulberry and
persimmon, are very objectionable, imparting a disagreeable flavor to the
bacon. Corn cobs make a good smoke for meat, but they must be wet before
laying them on the fire. Hardwood sawdust is sometimes advantageously used
in making a fire for smoking meats. No blaze is formed, and if it burns
too freely can be readily checked by sprinkling a little water upon it.
This is a popular method in parts of Europe, and in that country damp
wheat straw is also sometimes used to some extent.
COMBINED SMOKEHOUSE AND OVEN.
The oven, shown in Fig. 18, occupies the front and that part of the
interior which is represented in our illustration by the dotted lines. The
smokehouse occupies the rear, and extends over the oven. The advantages of
this kind of building are the perfect dryness secured, which is of great
importance in preserving the meat, and the economy in building the two
together, as the smoke that escapes from the oven may be turned into the
smokehouse. This latter feature, however, will not commend itself to many
who prefer the use of certain kinds of fuel in smoking which are not
adapted to burning in a bake oven.
[Illustration: FIG. 18. COMBINATION SMOKEHOUSE AND OVEN.]
Cloudy and damp days are the best for smoking meat. It seems to receive
the smoke more freely in such weather, and there is also less danger of
fire. The smoke need not be kept up constantly, unless one is in a hurry
to sell the meat. Half a day at a time on several days a week, for two or
three weeks, will give the bacon that bright gingerbread color which is
generally preferred. It should not be made too dark with smoke. It is a
good plan, after the meat is smoked nearly enough, to smoke it
occasionally for half a day at a time all through the spring until late in
May. It is thought that smoke does good in keeping the Dermestes out of
the house. The work of smoking may be finished up in a week, if one
prefers, by keeping up the smoke all day and at night until bedtime. Some
smoke more, others less, according to fancy as to color. No doubt, the
more it is smoked, the better the bacon will keep through the summer. But
it need not, and, in fact, should not, be made black with smoke.
It is necessary, before the smoking is quite completed, to remove the meat
that is in the center just over the fire to one side, and to put the
pieces from the sides in the center. The meat directly over the smoke
colors faster than that on the sides, although the house is kept full of
smoke constantly. Some farmers do not care to risk the safety of their
meat by having an open fire under it, and so set up an old stove, either
in the room or on the outside, in which latter case a pipe lets the smoke
into the house. A smoldering fire is then kept up with corn cobs or chips.
But there is almost as much danger this way as the other. The stovepipe
may become so hot as to set fire to the walls of the house where it
enters, or a blaze may be carried within if there is too much fire in the
stove. There is some risk either way, but with a properly built
smokehouse, there is no great danger from the plan described.
THE MEAT IS NOW CURED
and, if these directions have been observed, the farmer has a supply of
bacon as good as the world can show. Some may prefer a "shorter cut" from
the slaughter pen to the baking pan, and with their pyroligenous acid may
scout the old-fashioned smoke as heathenish, and get their bacon ready for
eating in two hours after the salt has struck in. But they never can show
such bacon by their method as we can by ours. There is but one way to have
this first-class bacon and ham, and that way is the one herein portrayed.
TO MAKE A SMOKEHOUSE FIREPROOF
as far as the stove ashes are concerned, is not necessarily an expensive
job; all that is required is to lay up a row of brick across one end,
also two or three feet back upon each side, connecting the sides with a
row across the building, making it at least two feet high. As those who
have a smokehouse use it nearly every year, that part can also be made
safe from fire by the little arch built at the point shown in the
illustration, Fig. 19. The whole is laid up in mortar, and to add strength
to the structure an iron rod or bar may be placed across the center of the
bin and firmly imbedded in the mortar, two or three rows of brick from the
top. Of course, the rear of the arch is also bricked up. In most cases,
less than 250 brick will be all that is required.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. FIREPROOFING A SMOKEHOUSE.]
A WELL ARRANGED SMOKEHOUSE.
A simple but satisfactory smokehouse is shown in the illustration, Fig.
20, and can be constructed on the farm at small cost. It is so arranged as
to give direct action of smoke upon the meat within, and yet free from the
annoyance that comes from entering a smoke-filled room to replenish the
fire. The house is square, and of a size dependent upon the material one
may have yearly to cure by smoke. For ordinary use, a house ten feet
square will be ample. There are an entrance door on one side and a small
window near the top that can be opened from the outside to quickly free
the inside from the smoke when desired. At the bottom of one side is a
small door, from which extends a small track to the center of the room.
Upon this slides a square piece of plank, moved by an iron rod with a hook
on one end. On the plank is placed an old iron kettle, Fig. 21, with four
or five inches of earth in the bottom, and upon this is the fire to be
built. The kettle can be slid to the center of the room with an iron rod
and can be drawn to the small door at any time to replenish the fire
without entering the smoky room or allowing the smoke to come out. The
house has an earthen floor and a tight foundation of stone or brick. The
walls should be of matched boarding and the roof shingled. The building is
made more attractive in appearance if the latter is made slightly
"dishing."
[Illustration: FIG. 20. FARM SMOKEHOUSE.]
[Illustration: FIG. 21. FIRE, KETTLE AND TRACK.]
SMOKING MEATS IN A SMALL WAY.
A fairly good substitute for a smokehouse, where it is desired to
improvise something for temporary use in smoking hams or other meat, may
be found in a large cask or barrel, arranged as shown in the engraving,
Fig. 22. To make this effective, a small pit should be dug, and a flat
stone or a brick placed across it, upon which the edge of the cask will
rest. Half of the pit is beneath the barrel and half of it outside. The
head and bottom may be removed, or a hole can be cut in the bottom a
little larger than the portion of the pit beneath the cask. The head or
cover is removed, while the hams are hung upon cross sticks. These rest
upon two cross bars, made to pass through holes bored in the sides of the
cask, near the top. The head is then laid upon the cask and covered with
sacks to confine the smoke. Some coals are put into the pit outside of the
cask, and the fire is fed with damp corn cobs, hardwood chips, or fine
brush. The pit is covered with a flat stone, by which the fire may be
regulated, and it is removed when necessary to add more fuel.
[Illustration: FIG. 22. A BARREL SMOKEHOUSE.]
ANOTHER BARREL SMOKEHOUSE.
For those who have only the hams and other meats from one or two hogs to
smoke, a practicable smokehouse, like that shown in Fig. 23, will serve
the purpose fairly well. A large barrel or good-sized cask should be
used, with both heads removed. A hole about a foot deep is dug to receive
it, and then a trench of about the same depth and six or eight feet long,
leading to the fireplace. In this trench can be laid old stovepipe and the
ground filled in around it. The meat to be smoked is suspended in the
barrel and the lid put on, but putting pieces under it, so there will be
enough draft to draw the smoke through. By having the fire some distance
from the meat, one gets the desired amount of smoke and avoids having the
meat overheated.
[Illustration: FIG. 23. BARREL SMOKEHOUSE WITH FRENCH DRAFT.]