KEEPING BACONS AND HAMS.
The ideal meat house or smokehouse is a tall frame structure, twelve by
fifteen or fifteen by eighteen feet, underpinned solidly with brick set a
foot or more into the ground, or with a double set of sills, the bottom
set being buried in the soil. This mode of underpinning is designed to
prevent thieves from digging under the wall and into the house. Stout,
inch-thick boards are used for the weatherboarding, and sometimes the
studs are placed near enough together to prevent a person from getting
through between them. The house is built tall to give more room for meat
and to have it farther from the fire while it is being smoked. The
weatherboarding and the roof should be tight to prevent too free escape of
the smoke. No window, and but one door, is necessary. The floor should be
of clay, packed firm, or else laid in cement or brick. Indeed, it would be
better to have the entire walls built of brick, but this would add
considerably to the cost of construction.
THE ROOM SHOULD BE LARGE ENOUGH
to admit of a platform on one or both sides, upon which to pack the pork
when salted. There should be a salt barrel, a large wooden tray made of
plank, in which to salt the meat, and a short, handy ladder for reaching
the upper tier of joists. A large basket for holding chips, a tub for
water when smoking meat, a large chopping block and a meat axe, for the
convenience of the cook, are necessary articles for the meat house.
Nothing else should be allowed to cumber the room to afford a harbor for
rats or to present additional material for a blaze, in case a spark from
the fire should snap out to a distance. The house should be kept neatly
swept, and rats should not be allowed to make burrows under anything in
the room. The floor of the meat house should always be of some hard
material like cement or brick, or else clay pummeled very hard, so that
there would be no hiding place for the pupae of the Dermestes (parent of
the "skipper").
The skipper undergoes one or two moltings while in the meat, and at last
drops from the bacon to the floor, where, if the earth is loose, it
burrows into the ground and, remaining all winter, comes out a perfect
beetle in spring. A hard, impervious floor will prevent it from doing
this, and compel it to seek a nesting place elsewhere. The reason why
country bacon is sometimes so badly infested with the skipper is that the
house and floor afford or become an excellent incubator, as it were, for
the Dermestes, and the bacon bugs become so numerous that all the meat
gets infested with them. In case the floor of the smokehouse is soft and
yielding, it becomes necessary each winter, before the meat is packed to
salt, to remove about two inches of the soil and put in fresh earth or
clay in its place. Thus, many of the insects would be carried out, where
they would be destroyed. The walls and roof of the room on the interior
should also be swept annually to dislodge any pupae that might be
hibernating in the cracks and crevices. With these precautions, there
should not be many of the pests left within the building, though it is a
hard matter when a house once gets badly infested to dislodge them
entirely. There are so many hiding places about a plain shingle roof that
it is next to impossible not to have some of these insects permanently
lodged in the meat house. But with a good, hard floor, frequent sweeping
and the use of plenty of black pepper on the meat, the number of the
Dermestes should be reduced to the minimum.
BACON KEEPS NOWHERE SO WELL
as in the house where it is smoked, and if the bugs do not get too
numerous it is decidedly better to allow it to remain hanging there. Bacon
needs air and a cool, dry, dark room for keeping well in summer. The least
degree of dampness is detrimental, causing the bacon to mold. It has been
noticed, however, that moldy bacon is seldom infested with the skipper.
Hence some people, to keep away the skippers, hang their bacon in a cellar
where there is dampness, preferring to have it moldy rather than
"skippery." Some housekeepers preserve hams in close boxes or barrels, in
a cool, dark room, and succeed well. Others pack in shelled oats or bran,
or wrap in old newspapers and lay away on shelves or in boxes. Inclosing
in cloth sacks and painting the cloth is also practiced. All these plans
are more or less successful, but oblige the housekeeper to be constantly
on the watch to prevent mice and ants from getting to the bacon. But if
anyone should prefer
TO EXCLUDE THE BUGS ENTIRELY
from his meat the following contrivance is offered as a cheap and entirely
satisfactory arrangement: After the meat is thoroughly smoked, hang all of
it close together, or at least all the hams, in the center of the house,
and inclose it on all sides with a light frame over which is stretched
thin cotton cloth, taking care that there shall be no openings in the
cloth or frame through which the bugs might crawl. There let it hang all
summer. This contrivance will prevent the bug from getting at the meat to
deposit its eggs, and the thin, open fabric of the cloth will at the same
time admit plenty of air. The bottom or one side of the frame should be
fixed upon hinges, for convenience in getting at the bacon as wanted. As
the bacon bug comes out in March, or April farther south, in February it
is necessary to get the meat smoked and inclosed under the canvas before
the bug leaves its winter quarters. Hams may be thus kept in perfect
condition as long as may be desirable, and will remain sweet and nice many
months.
BOX FOR STORING BACON.
If the smokehouse is very dark and close, so that the flies or bugs will
not be tempted to or can get in, all that is necessary is to have the meat
hung on the pegs; but, if not, even when the meat is bagged, there is
still some risk of worms. To provide a box that will be bugproof,
ratproof, and at the same time cool, as seen in the illustration, Fig. 24,
make a frame one inch thick and two or three inches wide, with a close
plank bottom; cover the whole box with wire cloth, such, as is used for
screens. Let the wire cloth be on the outside, so that the meat will not
touch it. The top may be of plank and fit perfectly tight, so that no
insect can creep under. Of course, the box may be of any size desired. It
will be well to have the strips nailed quite closely together, say, about
one and a half inches apart. When the meat is put in, lay sticks between,
so that the pieces will not touch. If the box is made carefully, it is
bugproof and ratproof, affording ventilation at the same time, and so
preventing molding. Meat should be kept in a dry and cool place.
[Illustration: FIG. 24. SECURE BOX FOR STORING BACON.]