When you merely want to corn meat, you have nothing to do but to rub
in salt plentifully, and let it set in the cellar a day or two. If you
have provided more meat than you can use while it is good, it is well
to corn it in season to save it. In summer, it will not keep well more
than a day and a half; if you are compelled to keep it longer, be sure
and rub in more salt, and keep it carefully covered from cellar-flies.
In winter, there is no difficulty in keeping a piece of corned beef
a fortnight or more. Some people corn meat by throwing it into their
beef barrel for a few days; but this method does not make it so sweet.
A little salt-petre rubbed in before you apply the common salt, makes
the meat tender; but in summer it is not well to use it, because it
prevents the other salt from impregnating; and the meat does not keep
as well.
If you wish to salt fat pork, scald coarse salt in water and skim it,
till the salt will no longer melt in the water. Pack your pork down
in tight layers; salt every layer; when the brine is cool, cover the
pork with it, and keep a heavy stone on the top to keep the pork under
brine. Look to it once in a while, for the first few weeks, and if the
salt has all melted, throw in more. This brine, scalded and skimmed
every time it is used, will continue good twenty years. The rind of
the pork should be packed towards the edge of the barrel.
It is good economy to salt your own beef as well as pork. Six pounds
of coarse salt, eight ounces of brown sugar, a pint of molasses, and
eight ounces of salt-petre, are enough to boil in four gallons of
water. Skim it clean while boiling. Put it to the beef cold; have
enough to cover it; and be careful your beef never floats on the top.
If it does not smell perfectly sweet, throw in more salt; if a scum
rises upon it, scald and skim it again, and pour it on the beef when
cold.
Legs of mutton are very good, cured in the same way as ham. Six pounds
of salt, eight ounces of salt-petre, and five pints of molasses, will
make pickle enough for one hundred weight. Small legs should be kept
in pickle twelve or fifteen days; if large, four or five weeks are not
too much. They should be hung up a day or two to dry, before they are
smoked. Lay them in the oven, on crossed sticks, and make a fire at
the entrance. Cobs, walnut-bark, or walnut-chips, are the best to use
for smoking, on account of the sweet taste they give the meat. The
smallest pieces should be smoked forty-eight hours, and large legs
four or five days. Some people prefer the mutton boiled as soon as it
is taken from the pickle, before it is smoked; others hang it up till
it gets dry thoroughly, and eat it in thin slices, like hung beef.
When legs of meat are put in pickle, the thickest part of the leg
should be placed uppermost, that is, standing upright, the same as the
creature stood when living. The same rule should be observed when they
are hung up to dry; it is essential in order to keep in the juices of
the meat. Meat should be turned over once or twice during the process
of smoking.
The old-fashioned way for curing hams is to rub them with salt very
thoroughly, and let them lay twenty-four hours. To each ham allow
two ounces of salt-petre, one quart of common salt and one quart of
molasses. First baste them with molasses; next rub in the salt-petre;
and, last of all, the common salt. They must be carefully turned
and rubbed every day for six weeks; then hang them in a chimney, or
smoke-house, four weeks.
They should be well covered up in paper bags, and put in a chest, or
barrel, with layers of ashes, or charcoal, between. When you take out
a ham to cut for use, be sure and put it away in a dark place, well
covered up; especially in summer.
Some very experienced epicures and cooks, think the old-fashioned way
of preparing bacon is troublesome and useless. They say that legs of
pork placed upright in pickle, for four or five weeks, are just as
nice as those rubbed with so much care. The pickle for pork and hung
beef, should be stronger than for legs of mutton. Eight pounds of
salt, ten ounces of salt-petre and five pints of molasses is enough
for one hundred weight of meat; water enough to cover the meat
well--probably, four or five gallons. Any one can prepare bacon, or
dried beef, very easily, in a common oven, according to the above
directions. The same pickle that answers for bacon is proper for
neat's tongues. Pigs' tongues are very nice, prepared in the same
way as neat's tongues; an abundance of them are sold for rein-deer's
tongues, and, under that name, considered a wonderful luxury.
Neat's tongue should be boiled full three hours. If it has been in
salt long, it is well to soak it over night in cold water. Put it in
to boil when the water is cold. If you boil it in a small pot, it is
well to change the water, when it has boiled an hour and a half; the
fresh water should boil before the half-cooked tongue is put in again.
It is nicer for being kept in a cool place a day or two after being
boiled. Nearly the same rules apply to salt beef. A six pound piece
of corned beef should boil full three hours; and salt beef should be
boiled four hours.
The saltier meat is, the longer it should be boiled. If very salt, it
is well to put it in soak over night; change the water while cooking;
and observe the same rules as in boiling tongue. If it is intended to
be eaten when cold, it is a good plan to put it between clean boards,
and press it down with heavy weights for a day or two. A small leg
of bacon should be boiled three hours; ten pounds four hours; twelve
pounds five hours. All meat should boil moderately; furious boiling
injures the flavor.
Buffalo's tongue should soak a day and a night, and boil as much as
six hours.
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