Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 319, 8 May 1878, Page 4

HOW TJ CURE EACON.

The farmers are largely interested in this subject, and Dr Murdock’s views iu the Southern 'Live Stock' Journal are valuable on more than one account. He says :—Wo have had our meat houses so far from onr homo that we could not attend to the curing of our meat until a great many have almost forgotten how to save good bacon ; hence I will give my plan to your many friends of making good homo-cured bacon. . Be sure to get the bogs good, and fat and kill in a good spell of weather, when the hogs arc in a good, thriving condition. After the hogs are all cut up each piece (sides excepted) should be exposed to the cold night air, and the house-top is an excellent place. In the morning early the meat should be taken down, and every piece nicely tiimmod with a sharp knife, saving ail bits’’ for lard, so that there will be no waste. Prepare the salt and saltpetre. Put one bushel o1 salt to every 80Ulbs of meat. Salt down in large boxes or hogsheads and put on each ham and shoulder one teaspoonfnl of saltpetre as you pack the meat down. Put the meat down carefully and well packed, using all the jowls to keep level and close. Let the meat stay in salt two weeks, then take up, re-salt and rc-pack, using no more saltpetre. At the end of two more weeks take up the meat and w r ash the salt off the joints ; then scald in boiling lye and put up for a few hours to diy.; then take corn meal and mix with ground pepper, say one quarter of a pound of pepper to one-half bushel of meal. Before putting on the meal take a swob and put molasses all over the raw or flesh side of the, meat, and then put on plenty of meal; thus mixed, and lay up with the skin clown, for four or five days keep a good smoke, and you will have bacon “ that is bacon.” The saltpetre makes the meat dry faster, firmer, and more attractive when cooked and placed upon the table. The lye destroys all unpleasant odours. The molasses helps to save the meat and keeps the meal upon the meat, while the pepper is a poison to the fly and its eggs, besides giving a nice flavour to the meat.