Wiltshire Method of Bacon Curing.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 176, 30 October 1886, Page 4 (Supplement)

Wiltshire Method of Bacon Curing.

Upon this subject a contemporary publishes the following : — According to the Wilstehire mode of making bacon, there is much to be done between the killing of the hog and laying the sides in wooden troughs, and much again afterwards. In the first place, after killing the hog, it must hang at least twenty-four hours to stiffen. It must then be cut up into two neat hams and two sides or flitches. The backbone must be taken out by first sawing down the middle, and then across the end of the ribs, holding the knife or saw, for both are used, at an angle of 45 degrees. The ribs can be taken out or left in, as preferred. The hog must be neatly rounded and trimmed, and the whole four pieces must be well sprinkled withsalt,andallowedtolie twenty-four hours to let the blood fun out. Then mix the following ingredients : — ljlba coarse sugar, l$lb bay salt, 6ozs saltpetre pounded, lib common salt. Lay one of the flitches on a stone table or floor where the brine can run off, and rub a quarter of the mixture well into it ; lay the second flitch on the top, and proceed in the same way ; lastly, the ham, taking care in every case, to lay the inside up, and have plenty of mixture sprinkled over. It should lie thus for a month, turning it every other day, putting the top flitch to the bottom, and adding » little fresh salt if much brine has run off It should then be hung in the smoke of a wood fire for about ten days. The Dumfriesshire method is to use salt and saltpatre only — the latter to give a- olour to the meat and help the salt to penetrate —putting on fresh salt as the brine runs off; {letting it lie for a month or six weeks, turning it once or twice during that time, and drying it in a gentle heat.