BACON CURING.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 314, 23 October 1860, Page 2

BACON CURING.

The best period of the year is at hand for the curing of bacon, and it should be attended to as speedily as possible. The pig having been killed and scalded, not by putting it into a tub of boiling water as most people do, but by pouring the boiling water over it as it lies on some straw or other material of a similar nature, is hung up until it is perfectly cold. The head is then cut off and put in the pork tub; the back-bone and ribs should then be taken out, with as little meat as possible, the side of the flitch being left smooth. These ribs make excellent pies,—spare-rib pies, as they are called in the .North of England. Any bloody veins in the ham or shoulder should be carefully wipec out with a clean sweet cloth, and the flitch is then laid on a table, the skin upwards, and rubbed with salt in the hand until the salt runs off in a brine. It is then ready to put away, and the other flitch similarly treated. The first flitch should be laid on some clean wheat straw, two or three inches thick, on which a clean cloth has been laid; this straw should be on a shelf or raised place, in a rather cool, airy place, where the light is somewhat subdued. The flitch should be laid with its fleshy side uppermost, and a little bruised saltpetre should be sprinkled over it, and afterwards salt, giving most to the ham and shoulder. At the.shank end of the legs as much salt as can be put in under the skin muse be put in. The other flitch similarly served is then placed on the top of the first, and the ends of the cloth or sheet underneath should be drawn up over the whole, and some other clean cloth or sack laid over that to keep the air out. It should then be allowed to remain in this state for ten or twelve days, when it should be taken out, and salt again rubbed into it, and the top flitch is at this turning placed at the bottom. It may then remain ten or twelve days more, according to the size of the pig. A large pig will require nearly a month. The flitches then should be brought out and hung up by the shank, round which a piece of paper should be put and a piece of string fastened to the thin part of the belly, in the kitchen, with their faces tuned to the fire. After hanging until they are dry, which in this colony will be in less than six weeks, they should be coated over with a paste of thin flour and water to prevent rusting or resting as it is termed. It may then be hung in some dry cool and rather dark place, or packed, if thoroughly dry, in the husks of oats or other similar material; but it, in a general way, may be kept hanging till wanted. The quantity of salt used in the curing is about a pound to twenty pounds of bacon. We have known this plan adopted since our infancy, and have assisted in the rubbing in of the salt on many a hundred flitches, and never but once saw the plan fail to produce first-rate bacon. In that one case of failure, the pig was one fed for exhibition purposes, and was altogether too fat for domestic use. Some persons prefer smoked bacon, but unless every proper appliance be at hand, and the system of smoking be thoroughly understood, we distinctly object to it. Some also piefer to place the bacon in brine, and we have seen it cured in this way, but the bacon so cured i's not nearly of so good a flavor as if cured in the way we have suggested ; at least such is our opinion. Of course in large establishments were hundreds of pigs are cured annually, another system must be adopted, but for the home use of the farm, we say try our plan ; and many a Northumbrian will agree with us. — Agricultural and Horticultural Gazette.

Training Steers.—This is an art that every one has not. the faculty to practise. It requires a great deal of patience, judgment, skill, in short, to know how, and the ability to do what you know. Four pair of steers can be trained with nearly the same ease at once. The first step is to shut them in a well-fenced yard, wiih an area of from twelve to sixteen square rods, where the driver can stand in the centre and make the steers travel round him. The£ should be kept going iv pairs, or Indian file, until they will allow his approach—until they learn to he handed without fear, which is an important rudiment iv tiro education of an ox. In doing tins', the same patience and gentleness should he exercised which is expected of the teacher of a school -a patience which never yields to vexation. In a short time they will allow themselves to be yoked on either side, and can be driven anywhere, either in or out of the yard. Four days spent in this way will better train steers to the yoke than four months of miscellaneous farm service, and tbsy will be better cattle for all kinds of teaming, and sell for a higher price. The drilling iv the yard should be continued until they can be driven wiih ease. To teach them to stand when left to rest, they need bitching as much as a span of horses. When steers are trained to drive well in the yoke, the entire operation of training them to work should be commenced. This should proceed by degrees, with light loads and short journeys, until they gave evidence of ability as as well as knowledge. Ojcen can be. trained to work well with as little expense to the natural spirits of the animal, as the horse, and it should be the aim of every ox trainer to train hiß cattle to work well without discouraging or abusing them*