he curing of meats than
with the slaughtering. This part of the work is indeed very important
as it determines whether one will have good tasting cured meat or meat
that is too salty or possibly that is far removed from the original
taste of the raw product.

It is worth every farmer or farmerette's attention to spend some time
on this problem as it pays so well in the resulting, good tasting
meat. Why not have a superior grade of home-cured meat as easily as a
poor grade? Work carefully and accurately done will produce good
results while work slovenly or carelessly done can produce nothing but
poor results. To cure meat so that it is not only delicious but has
good keeping qualities is an art and accomplishment worth striving
for. A pride in this work is just as fine and worth while as the
housewife's pride in her culinary skill or the pride of any other
professional in his or her line of work. To-day we are thinking of
food and its problems as never before and it behooves us all to put
more time, thought, care and skill on all things that pertain to
foods. And as meat is such an essential item in our diet, meat
problems should receive their due attention.

All meat that is to be cured should always be thoroughly cooled and
cut into the desired convenient sizes before it is put into the brine
or packed in dry salt.

The pieces most commonly used for curing are the ham, shoulder and
bacon pieces from pork. From beef we use the cheaper, tougher cuts
such as the plate, shoulder and chuck ribs. Mutton is seldom cured and
preserved.

The ham should be cut off at the hock joint, the spare ribs taken out
of the bacon, and the ragged edges trimmed off smooth. If ragged edges
or scraggy ends are left these portions will become too dry in the
curing and will practically be wasted.

After all the animal heat is removed from the meat and it is properly
cut it is then ready for the curing. If salt is put on the meat before
the animal heat is all removed, it will have a tendency to shrink the
muscles and form a coating on the outside which will not allow the
generating gases to escape. Meat should never be in a frozen condition
when the salt is added as the frost will prevent the proper
penetration of the brine and uneven curing will be the result.

METHODS OF CURING MEAT

The two most common methods of curing meat are first the brine or
sugar cure process and second the dry-curing process. For general farm
use the brine