e of nice pork, four or five onions, thyme, parsley, cloves and
nutmeg, pepper and salt, boil all these together until the flesh on the
head is quite tender, then take it up, cut all into small pieces, take
the eyes out carefully, strain the water in which it was boiled, add
half a pint of wine and a gill of mushroom catsup, let it boil slowly
till reduced to two quarts, thicken it with two spoonsful of browned
flour rubbed into four ounces of butter, put the meat in, and after
stewing it a short time, serve it up. The eyes are a great delicacy.

* * * * *

BEEF.

DIRECTIONS FOR CURING BEEF.

Prepare your brine in the middle of October, after the following manner:
get a thirty gallon cask, take out one head, drive in the bung, and put
some pitch on it, to prevent leaking. See that the cask is quite tight
and clean. Put into it one pound of saltpetre powdered, fifteen quarts
of salt, and fifteen gallons of cold water; stir it frequently, until
dissolved, throw over the cask a thick cloth, to keep out the dust; look
at it often and take off the scum. These proportions have been
accurately ascertained--fifteen gallons of cold water will exactly hold,
in solution, fifteen quarts of good clean Liverpool salt, and one pound
of saltpetre: this brine will be strong enough to bear up an egg: if
more salt be added, it will fall to the bottom without strengthening the
brine, the water being already saturated. This brine will cure all the
beef which a private family can use in the course of the winter, and
requires nothing more to be done to it except occasionally skimming the
dross that rises. It must be kept in a cool, dry place. For salting your
beef, get a molasses hogshead and saw it in two, that the beef may have
space to lie on; bore some holes in the bottom of these tubs, and raise
them on one side about an inch, that the bloody brine may run off.

Be sure that your beef is newly killed--rub each piece very well with
good Liverpool salt--a vast deal depends upon rubbing the salt into
every part--it is unnecessary to put saltpetre on it; sprinkle a good
deal of salt on the bottom of the tub. When the beef is well salted, lay
it in the tub, and be sure you put the fleshy side downward. Put a great
deal of salt on your beef after it is packed in the tub; this protects
it from animals who might eat, if they could smell it, and does not
waste the salt, for the beef can only dissolve a certain