ontents
from the barrel, washing each piece of meat separately in clean water.
Boil the brine for half an hour, frequently removing the scum and
impurities that will rise to the surface. Cleanse the barrel thoroughly by
washing with hot water and hard wood ashes. Replace the meat after
sprinkling it with a little fresh salt, putting the purified brine back
when cool, and no further trouble will be experienced, and if the work be
well done, the meat will be sweet and firm. Those who pack meat for home
use do not always remove the blood with salt. After meat is cut up it is
better to lie in salt for a day and drain before being placed in the brine
barrel.

A HANDY SALTING BOX.

A trough made as shown at Fig. 16 is very handy for salting meats, such as
hams, bacon and beef, for drying. It is made of any wood which will not
flavor the meat; ash, spruce or hemlock plank, one and a half inches
thick, being better than any others. A good size is four feet long by two
and one-half wide and one and one-half deep. The joints should be made
tight with white lead spread upon strips of cloth, and screws are vastly
better than nails to hold the trough together.

CHAPTER IX.

CARE OF HAMS AND SHOULDERS.

In too many instances farmers do not have the proper facilities for curing
hams, and do not see to it that such are at hand, an important point in
success in this direction. A general cure which would make a good ham
under proper conditions would include as follows: To each 100 lbs. of ham
use seven and a half pounds Liverpool fine salt, one and one-half pounds
granulated sugar and four ounces saltpeter. Weigh the meat and the
ingredients in the above proportions, rub the meat thoroughly with this
mixture and pack closely in a tierce. Fill the tierce with water and roll
every seven days until cured, which in a temperature of 40 to 50 degrees
would require about fifty days for a medium ham. Large hams take about ten
days more for curing. When wanted for smoking, wash the hams in water or
soak for twelve hours. Hang in the smokehouse and smoke slowly forty-eight
hours and you will have a very good ham. While this is not the exact
formula followed in big packing houses, any more than are other special
recipes given here, it is a general ham cure that will make a first-class
ham in every respect if proper attention is given it.

Another method of pickling hams and shoulders, preparatory to smoking,
includes the use of mol