sometimes rolling over the butchers, and sometimes the butchers over the brutes, with a yelling enough to stun one's ears. In the mean time the screams become fainter and fainter, and then all is silence on the death of the last pig. A cart is in attendance; the carcasses are lifted into it, and it proceeds through the street, leaving one or more dead hogs at the different pork-shops. No blood appears outwardly, nor is the internal hæmorrhage prejudicial to the meat, for Rome cannot be surpassed in the flavor of her bacon or in the soundness of her hams."—Essays on Natural History.
PREPARING THE DEAD PIG.
As soon as the hog is dead, if it is intended for pork let it be laid on a board or table, and scalded with water nearly but not quite on the boil, and well scraped to get off all the hair and bristles. Bacon-hogs may be singed by enveloping the body in straw and setting the straw on fire, and then scraping it all over; but when this is done care must be taken not to burn or parch the cuticle. The next thing to be done is to take out the entrails and well wash the interior of the body with luke-warm water so as to remove all blood and impurities, and afterwards dry it with a clean cloth; the carcass should then be hung up in a cool place for eighteen or twenty hours to become set and firm.
On the following day the feet are first of all cut off, so that they shall not disfigure the hams or hands, and plenty of knuckle shall be left to hang them up by; the knife is then inserted at the nape of the neck and the carcass divided up the middle of the back bone; the head is then separated from each side close behind the ears, and the hams and shoulders taken off and trimmed; some take out the chine and upper part of the ribs in the first place, but almost every locality has its peculiar way of proceeding.
PICKLING PORK.
For pickling pork the sides should be rubbed over with sugar and salt, and then laid in a brine-tub, in which a thick layer of salt has already been strewn, and a slighter one of sugar; the pork must be cut into such pieces as will admit of its lying quite flat in the tub; the rind must be placed downwards, and between each layer of pork a layer of salt and sugar. When the tub is quite full, a layer of salt sufficiently thick to exclude the air must be spread over the whole, and the tub covered closely up and left for a week or ten days; if by this time the brine has not begun to rise, warm water should be sprinkled over the top layer.
Pork pickled in this way will be ready for use in about three months, and with proper care will be as good at the end of two
