CHAPTER XIV.
There is perhaps no animal so entirely profitable to the butcher as the pig. Scarcely an atom of it but is useful. The offal is so small as not to be thought of in comparison with that arising from cattle and sheep. The feet, the head, and even portions of the intestines are saleable for food and eagerly purchased by epicures; the scraps and trimmings of the meat make delicious sausages, pork pies, and other such savory dishes; brawn, too, is another of the delicacies we owe to the much despised pig; the fat, or lard, is invaluable to cooks, confectioners, perfumers, and apothecaries; pigs' bladders meet a ready sale; the skin is available for pocket-books and several purposes; and the bristles form by no means an inconsiderable item in the tables of imports and exports, and are used by shoemakers, as well as in the manufacture of brushes, &c. Lastly, the flesh in the form of fresh or pickled pork, ham, and bacon, constitutes the chief food of thousands of human beings in all parts of the globe.
In France, from one-half to two-thirds of the meat consumed by the poorer and middling classes of the provinces is pork. In Ireland, the peasantry and many of the middle-men scarcely know the taste of any other kind of meat. In most of our Channel Islands pork constitutes the staple animal food of the laboring classes and small farmers; and in America, and especially among the new settlements and back-woods, it is often the only animal food for the first few years of the settler's life.
SUCKING-PIGS.
In our own country, "sucking-pigs" too are in great esteem, and will, at their season, fetch a very high price. Charles Lamb, in one of his inimitable "Essays of Elia," declares, "Of all the delicacies of the whole mundus edibilis, I will maintain this to be the most delicate.
"I speak not of your grown porkers—things between pig and pork—these hobbydehoys; but a young and tender suckling, under a moon old, guiltless as yet of the sty; with no original speck of the amor immunditiæ, the hereditary failing of the first parent, as yet manifest; his voice as yet not broken, but something between a childish treble and a grumble, the mild forerunner or præludium of a grunt.
"He must be roasted. I am not ignorant that our ancestors ate them seethed or boiled; but what a sacrifice of the exterior tegument!
"There is no flavor comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well watched, not over-roasted, crackling, as it is well called; the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this banquet, in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance, with the adhesive oleaginous—Oh, call it not fat!—but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it—the tender blossoming of fat—fat cropped in the bud—taken in the shoot—in the first innocence—the cream and quintessence of the child-pig's yet pure food; the lean, no lean; but a kind of animal manna, or rather, fat and lean (if it must be so) so blended and running into each other, that both together make but one ambrosian result, or common substance.
"Behold him while he is doing! it seemeth rather a refreshing warmth than a scorching heat that he is so passive to. How equally he twirleth round the string. Now he is just done. To see the extreme sensibility of that tender age; he hath wept out his pretty eyes—radiant jellies—shooting stars. See him in the dish, his second cradle; how meek he lieth! wouldst thou have this innocent grow up to the grossness and indocility which too often accompany maturer swinehood? Ten to one he would have proved a glutton, a sloven, an obstinate, disagreeable animal, wallowing in all filthy conversation—from these sins he is happily snatched away.
Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade,
Death came with timely care.
"His memory is odoriferous: no clown curseth, whilst his stomach half ejecteth the rank bacon; no coalheaver bolteth him in reeking sausages: he hath a fair sepulchre in the grateful stomach of the judicious epicure, and for such a tomb might be content to die.
"Pig—let me speak his praise—is no less provocative of the appetite than he is satisfactory to the criticalness of the censorious palate. The strong man may batten on him, and the weakling refuseth not his mild juices.
"Unlike to mankind's mixed characters, a bundle of virtues and vices, inexplicably intertwisted and not to be unravelled without hazard, he is—good throughout. No part of him is better or worse than another. He helpeth, as far as his little means goeth, all around."
Sucking-pigs should be killed at from a fortnight to three weeks old. The Chinese breed furnishes the most delicate and delicious "porklings." They should be stuck; all the blood suffered to drain out; scalded and scraped gently; and the bowels taken out, and the inside sponged dry and clean.
The alterations latterly effected in the breeds of swine have tended materially to improve pork, and to render it more sought for and valued. We can recall to mind when the thought of pork was associated in our minds with visions of coarse-grained meat and oily fat, and with forebodings of a fit of indigestion. Nothing could tend more effectually to banish such fancies than a sight and taste of the small, fine-grained joints, delicate as poultry, and of excellent flavor, which have taken the place of those ungainly legs and Brobdignagian loins and hands of "olden times."
And with the improvement of the meat has grown an increased demand for it. Formerly, ay, as lately as within the last five and twenty years, the trade of "pork-butcher" was unknown in almost all our country towns, even in those of some considerable importance; it is no longer so; there are now few places of any size or note which have not on an average one pork-butcher to every two or three meat-butchers; and in all smaller places pork is generally to be procured wherever other meat is sold.
PORKERS.
Supposing the brood to be weaned at the age of eight or nine weeks, those destined for porkers may be allowed the range of the paddock or straw yard for three or four weeks, being at the same time regularly fed on the refuse of the mill and dairy. Where, as in the case of market gardeners and other such, a degree of liberty cannot be allowed, we recommend that the sty-yard be as roomy and extensive as possible. During the last ten days or fortnight, the feeding may be pushed, and more barley-meal, pea-meal, and milk allowed. Too many pigs should not be kept together in the same sty, nor should they be of unequal ages, as the larger are apt to persecute their younger co-mates, and drive them from the trough. Porkers are killed at different ages, varying from about three months to seven months old. We consider that the true dairy-fed pork is in perfection when the animal does not exceed the age of about three months, or ranges from three to four months. Large pork is apt to be coarse and over fat, and consequently not so digestible as younger meat, and is therefore not so much sought for in the London market. It bears a lower price than small pork; and though the pig weighs heavier, still, taking the extra keep into consideration, it is perhaps not more profitable. On such points as this, however, the breeder will always consult his own interest, and study the demands of the market.
STORE HOGS.
"Of store hogs little need be said they are intended either for sale, or as future bacon hogs. They should be kept in fair condition, not too low, and their health should be attended to; they should be allowed to run in the fields or in the woods and copses, when the beechmast or acorns are falling, and be regularly and moderately fed at certain intervals, say in the morning and evening; knowing their feeding times, by habit, they will never willingly be absent, and wherever they may ramble during the day, their return at the appointed time in the evening may be safely calculated upon. After their evening meal they should be secured in their sty, and snugly bedded up.
HOGS FATTENING FOR BACON
"Bacon-hogs (we here except breeding sows, destined after two or three litters for the butcher) are generally put up to fatten at the age of twelve or eighteen months. Under the term bacon-hogs, we include the barrows and spayed females chosen by the breeder or feeder for fattening, after the age admissible as porkers. In the fattening of bacon-hogs much judgment is requisite. It will not answer to over-feed them at first; under such a plan they will loses their appetite, become feverish, and require medicine. They should be fed at regular intervals; this is essential; animals fed regularly thrive better than those fed at irregular intervals, nor should more food be given them at each meal than they will consume. They should be sufficiently satisfied, yet not satiated. It would be as well to vary their diet; midlings, peas, potato-meal, and barley-meal may be given alternately, or in different admixtures with wash, whey, butter-milk, skim-milk, and the occasional addition of cut grasses, and other green vegetables; a little salt should be scattered in their mess—it will contribute to their health, and quicken their appetite; a stone trough of clean water should be accessible, and the feeding-troughs should be regularly cleaned out after every meal. The sty should be free from all dirt, and the bed of straw comfortable; indeed, it is an excellent practice to wash and brush the hides of the animals, so as to keep the skin clean, excite the circulation of the cutaneous vessels and open the pores. Pigs thus treated will fatten more kindly than dirty, scurfy animals put upon better fare. This essential point is greatly neglected, from the too common idea that the pig is naturally a filthy brute, than which nothing can be more untrue; it is the keeper who is filthy, and not the animal, if he constrain a pig to wallow in a disgusting sty.
"Too many pigs should not be fed in the same sty; three are sufficient, and they should be, as far as possible, of the same age; and the meals should be given frequently, but only in moderation at each time,—over-gorging is sure to cause indigestion, and the only remedy for this is abstinence; a little sulphur occasionally mingled with their food is useful. When the store hogs are first put up (and we must suppose them in moderate condition), the food should only be a few degrees superior to that on which they have already fed; it should be improved step by step, till the digestive powers are adapted for that of the most nutritious quality; and with this the fattening must be completed.
"A bacon-hog is generally fattened in autumn, and killed about Christmas,—sometimes after Christmas, sometimes a few weeks before. The average length of time required for bringing the animal into good condition, varies from about fourteen to twenty-one weeks, according to size and breed. Some fatten hogs until they are incapable of moving, from the enormous load of fat with which they are burthened, and in order to accomplish this, four, five, or even six months are required. An animal so fed will certainly not pay for its food, nor can it be deemed in health; the heart and lungs will be oppressed, the circulation impeded, and the breathing laborious; sufficient fatness is all that is desirable. A fat hog is a comely, comfortable-looking animal, the embodied type of epicurean felicity; but a bloated, overladen hog is a disgusting object, uneasy and distressed in its own feelings, incapable even of enjoying its food, buried in its excessive fat.
"The quantity of barley-meal, pea-meal, or other farinaceous food (exclusive of wash, skim-milk, &c.) consumed by a hog during the time of its fattening for bacon, will vary greatly according to the size and breed of the animal. Taking the average, and supposing the pig's age to be fourteen or fifteen months, and the animal to be in fair condition, we should say that ten or twelve bushels of meal (that is, barley-meal, pea-meal, &c.) would be sufficient for every useful purpose; well do we know that much less often suffices. But we are supposing the production of first-rate bacon. Porkers, of course, require a less outlay according to their age. A porker ought not to carry too much fat; neither the feeder nor the buyer profit by over-fed pork, though perhaps the pork-butcher may—he retails it per pound to his customers. Our observations, however, do not apply to the respectable dealers in pork in London and its environs, who exhibit the most delicious country-fed meat, and justly pride themselves upon an article of consumption which brings them the first-rate custom.
"With respect to the estimated tables relative to the increase in weight of hogs, under certain modes of feeding, and under given quantities of food, we hold them to be utterly fallacious. The feeder's means, the produce of his grounds, the breed he adopts, and the proportion of attention he bestows on the porcine part of his stock, which will be regulated by his profit therein, will make all the difference, and must be taken into the account. To the farmer (we speak not of others), the profit to be derived by him from feeding porkers or bacon-hogs will depend upon suitability, or the apposite union of circumstances connected with the locality, convenience, and staple returns of his land. It is one thing to keep a few pigs for home consumption, and another to keep them as a source of income."—Martin.
PIG-KILLING.
A pig that is to be killed should be kept without food for the last 12 or 16 hours; a little water must, however, be within his reach. Mr. Henderson advises that in order to prevent the animal from struggling and screaming in the agonies of death, it should in the first place be stunned by a blow on the head. Some advise that the knife should be thrust into the neck so as to sever the artery leading from the heart, while others prefer that the animal should be stuck through the brisket in the direction of the heart, care, however, being taken not to touch the first rib. The blood should then be suffered to drain from the carcass, and the more completely it does so, the better will be the meat, say our English pork- butchers, but those of some parts of the Continent disagree with them, probably because there the pig's flesh is eaten for the most part fresh, or spiced, or cooked in other savory modes, and but seldom pickled or dried, therefore the superabundance of blood in it communicates to it a juicy richness agreeable to their palates.
Mr. Waterton gives a very graphic description of the slaughter house for swine at Rome, and the proceedings of the pig-killers:—"As you enter Rome at the Porta del Popolo, a little on your right is the great slaughter-house, with a fine stream of water running through it. It is, probably, inferior to none in Italy for an extensive plan and for judicious arrangements. Here some 700 or 800 pigs are killed on every Friday during the winter season. Nothing can exceed the dexterity with which they are despatched. About 30 of these large and fat black pigs are driven into a commodious pen, followed by three or four men, each with a sharp skewer in his hand, bent at one end, in order that it may be used with advantage. On entering the pen, these performers, who put you vastly in mind of assassins, make a rush at the hogs, each seizing one by the leg, amid a general yell of horror on the part of the victims. Whilst the hog and the man are struggling on the ground, the latter with the rapidity of thought pushes his skewer betwixt the fore-leg and the body quite into the heart, and then gives it a turn or two. The pig can rise no more, but screams for a minute or so and then expires. This process is continued until they are all despatched, the brutes 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 years as it was when first begun. The sugar is considered to impart a finer and richer flavor than saltpetre, although the latter is most commonly used. There is no reason why both sugar and saltpetre may not be advantageously combined with the salt in pickling pork, as well as in salting beef, for in this latter process there can be no question that a pickle composed of three parts salt, one part saltpetre, and one sugar, is the very best that can be used, making the meat tender, juicy, well flavored, and fine colored.
CURING BACON.
Bacon is the next form in which we eat pig's flesh. There has been some dispute as to the derivation of this word; some authors have suggested that it may be a corruption of the Scotch baken, (dried,) while others suggest that it is derived from becchen, as the finest flitches were considered to be those furnished by animals that were fattened on the fruit of the beech-tree, and this opinion is borne out by the fact that in the old Lancashire dialect the word bacon is both spelt and pronounced beechen. A bacon hog will in general befit for killing at about a twelve-month old, when he will weigh some 200 or 240 lbs.; those persons who care most about the hams will find it answer their purpose best not to let the animals be too fat, or so fat as a bacon-hog, and after having taken off the hams to cut up the carcass for fresh or pickling pork.
There are various methods of curing bacon and hams, practised in the different counties of England, as well as in Scotland, America, and the Continent. We will proceed to describe a few of the best and most successful.
In Hampshire and Berkshire the practice is to choose a dry day, when the wind is blowing from the north, and kill the hog early in the morning (it having fasted the day before.) When dressed hang him up in some airy place for 24 hours, then proceed to cut him up. This being done, lay the flitches on the ground, and sprinkle them with salt lightly, so let them remain for six or eight hours; then turn them up edgeways, and let the brine run off. In the mean time take two or three gallons of best salt, and two ounces of saltpetre, pounded very fine, and well mixed together; and the salting bench being made of the best seasoned oak, proceed to salt the flitches by rubbing in the salt on the back side of the flitch. This being done, turn the inside upwards, and lay on the salt about a quarter of an inch in thickness: in like manner treat every flitch. On the third day afterwards change the flitches, viz., take off the uppermost and reverse them, at the same time lay on salt a quarter of an inch in thickness. There will be no need of rubbing as before-mentioned, neither should the saltpetre be repeated, otherwise the lean of the bacon will be hard. The changing and salting should be done every third day for six successive times, when the bacon will be sufficiently salt. Then proceed to rub off all the stale briny salt, and lay on each flitch a covering of clean fresh bran or sawdust, and take it to the drying loft. It should be there hung by means of crooks fastened in the neck of the flitch, and remain for fourteen or sixteen days. The fuel most proper for drying bacon is cleft oak or ash, what is commonly called cord wood.
In Buckinghamshire, as soon as the flitches are cut from the hog they lay them on a form or table in a slanting position, and, supposing the whole hog to have weighed 240 or 280 lbs., take a quarter of a pound of saltpetre, pounded very fine, and sprinkle it all over the flitches, rubbing it well into the shoulder parts especially; they then suffer them to remain twelve hours, after which they should be rubbed dry, and in the mean time seven pounds of salt mixed with one pound and a quarter of coarse brown sugar put into a frying-pan and heated on a clear fire, stirring it well that it may all be of the same temperature. This mixture, as hot as the hand can possibly bear it, may now be rubbed well into the flitches, which are then put one upon the other and laid in a salting-pan or other contrivance, in order that the brine may form and be kept from wasting. The bacon must be kept in this situation four weeks, turning it and basting it well with the brine twice or thrice a week. At the expiration of this time take it from the brine, hang it up to dry, and smoke it, if preferred, which in the absence of a regular smokehouse may be done as follows:—Hang up the bacon in a chimney or other orifice, then underneath put down a layer of dry straw, upon this a layer of mixed shavings, keeping out those from deal or fir, next a good layer of sawdust and some juniper-berries, or branches where procurable, and over all a mantle of wet straw or litter, which makes the fire give out much smoke without burning away too rapidly. This smoking must be repeated three or four times, or till the bacon appears thoroughly dry, when it may be hung up in the kitchen, or any dry place convenient.
In Kent the hog is swaled or singed, in preference to scalding and scraping the skin, as this latter process, it is considered, tends to soften the rind and injure the firmness of the flesh. The flitches are rubbed with dry salt and saltpetre in the proportion of one-third of the latter to two of the former, and laid in a trough, and there each one sprinkled over with this mixture. Here they continue for three weeks or a month, according to their size, during which time they are taken out once in two or three days and well rubbed with the brine and turned.
They are dried before a slow fire, and this process occupies about the same time that the salting has done. When it is completed the flitches are either hung up in a dry place, or deposited on stone slabs until wanted for domestic use.
In Somersetshire and Wiltshire, the following is the common process:—
When the hogs are prepared, the sides are first laid in large wooden troughs and sprinkled over with rock salt, and there left unmoved for four-and-twenty hours, in order to let all the blood and other superfluous juices be completely drained off from them.
After this they are taken up and thoroughly wiped, and some fresh bay-salt, previously heated in an iron frying-pan, is rubbed into the flesh until it has absorbed a sufficient quantity. This rubbing is continued for four successive days, during which the flitches are usually turned every second day. Where the large hogs are killed it becomes necessary to keep the flitches in brine for three weeks, and after that interval to turn them out and dry them in the common manner.
In the county of Westmoreland, which is celebrated for the flavor of its hams, the following method prevails:—First they are thoroughly rubbed, usually with bay-salt alone, after which some curers advise that they shall be closely covered up, while others leave them on a stone for the purpose of draining off the brine. At the expiration of five days this friction is repeated with equal diligence, but the bay-salt is then combined with somewhat more than an ounce of saltpetre to each ham. They are next suffered to lie about a week either in hogsheads among the brine, or on stone benches, after which they are hung up in the chimney to dry. In this last part of the process there is a difference of practice. By some they are suspended so that they shall be dried solely by the heat arising from the fire below, without being exposed at all to the smoke, while by others they are hung up in the midst of the smoke, whether this arises from coals or peat.
In Yorkshire, after the pig has been killed, it is allowed to hang twenty-four hours previous to being cut up; one pound of saltpetre is then rubbed into a twenty-stone pig, (of fourteen pounds to the stone,) and one and a half or two stones of common salt, taking care that it is well rubbed in; it is then put into a tub kept for the purpose. After having lain a fortnight it is turned over, and a little more salt applied say half a stone; it then remains a fortnight longer in the pickle-tub; whence it is taken and hung up in the kitchen, where it remains two months to dry, but should the winter be far advanced, and dry weather set in, a shorter period might suffice. After being taken from the top of the kitchen, the inside is washed over with quicklime and water, to preserve it from the fly; it is then removed into a room not used by the family, away from heat, and where it will be kept perfectly dry, and is ready for use at pleasure. The smoking system is rarely adopted.
Mr. Henderson, in his "Treatise on Swine" gives the following account of the mode of curing bacon and hams in Scotland:—
"In killing a number of swine, what sides you may have dressed the first day, lay upon some flags or boards, piling them across each other, and giving each flitch a powdering of saltpetre, and then covering it with salt. Proceed in the same manner with the hams themselves, and do not omit giving them a little saltpetre, as it opens the pores of the flesh to receive the salt, and besides, gives the ham a pleasant flavor, and makes it more juicy. Let them lie in this state about a week, then turn those on the top undermost, giving them a fresh salting. After lying two or three weeks longer, they may be hung up to dry in some chimney or smoke-house. Or, if the curer chooses, he may turn them over again, without giving them any more salt; in which state they may lie for a month or two, without catching any harm, until he has convenience for drying them. I practised for many years the custom of carting my flitches and hams through the country to farm-houses, and used to hang them in their chimneys, and other parts of the house, to dry, some seasons to the amount of five hundred carcasses. This plan I soon found was attended by a number of inconveniences, yet it is still common in Dumfriesshire.
"About twenty years ago, I contrived a small smoke-house of a very simple construction. It is about twelve feet square, and the walls about seven feet high. One of these huts requires six joists across, one close to each wall, the other four laid asunder at proper distances. To receive five rows of flitches, they must be laid on the top of the wall. A piece of wood strong enough to bear the weight of one flitch of bacon, must be fixed across the belly end of the flitch by two strings, as the neck end must hang downwards. The piece of wood must be longer than the flitch is wide, so that each end may rest upon a beam. They may be put so near to each other as not to touch. The width of it will hold twenty-four flitches in a row, and there will be five rows, which will contain one hundred and twenty flitches. As many hams may be hung at the same time above the flitches, contrived in the best manner one can. The lower end of the flitches will be within two and a half or three feet of the floor, which must be covered five or six inches thick with sawdust, which must be kindled at two different sides. It will burn, but not cause any flame to injure the bacon. The door must be kept close, and the hut must have a small hole in the roof, so that part of the smoke may ascend. That lot of bacon and hams will be ready to pack up in a hogshead, to send off, in eight or ten days, or a little longer if required, with very little loss of weight. After the bacon is salted it may lie in the salt-house, as described, until an order is received.
"I found the smoke-house to be a great saving, not only in the expense and trouble of employing men to cart and hang it through the country, but it did not lose nearly so much weight by this process. It may be remarked, that whatever is shipped for the London market, or any other, both bacon and hams, must be knocked hard and packed into a sugar hogshead, or something similar, to hold about ten hundred weight. Bacon can only be cured from the middle of September until the middle of April."
The annexed system is the one usually pursued in Westphalia:—
"Six pounds of rock salt, two pounds of powdered loaf sugar, three ounces of saltpetre, and three gallons of spring or pure water, are boiled together. This should be skimmed when boiling, and when quite cold poured over the meat, every part of which must be covered with this brine. Small pork will be sufficiently cured in four or five days; hams, intended for drying, will be cured in four or five weeks, unless they are very large. This pickle may be used again and again, if it is fresh boiled up each time with a small addition to the ingredients. Before, however, putting the meat into the brine, it must be washed in water, the blood pressed out, and the whole wiped clean.
"Pickling-tubs should be larger at the bottom than at the top, by which means, when well packed, the pork will retain its place until the last layer is exhausted. When the pork is cool it may be cut up, the hams and shoulders reserved for bacon, and the remainder salted. The bottom of the tub or barrel should be covered with rock salt, and on it a layer of meat placed, and so on until the tub is filled. The salt should be used liberally, and the barrel filled with strong brine boiled and skimmed, and then cooled.
"The goodness and preservation of hams and shoulders depends on their smoking as well as their salting. Owing to some misconstruction of the smoke-house, and to the surface of the meat not being properly freed from saline matter, or other causes, it not unfrequently happens that during the process of smoking, the meat is constantly moist, and imbibes a pyroligneous acid taste and smell, destructive of its good qualities.
"The requisites of a smoke-house are, that it should be perfectly dry; not warmed by the fire that makes the smoke; so far from the fire, that any vapor thrown off in the smoke may be condensed before reaching the meat; so close as to exclude all flies, mice, &c., and yet capable of ventilation admitting the escape of smoke.
"The Westphalian hams, the most celebrated in Europe, are principally cured at and exported from Hamburg. The smoking of these is performed in extensive chambers, in the upper stories of high buildings. Some are four or five stories high, and the smoke is conveyed to these rooms from fires in the cellar through tubes, on which the vapor is condensed, and the heat absorbed, so that the smoke is both dry and cool when it comes in contact with the meat. They are thus kept perfectly dry, and acquire a color and flavor unknown to those smoked in the common method.
"Hams after being smoked may be kept any length of time by being packed in dry ashes or powdered charcoal, or by being kept in the smoke-house if that is secure against theft, or a smoke is made under them once a-week. When meat is fully smoked or dried, it may be kept hung up in any dry room by slipping over it a cotton bag, the neck of which is closely tied around the string that supports the meat, and thus excludes the bacon-bug, fly, &c. The small part of a ham or shoulder should always be hung downward in the process of smoking, or when suspended for preservation."—Albany Cultivator.
The following method of curing bacon—which has been practised in Virginia and Kentucky by one person with perfect success for five-and-thirty years, during which time he states that he has cured on the average from six to eight thousand pounds every year, or, in the whole, the enormous quantity of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty-five tons—will conclude what we have to say on this division of our subject.
"The hogs should be killed when the weather is sufficiently cold to ensure that when they are hung up, after having been cleaned, they shall not only become quite cold to the touch, but feel hard and stiff. They should be killed on one day, and cut up and salted on the next. When the weather is very cold they should be hung in a cellar or somewhere where they are not likely to become frozen, but if there be no danger of this, let them hang in the open air.
"The process of cutting up is too well known to need description; nothing further need be said than that the backbone or chine should be taken out, as also the spare-ribs from the shoulders, and the mouse-pieces and short-ribs or griskins from the middlings. No acute angles should be left to shoulders or hams. In salting up in Virginia, all the meat except the heads, jowls, chines, and smaller pieces, is put into powdering-tubs (water-tight half-hogsheads). In Kentucky, large troughs, ten feet long and three or four feet wide at the top, made of the Liriodendron tulipifera, or poplar-tree, are used. These are much the most convenient for packing the meat in, and are easily caulked if they should crack so as to leak. The salting-tray, or box in which the meat is to be salted, piece by piece, and from which each piece, as it is salted, is to be transferred to the powdering-tub or trough, must be placed just so near the trough that the man standing between can transfer the piece from one to the other easily, and without wasting the salt as they are lifted from the salting-box into the trough. The salter stands on the off-side of the salting-box. Salt the hams first, the shoulders next, and the middlings last, which may be piled up two feet above the top of the trough or tub. The joints will thus in a short time be immersed in brine.
"Measure into your salting-tray four measures of salt (a peck measure will be found most convenient,) and one measure of clean dry sifted ashes; mix and incorporate them well. The salter takes a ham into the tray, rubs the skin with this composition and the raw hock end, turns it over, and packs the composition of salt and ashes on the fleshy side till it is at least three-quarters of an inch deep all over it, and on the interior lower part of the ham, which is covered with the skin, as much as will lay on it. The man who stands ready to transfer the pieces as they are salted takes up the piece, and deposits it carefully, without displacing the composition, with the skin side down, in the bottom of the trough. Each succeeding ham is thus deposited side by side, so as to leave the least possible space unoccupied.
"When the bottom is all covered, see that every visible part of this layer of meat is covered with the composition of salt and ashes. Then begin another layer, every piece being covered on the upper or fleshy side three-quarters of an inch thick with the composition. When your trough is filled even full in this way with the joints, salt the middlings with salt only, without the ashes, and pile them up on the joints so that the liquefied salt may pass from them into the trough. Heads, jowls, backbones, &c., receive salt only, and should not be put in the trough with the large pieces.
"Much slighter salting will preserve them if they are salted upon loose boards, so that the bloody brine from them can pass off. The joints and middlings are to remain in and above the trough without being re-handled, re-salted, or disturbed in any way, till they are to be hung up to be smoked.
"If the hogs weighed not more than 150 lbs., the joints need not remain longer than five weeks in the pickle; if they weighed 200 or upwards, six or seven weeks is not too long. It is better that they should stay in too long rather than too short a time.
"In three weeks, jowls, &c., may be hung up. Taking out of pickle, and preparation for hanging up to smoke, is thus performed:—Scrape off the undissolved salt (and if you had put on as much as directed, there will be a considerable quantity on all the pieces not immersed in the brine; this salt and the brine is all saved ; the brine boiled down, and the dry composition given to stock, especially to hogs.) Wash every piece in lukewarm water, and with a rough towel clean off the salt and ashes. Then put the strings in to hang up. Set the pieces up edgewise, that they may drain and dry. Every piece is then to be dipped into the meat-paint, and hung up to smoke. The meat-paint is made of warm, not hot, water and very fine ashes stirred together until they are of the consistence of thick paint. When they are dipped in this, they receive a coating which protects them from the fly, prevents dripping, and tends to lessen all external injurious influences. Hang up the pieces while yet moist with the paint, and smoke them well."
It is a fact worthy of notice that the brine in which pork or bacon has been pickled is poisonous to pigs. Several cases are on record in which these animals have died in consequence of a small quantity of brine having been mingled with the wash, under the mistaken impression that it would answer the same purpose and be equally as beneficial as the admixture of a small quantity of salt.
IMPORTATIONS OF BACON, HAM, AND SALTED PORK.
From a reference to the accounts furnished by the Board of Trade, it appears that there have been imported during the last three years,
| 1844. | 1845. | 1846. | |||
| Bacon | cwts. | 36 | 54 | 2,768 | |
| Hams | " | 6,732 | 5,462 | 11,252 | |
| Pork, Salted: | |||||
| Of British Possessions | " | 2,153 | 1,517 | 72,519 | |
| Foreign | " | 28,627 | 38,128 | ||
| Fresh | " | 63 | 133 | 133 | |
| Total of Pork | " | 30,843 | 39,878 | 72,652 |
And of these articles there were entered for home consumption,—
| 1844. | 1845. | 1846. | |||
| Bacon | cwts. | 36 | 54 | 2,768 | |
| Hams | " | 3,568 | 2,602 | 8,385 | |
| Pork, Salted: | |||||
| Of British Possessions | " | 248 | 1,073 | 72,519 | |
| Foreign | " | 1,073 | 1,289 | ||
| Fresh | " | 63 | 133 | 133 | |
| Total of Pork | " | 1,384 | 1,594 | 72,652 |
These tables demonstrate the enormous increase in the importation of these staple articles of food which has taken place since the abolition of the Tariff of 1842 and the substitution of the new one. The alteration of duties is as follows:
| In 1842. | New Tariff. | |||||
| s. | d. | s. | d. | |||
| On Bacon from Foreign Countries | 14 | 0 | per cwt. | 7 | 0 | per cwt. |
| British Possessions | 3 | 6 | " | 2 | 0 | " |
| Ham from Foreign Countries | 14 | 0 | " | 7 | 0 | " |
| British Possessions | 3 | 6 | " | 2 | 0 | " |
| Salted Pork from Foreign Countries. | 8 | 0 | " | 0 | 0 | " |
| British Possessions. | 2 | 0 | " | 0 | 0 | " |
Previous to 1842 the duty on bacon and ham amounted to 28s. and 7s. per cwt., and that on pork to 16s. and 4s.; swine were then prohibited; but when, by the Act 5 & 6 Vict. cap. 47, they became admissible, there were imported,—
| In 1842. | In 1843. | In 1844. | In 1845. | In 1846. | ||||
| 415 | 361 | 269 | 1,598 | 3,443 |
Here again we find the same wonderful increase. In 1845 seven times the number are imported that were brought over in 1844; and in 1846 the import of 1845 is doubled. Yet there is no diminution created in the provision trade by this extraordinary increase in that of live animals, but, on the contrary, it too increases in 1845, and is again doubled in 1846. And the increase of demand is proportionate with that of the supplies.
The accounts of one branch of our imports will this present year, however, in all probability, show a material defalcation in the amount; we allude to those arising from Ireland, whence a large number of the pigs which come to our markets are supplied, and where the present state of dearth has caused numbers of these animals to be destroyed. This fact ought to stimulate our native breeders to increased exertions. In from 1820 to 1825 there was on the average from 204,380 to 338,218 cwts. of bacon and hams imported yearly into England from the sister country. Since the last-named period there has been no decrease; but, the trade between Ireland and Great Britain having been placed on the footing of a coasting-trade, and these articles having been imported without specific duties, it is not so easy to ascertain the precise amounts brought over; they may be, however, estimated at about 500,000 cwt. per annum.
The keeping of swine is fast becoming something more than a mere means of disposing of offal and matters which would otherwise be wasted; and we trust that the value and lucrativeness of this branch of rural economy will soon be fully acknowledged, and that swine will be duly estimated among farmers and breeders. The next step must of necessity speedily follow: men of science will no longer deem them beneath their notice; their habits, instincts, and ailments will be properly studied; individuals as well as the world will be benefited; and a new and important field of knowledge thrown open.
Yet another source of profit accruing from swine, and we close this chapter.
PIG'S DUNG AS MANURE.
The manure proceeding from the pigsty has been often much undervalued, and for this reason, that the litter has been considered as forming the principal portion of it, whereas it constitutes the least valuable part; and, indeed, where all due attention is paid to the cleanliness of the animals and of their dwellings, it can scarcely be regarded as manure at all, at least by itself.
It is the urine and the dung which are valuable; and these are now generally allowed to be peculiarly so, and to constitute no inconsiderable items in the profits arising from the keeping of swine. These matters are, from the very nature of the food of the animals, exceedingly rich and oleaginous, and materially benefit cold soils and grass-lands. But, as with most other things relative to swine, this has also been too much neglected; the animals have been suffered to wander about at will, voiding their dung and urine in waste; or, when confined, the sty perhaps furnished no means of collecting and saving it. We will venture to prophesy that the partial alteration of system which is now gradually spreading will speedily lead to amendment in this point also; and the dung from the piggery will be husbanded with a care little inferior to that bestowed on the fold, stable, or cow-house dung.
Martin says: "There is another point relative to the hog, which we must not omit to notice. We allude to the value of the solid and liquid manure. This has been, and still is, too much neglected. Nevertheless, this manure is really of importance, being peculiarly adapted for cold soils and grass lands. It should always be collected as carefully as that of the stable or cow-house, and husbanded in the same way. Those who keep extensive piggeries will soon find the advantage of this plan, which, besides the profit arising from the manure itself, will necessitate the keeping of the piggery in a state of cleanliness. A dirty sty or yard is a disgrace to the owner; it is the source of disease, and it involves the waste of manure of first-rate quality. The cottager who keeps a pig or two will find the utility of this manure in his garden, and, by due attention, he will prevent the litter or bedding of straw from becoming a mass of filth; thus in two ways effecting a saving."