Meat should be examined every day in cold, and oftener in warm weather, as it sometimes taints very soon. Scrape off the outside, if the least appearance of mould, on mutton, beef, or venison; and flour the scraped parts. By well peppering meat you may keep away flies, which cause so much destruction in a short time. But a very coarse cheese-cloth, wrapped round the joint, is more effectual, if the meat is to be dressed soon. Remove the kidneys, and all the suet, from loins which are wanted to hang long, in warm or close weather, and carefully wipe and flour that part of the meat. Before you put meat which is rather stale to the fire, wipe it with a cloth dipped in vinegar. A joint of beef, mutton, or venison, may be saved by being wrapped in a cloth and buried, over night, in a hole dug in fresh mould. Neither veal, pork, or lamb should be kept long.
Poultry and game keep for some length of time, if the weather be dry and cold, but if moist or warm, will be more liable to taint, than venison or any kind of meat, except veal. A piece of charcoal put inside of any kind of poultry will greatly assist to preserve it. Poultry should be picked, drawn and cropped. Do not wash, but wipe it clean, and sprinkle the parts most likely to taint with powdered loaf sugar, salt, and pepper. As I should reject the use of all chemical processes, for the preservation of meat, I do not recommend them to others.
Frost has a great effect upon meat, poultry, and game. Some cooks will not be persuaded of the necessity for its being completely thawed before it is put near the fire; yet it neither roasts, boils, nor eats well, unless this be done. If slightly frozen, the meat may be recovered, by being five or six hours in the kitchen; not near the fire. Another method is, to plunge a joint into a tub of cold water, let it remain two or three hours, or even longer, and the ice will appear on the outside. Meat should be cooked immediately after it has been thawed, for it will keep no longer.
If the tastes of all persons were simple and unvitiated, there would be little occasion for the cook's ingenuity to preserve meat after it has begun to putrefy. An objection to meat in that state, does not arise merely from distaste, but from a conviction of its being most unwholesome. There may have been a difference of opinion among the scientific upon this subject: but, it seems now to be generally considered by those who best understand such matters, that when meat has become poisonous to the air, it is no longer good and nutritious food. The fashion of eating meat à la cannibale, or half raw, being happily on the decline, we may now venture to express our dislike to eat things which are half decomposed, without incurring the charge of vulgarity.
SALTING AND CURING MEAT.
The Counties of England differ materially in their modes of curing bacon and pork; but the palm of excellency in bacon has so long been decreed to Hampshire, that I shall give no other receipts for it, but such as are practised in that, and the adjoining counties. The best method of keeping, feeding, and killing pigs, is detailed in Cobbett's Cottage Economy; and there, also, will be found directions for salting and smoking the flitches, in the way commonly practised in the farm-houses in Hampshire. The smoking of bacon is an important affair, and experience is requisite to give any thing like perfection in the art. The process should not be too slow nor too much hurried. The skin should be made of a dark brown colour, but not black; for by smoking the bacon till it becomes black, it will also be made hard, and cease to have any flavour but that of rust.—Before they are dressed, both bacon and hams require to be soaked in water; the former an hour or two, the latter, all night, or longer, if very dry. But, according to some, the best way to soak a ham is to bury it in the earth, for one, two, or three nights and days, according to its state of dryness.
Meat will not take salt well either in frosty or in warm weather. Every thing depends upon the first rubbing; and the salt, or pickle, should not only be well rubbed in, but this is best done by a hard hand. The following general direction for salting meat may be relied on:—"6 lbs. of salt, 1 lb. of coarse sugar, and 4 oz. of saltpetre, boiled in 4 gallons of water, skimmed and allowed to cool, forms a very strong pickle, which will preserve any meat completely immersed in it. To effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board or flat stone must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly, provided it be boiled up occasionally with additional salt to restore its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to spoil, is coagulated and rises in the form of scum, which must be carefully removed."
It is a good practice to wash meat before it is salted. This is not generally done; but pieces of pork, and, more particularly, beef and tongues, should first lie in cold spring water, and then be well washed to cleanse them from all impurities, in order to ensure their being free from taint; after which, drain the meat, and it will take the salt much quicker for the washing.—Examine it well; and be careful to take all the kernels out of beef.
Some persons like salted meat to be red. For this purpose, saltpetre is necessary. Otherwise, the less use is made of it the better, as it tends to harden the meat. Sweet herbs, spices, and even garlic, may be rubbed into hams and tongues, with the pickle, according to taste. Bay salt gives a nice flavour. Sugar is generally used in curing hams, tongues and beef; for the two latter some recommend lump sugar, others treacle, to make the meat eat short.
In cold weather salt should be warmed before the fire. Indeed, some use it quite hot. This causes it to penetrate more readily into the meat than it does when rendered hard and dry by frost.
Salting troughs or tubs should be clean, and in an airy place. After meat of any kind has been once well rubbed, keep it covered close, not only with the lid of the vessel, but, in addition, with the thick folds of some woollen article, in order to exclude the air. This is recommended by good housekeepers; yet in Hampshire the trough is sometimes left uncovered, the flitches purposely exposed to the air.
To cure Bacon.
As soon as the hog is cut up, sprinkle salt thickly over the flitches, and let them lie on a brick floor all night. Then wipe the salt off, and lay them in a salting trough. For a large flitch of bacon, allow 2 gallons of salt, 1 lb. of bay salt, 4 cakes of salt prunella, a ¼ lb. of saltpetre, and 1 lb. of common moist sugar; divide this mixture into two parts; rub one half into it the first day, and rub it in well. The following day rub the other half in, and continue to rub and turn the flitch every day for three weeks. Then hang the flitches to drain, roll them in bran, and hang them to smoke, in a wood-fire chimney. The more quickly, in reason, they are smoked, the better the bacon will taste.
To cure a Ham.
Let a leg of pork hang for three days; then beat it with a rolling pin, and rub into it 1 oz. of saltpetre finely powdered, and mixed with a small quantity of common salt; let it lie all night. Make the following pickle: a quart of stale strong beer,½ lb. of bay salt,½ lb. of common salt, and the same of brown sugar; boil this twenty minutes, then wipe the ham dry from the salt, and with a wooden ladle, pour the pickle, by degrees, and as hot as possible, over the ham; and as it cools, rub it well into every part. Rub and turn it every day, for a week; then hang it, a fortnight, in a wood-smoke chimney. When you take it down, sprinkle black pepper over the bone, and into the holes, to keep it safe from hoppers, and hang it up in a thick paper bag.
Another.
For one of 16 lb. weight. Rub the rind side of the ham with ¼ lb. of brown sugar, then rub it with 1 lb. of salt, and put it in the salting-pan, then rub a little of the sugar, and 1 oz. of saltpetre, and 1 oz. salt prunel, pounded, on