THE ART AND MYSTERY OF CURING, PRESERVING, AND POTTING ALL KINDS OF MEATS, GAME, AND FISH TEXT

custom, for all the foul air in an used room is accumulated near the ceiling. ON THE CURING, SMOKING, AND PRESERVATION OF MEATS, FISH, GAME, POULTRY, & FRUITS. ESSENCES. The following are made use of in the preparation of the finer sort of meats, and are thus made: Essence of Cinnamon.――Half an ounce of the essential oil to half an ounce of spirits. Essence of Clove, Cassia, Nutmeg, and Allspice.――One ounce of any of the oils to half a pint of spirits. Essence of Peppermint, Rose, and Almonds.――A quarter of an ounce of otto of roses, of essential oil of peppermint, or of almonds, to half a pint of spirits. Essence of Lemon and Orange.――Three-quarters of an ounce of the essential oils to half a pint of spirits. Essence of Thyme, Celery, Sage, and Mint.――Half a pint of rectified spirits to an ounce of any of these substances. Essence of Vanilla.――Half a pint of spirits to half an ounce of vanilla pods. Essence of Ginger.――Bruised ginger, eight ounces; chillies, quarter of an ounce; digest for a month and strain. Essence of Cayenne Pepper.――Spirits, six ounces; water, half an ounce; Cayenne pepper, two ounces; red sanders, in powder, half an ounce; digest for ten days and strain. Concentrated Essence of Ginger.――Unbleached ginger, bruised, one ounce; rectified spirits, two ounces; digest ten days, and strain. HUNG BEEF――A SHROPSHIRE SIRLOIN. From the sirloin of a grass-fed young Scot, or prime heifer, the butcher should take off the superfluous suet of the under side, so as to leave the joint handsome, and when it has hung up a week in cold weather, rub it well in every part with Coarse sugar 1 lb. Juniper berries, bruised 1 oz. Shalots, minced 1 oz. Black pepper, ground 1 oz. Turn the meat and continue the rubbing three days, when you may add Rock or common salt 1½ lb. Bay salt, pounded 1 lb. Treacle 1 lb. Persist in this course four days longer, when it will be sufficient to _turn_ it only every second day, and baste it with the liquor ten minutes each time. When it has thus laid fourteen days more, it may be taken up, wiped dry, and suspended in a quick current of air, and bound round with broad tape, so that it may be turned upside down occasionally, to prevent the juices settling in one part. When dried sufficiently, rub coarse oatmeal or bran, first well heated, all over the joint, and hang it in your chimney to be smoked, three days only, with Beech chips 2 parts Peat 2 parts Oak sawdust 2 parts which will impart scarcely any flavour of the smoke for observe, it is “Hung Beef.” CHOICE BREAKFAST BACON. Take a side or “middle” of dairy-fed pork from a pig not exceeding eight score pounds weight, and mixing well Bay or rock salt, pounded 1½ lb. Coarse sugar 1 lb. Shalots, minced 1 oz. Saltpetre, in powder 1 oz. Sal prunelle, in powder 1 oz. Bay leaves 2 oz. Rub both sides of the meat well for a week, turning it every other day, then add common salt and treacle, each one pound, and rub again daily for a week; after which baste and turn only, for a week longer, then take it up, dry with coarse cloths, rub it well all over with peas meal and bran mixed, equal quantities, and hang it to be smoked with Oak lops or sawdust 2 parts Dried fern 2 parts Peat or bog-earth 2 parts for three weeks. Commit it to your ham and bacon chest, to be kept three months or longer, well embedded in malt coom and pulverised charcoal. It will never be rancid. MELTON-HUNT BEEF. Choose a round of prime ox beef, about thirty pounds weight, the butcher removing the bone; examine the flap and take out the kernels and skins, and hang it up in a dry air, where let it remain as long as the weather will permit. Then take Juniper berries, bruised 2 oz. Ten shalots, minced Allspice, ground 2 oz. Black pepper, ground 3 oz. Dried bay leaves 3 oz. Coarse sugar 2 lb. Bay salt 2 lb. Mix them well, and rub all parts well, particularly the flap and the void left by the bone, every day for a week, and turning it every other day. Then add Rock salt or common salt 1 lb. Saltpetre 1½ oz. Garlic, minced 2 heads and never omit rubbing well with the pickle every day for ten days. After this turn it daily for ten days more, then take it up, look well to the centre and fat, and setting it up in proper shape, and skewer and bind it firmly. Wipe it dry, and if not immediately wanted, coat it well over with dry bran or pollard, and smoke it a week with Beech chips 3 parts Oak lops 1 part Fern or grass turfs 2 parts Otherwise, bake it, and when it has cooled forty-eight hours, not less, it will cut firm and obtain for you high commendation. BEEF’S HEART SMOKED. From choice, take the heart of a prime Scot or well-fed heifer, and hang it in a current of dry air for a week, but if it should be a fine large one, and you are in doubt as to its age and probability as to tenderness, ten days or more in hard weather will not be too long to keep it. Clean it well from the coagulated blood in the cavities, ventricles, and wipe the outside with salt and water and sponge. Then take Bay or rock salt 6 oz. Coarse sugar 6 oz. Sal prunelle ½ oz. Water 1 quart Bay leaves, powdered ½ oz. Laurel leaves, shred ½ oz. Boil these a quarter of an hour, skimming well. Put the meat, the small end downwards, in a deep straight-sided vessel, that will just more than contain it, and add to it six large onions sliced and fried brown, with some sweet lard; also Powdered sage 1 oz. Black pepper, ground ½ oz. Fine salt 2 oz. and pour the liquor, nearly scalding hot, upon all these, covering close with brown paper tied over; thus let it remain forty-eight hours, if a moderate sized one, and sixty hours if a large one. Next take it out and wipe dry, and fill all the hollows, of which there are four, with the following stuffing: Fried onions 1 lb. Bay salt, fine powder 1 oz. Allspice, fine powder 1 oz. White pepper, fine powder ½ oz. Olive oil 3 oz. And having pressed this into all parts accessible, make the “deaf ears” secure, that the stuffing does not come out, by sewing thin leather or bladder over the base of the heart, and hang it up, point downwards, in your chimney, and smoke it three weeks. When boiled and got cold properly, it will be a nice relishing article at a trifling expense. Beech chips, with oak dust and fern, or short grass, will be the proper fuel. ULVERSTON RED FLANK OF BEEF. For this purpose engage about twelve pounds of prime young meat, and let it hang the full time to become tender. Trim away the skin neatly, and cut it into pieces adapted to the family requirements. Set the trimmings, with a pound of any rough beef, and a similar weight of lean gammon of bacon, on the fire with Allspice, crushed 1 oz. Juniper berries, crushed 1 oz. Black pepper, crushed 1 oz. Eight shalots, minced Bay salt 1 lb. Common salt or rock ¾ lb. Water 5 pints and boil twenty minutes, skimming well; strain the liquor and pour it hot over the meat, which must be totally immersed. In a week boil up the pickle, adding Saltpetre 2 oz. Bay leaves, dry 1 oz. Cochineal ½ oz. Cover the meat again, and let it remain ten days more; then take it up, dry it well with cloths, and hang it up in a quick current of air, rub it well on both sides with warmed bran, and when it is not capable of retaining any more, coat it with the gelatine and treacle composition so effectually as to totally exclude the air. In three months, meat thus preserved will be juicy and mellow, and presenting a striking contrast with the dry and tough preparations of the general common practice. When wanted for table, plunge a piece of the meat into a pan of boiling water, and keep it so boiling for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, after which draw the utensil a little off the fire, and simmer only, until the cooking is completed. BEEF HAMS. Your butcher will furnish you with a joint of a prime young beef, cut handsomely, and shaped for the purpose. Hang it as long as prudent, then rub it well in all parts with coarse sugar, and turn it every second day for six days, then mix well, Bay salt 1 lb. Common or rock salt 1 lb. Foots of coarse sugar 1 lb. Saltpetre 1 oz. Old stale ale 1 quart These are allowed for each ten pounds of meat. Let the rubbing in of this mixture be sedulously observed for three weeks, and then only the turning every second day, two weeks longer, the pickle having been boiled up again and well skimmed, adding twenty per cent. of the ingredients to replenish the strength. Now take up and dry your meat, and give it a nice firm covering of oatmeal and bran mixed and warmed; hang it in the fresh air a week, changing its position, so that all the juices may not be at one end of it. Smoke it a month with oak lops and sawdust, fern or short grass turfs, and plenty of beech and birch chips. Store it in malt cooms and charcoal, and let it not be molested for four months. HAMBRO’ ROUGH BEEF. Take ten or twelve pounds of any part of the animal that has not much fat or skin, and no bone attached; rub it well over with a pound of West India molasses, made moderately hot, and let it lie so four days; make a pickle of Bay salt 1 lb. Common or rock salt 1 lb. Saltpetre 1 oz. Garlic, minced ½ oz. Juniper berries, bruised 1 oz. Water 2 quarts boiled and skimmed clear, and added to the meat, which must be quite covered, and remain so three weeks more. Now dry it well, give it a good coat of pea flour, and covering with brown paper, smoke it a month with Oak sawdust 5 parts Peat or bog earth 1 part BRESLAU BEEF. Take the second round or fillet of beef without fat or bone, cut it into two equal parts horizontally, and rub them well with the following mixture: Black pepper, ground 1 oz. Garlic, minced ½ oz. Juniper berries, bruised 2 oz. Bay salt 1 lb. Rock or common salt 1 lb. Foots of sugar 1 lb. Let them lie, being regularly rubbed and turned for fourteen days. Boil up your pickle, skimming it thoroughly at the expiration of each week, and add, at the end of the fortnight, Allspice, bruised 2 oz. Saltpetre 2 oz. Strong vinegar 1 pint Let them lie thus a week together, then take them up and wipe dry. Smoke one of the pieces for three weeks, in brown paper, with oak and fern, and hang it in a dry air to harden a month. The other portion of the meat may be thoroughly dried in an air current, and then coated with the gelatine composition, and exposed to the air a month also. Both these are intended for rubbing on a tin grater, and taken on bread and butter, or as sandwiches, and well adapted for gentlemen emigrating and travelling at home. WHITEHAVEN CORNED BEEF. For a round of beef about twenty-five pounds weight. Rub it in all parts with Coarse sugar 1 lb. Allspice, ground 3 oz. Nutmeg, grated 1 oz. Sal prunelle 1 oz. and let it lie, turned and rubbed daily, for a week. Then add Rock or common salt 2 lb. Saltpetre ¼ lb. Vinegar 1 pint Water 1 pint boiled twenty minutes, skimmed and let go cold. Baste the meat twice a day, and turned every second day for three weeks longer. Now take up and wipe dry, sew a broad fillet of light canvas around the meat tightly, and suspend it to be dried very gradually in your chimney, with beech and birch embers. It may hang thus for three weeks, never allowing a flame, and should be turned occasionally. NEATS’ TONGUES. For each tongue of seven to nine pounds weight, having cut out the gullet and trimmed the root, take Bay salt 1 oz. Coarse sugar 3 oz. Saltpetre, pounded ½ oz. Cochineal, pounded ½ oz. Mix well, and rub the meat well for four days, then add for each tongue one ounce more salt and continue the rubbing and turning six days longer. The curing is now completed, and if wanted for table, may be boiled slowly four to five hours. If it is intended to dress them fresh out of pickle as wanted, the _rubbing_, except for the first day, must be omitted, and in such case, they would not be unpleasantly salt for four or five weeks; nevertheless, they should be _turned_ daily. If they are only to be _dried_, wipe them well when taken out of the pickle, and rub them all over with bran or pollard warmed, but if to be _smoked_, it must be done with Beech chips 2 parts Dried fern 2 parts Oak sawdust 2 parts for a week, and they may be packed along with your hams in malt cooms and pulverised charcoal. NEATS’ TONGUES, VERY HIGH FLAVOUR. Having cut away the useless parts at the roots, and removed the gullets, rub the tongues all over with coarse sugar or real West India molasses, and let them lie twenty-four hours; then take Juniper berries 1 oz. Black pepper, ground ½ oz. Sal prunelle ½ oz. Treacle 1 lb. mix, and rub with it three days, turning them daily; then add Bay salt 9 oz. Common or rock salt 12 oz. rub three days, and turn the meat daily for a week, when you may dry it and smoke with beech and fern or grass turfs. The above proportions are for one fine tongue of eight or nine pounds. A BOAR’S HEAD. Procure the head of a large well-fed bacon hog, your butcher having had it open and taken out the tongue, gullet, eyes, and nasal cartilages, and small bones; remove the brain and clean it thoroughly, particularly at the roots of the ears and nostrils; wash it quickly in salt and water, and dry with cloths. Rub it well in all parts with rock or common salt, and hang it up to drain twenty-four hours. Next, make a pickle of Garlic, chopped ½ oz. Shalots 1 oz. Juniper berries 2 oz. Jamaica pepper 2 oz. Sal prunelle 3 oz. Water 1 gal. Bay salt 2 lb. Treacle 2 lb. Boil fifteen minutes, and skim, and when cold pour it over the head and tongue, placed in a deep straight-sided earthen vessel, where it must remain, being turned every second day, and well covered with the pickle for a month; at the end of fourteen days take out the tongue, boil up the pickle, adding one pound more salt, and pour it again on the head cold. When taken out of pickle, wipe both the head and tongue dry, and with a sharp knife cut through the rind from the nose to the base, in lines two inches apart, but not severing the flesh. You may now remove any superfluous fat from the base, but not interfering with the lean part; rub all over with dried oatmeal; peel the tongue, and skewer it inside the head, close the sides with string, and smoke it in brown paper for three weeks, with Oak sawdust 2 parts Beech and birch chips 3 parts Fern or grass turfs 1 part Store it in malt cooms, and when wanted let it be baked. WESTPHALIA HAMS. Get your legs of pork――each about sixteen pounds weight――cut in shape like those imported, viz. longer and more narrow than usual, inclining to a peak at the large end, and flattened between boards weighted down upon them. But since they may be cured at home far finer flavoured, and of infinitely far superior quality in the feeding, this attempt at deception is optional. The following is a good mixture, with which let the meat be rubbed well, and turned daily for three days: Saltpetre 1 oz. Sal prunelle 1 oz. Coarse sugar 1 oz. Bay salt 1 oz. Juniper berries, bruised 2 oz. Then let them lie in this way, only turning them for ten days more, when you will boil up the ingredients, adding Best pickling vinegar 1 pint Water 1 pint and when cold turn it to the meat, and baste with it a fortnight longer. You may now take them up and dry them well. They must hang in a current of fresh air for a week or more, and then be smoked a month with oak lops, fern, and grass turfs. WESTPHALIA HAMS ECLIPSED. Take a fine thick leg of pork, of about sixteen pounds weight, and mix Saltpetre, finely beaten 1½ oz. Coarse sugar 10 oz. Rock or common salt 4 oz. Bay salt, beaten fine 5 oz. with which rub the meat in all parts once a day, and turning it for four days. Bring a pint of pickling vinegar to the boiling point, with one ounce of sliced shalot in it, and when cold add it to the meat, which must be turned daily for a month; then take it out of pickle, hang it to drip twenty-four hours, turn the ham end for end twice a