The Winchester Weekly Appeal

Agricultural Corner.

CURING BACON.

The following well-timed article we take from the Louisville Journal, and commend it to the careful consideration of our readers:

As the season is at hand when farmers are preparing to kill their hogs it may not be amiss to say something about making bacon. Nearly all our old farmers are adepts in the art, and take a commendable pride in the excellency of their bacon. Indeed it is a rare thing to find inferior bacon in Kentucky; though the rule is not without exceptions, as witness the following letter from an old Virginian, who sends us his recipe for curing hams:

Editors of the Journal:

Gentlemen--Enclosed you will find a celebrated recipe for curing bacon shoulders and hams, which you can publish for the benefit of your numerous readers, or not, just as you deem proper. I withhold my name, from the fact that I have no wish for public notoriety of any sort; but being an old fashioned Virginian, fond of good living, and good bacon in particular, I feel sadly the want in my new home of this most essential element of a man's comfort in living, and have no doubt a strict observance of the recipe would produce hams as fine in flavor and as sound for keeping as the very choicest Virginia bacon. Hams cured by this recipe will keep perfectly sweet and sound for six to ten years, and took the premium at the two last State Fairs held in Virginia. Respectfully,

VIRGINIAN.

RECIPE.

Supposing the hogs are killed at daybreak as is usual among farmers. they should hang from twenty-four to thirty-six hours before being cut up. or until the animal heat has entirely departed. Upon each joint upon the skin side rub well half tea-spoonful of saltpetre; then rub salt of good quality on both sides well. leaving the salt about one quarter inch thick on the flesh side of a piece of meat. After salting, they should be packed in a close trough or box, tight and close enough to hold brine; lay them in the box with the skin side down, taking care that the pieces do not touch each other, being kept separate by the salt. If large hams, let them remain in the box undisturbed for five weeks; if small size for four weeks. Take them out. scrape off the salt, rub them all over with hickory ashes, hang up in the smoke house hock down; smoke moderately for four weeks, making only two fires a day, and they are to be made of hickory chips. About the 1st of March take down the pieces and rub them again with hickory ashes. and hang again in the smoke house where they can remain the whole year. Care must be taken not to let the hams touch each other in the smoke house. If a little green mould should appear on the outside it only insures it against spoiling."

After copying the above recipe, the Journal makes the following additional remarks:

Hogs of about 200 pounds net are the best size for family meat. It is a good practice to make two killings one as early as the weather will admit and the other in four or five weeks after. By this means the spare ribs. sausages, &c., are used fresher. and. by selecting the fattest hogs for the first killing, those that have not fattened so fast will have a better chance, as it is a rare thing to see a pen of hogs fatten uniformly. In regard to the time that the meat should lie in salt, the size of the joints and the temperature of the smoke house will have to be considered. If the joints are large and the weather very cold five or six weeks will not be too long. Should the weather be warm and damp, three or four weeks will thoroughly salt the meat. The art, to be acquired by experience only, of making it just salt enough, has more to do with making good bacon than anything else connected with it.

The use of sugar in curing hams is really only a security against oversalting the meat, while it secures its perfect curing by the antiseptic properties of the sugar instead of a portion of salt. For bacon to keep a long time, we should prefer the use of the salt alone.

To keep bacon well through the summer the smoke house should be perfectly dark, but while in salt and during the smoking there should be ventilation. To secure this, some air-holes should be left about the top of the square, and as soon as the meat is smoked, these should be carefully stopped and remain closed all summer as perfect security against the fly and skipper. We would advise that, as soon as the smoking is finished, all the joints should be wrapped up in paper and put in bags made of strong cotton oznaburgs with a draw string at the mouth, and then hung up again. As the hams are used these bags are washed and put away for use again. In this way they will last many years. particularly if hung up in the smoke house while the meat is smoking. as the smoke will preserve the cotton much longer than it would otherwise last. While smoking, the meat should be hung as high in the roof of the house as possible, but when it is put in bags and hung up for the summer it is better to hang it as near the middle of the smoke house as possible, as the hot sun of summer beaming upon the roof makes it so hot at the highest point as to make the meat more or less oily, but. if hung as low as the square of the building, this does not occur, and the meat will keep perfectly dry and pure.

A writer in a late number of the Homestead advises that the bags in which the hams are put should be first dipped in a very strong salt brine, to make them impervious to insects. We have found good cotton oznaburgs a perfect security without it, but if common domestic cotton is used this may be a necessary precaution.