Page:The Hog.djvu/218

216 "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