The modes of curing hams are various in different parts of the country, and by different people. We give the following: For three hams about twenty pounds each, take common salt and coarse sugar two pounds each, bay salt and saltpetre six ounces each, black pepper four ounces, juniper berries two ounces; mix together, and grind or pound, and dry before the fire; rub this mixture, while warm, into the hams, and then add as much common salt as will entirely cover them. In two or three days pour over the hams a pound of molasses; baste them with the pickle every day for a month, putting each day the top ham to the bottom; drain and smoke (see Drying and Smoking;) or, take two quarts of water, two pounds of salt, four ounces of saltpetre, one pound of bay salt, two pounds of molasses; boil all tog-ether, and when cold pour the mixture over the ham, but do not rub them. To give a smoky flavour, some persons recommend a pint of tar water to be poured into the brine! This pickle is sufficient for two moderately sized bams, they will require to be about three weeks in pickle, when they must be drained, and sewed up separately in coarse hessens wrappers, and hung to dry in a kitchen of moderate temperature, or laid upon a bacon rack.

377. Yorkshire ha?ns are completely covered with the following pickle, in quantities according to the meat to be cured: Common salt, a peck; bay salt, five pounds; saltpetre and sal prunel, of each two ounces, all pounded together. Having thoroughly cleansed your hands, rub thoroughly in this mixture, and lay the rest over them; after lying three days, take out the meat and boil the pickle in two gallons of water; put in as much common salt as will make the pickle bear an egg; skim and strain: when cold, pour it over the meat, and let it lie a fortnight. Yorkshire hams are not smoked.