How To Salt Beef And Pork

Before you salt meat, remember to take out the kernels: there is always one in the udder of a round of beef, and one in the fat in the middle of the round, and several about the thick end of the flank, and another in the mouse buttock; and if they are not taken out, all the salt in the world will not keep the meat.

The great art of salting meat is to rub in the salt thoroughly and evenly into every part, and to till all the holes full of salt where the kernels were taken out, and where the butcher's skewers were: a round of beef of 40 pounds will take a pound and a quarter of salt to be rubbed in all at first, and turn it and rub it every day with the brine: it will be ready for dressing in eight or ten. days, if you do not wish it very salt. In summer, salt your meat as soon as it comes in, and take care to defend it from the flies. In winter, it will eat the shorter and tenderer if kept three or four days before it is salted; and in frosty weather warm the salt in a frying pan, and rub it on the meat while it is hot. If you wish it to look red, rub it with saltpetre and bay salt, in the proportion of two ounces of each of these to half a pound of common salt.

An H-bone will require about half a pound of salt to be well rubbed into it, and will be ready in four or five days, if turned and rubbed every day.

Pork requires a longer time to cure it (in proportion to its weight) than beef, and a leg of pork should be in salt eight or ten days.

Salted meat should always be well washed before it is boiled, especially if it has been in salt long, that the liquor the meat is boiled in, may not be too salt to make soup of. If your meat has been in salt a long time, and you think it will be too salt, lay it in water the night before you intend to dress it.

How To Boil A Round Of Salted Beef

This is generally too large for a moderate family, so we shall write directions for the dressing half a round.

Skewer it up as tight and as round as possible, and tie a fillet of broad tape round it, to keep the skewers in their places. Put it into plenty of cold water, and carefully catch the scum as it rises; let it boil till all the scum is removed, and then put the boiler on one side of the fire to keep simmering till it is done. Half a round of 20lbs. will take near three hours; if it weighs more, give it more time. When you take it up, wash-it well with a paste brush, and garnish the dish with carrots: send up carrots, turnips, and parsnips, or greens, on separate dishes. Pease pudding is very good with it.

H-Bone Of Beef

Is to be managed in exactly the same manner as the round, but will be sooner boiled, as it is not so solid: an H-bone of 20lbs. will be enough in about two hours and a half, and H-bones of 10lbs. in two. Be sure the boiler is big enough to allow it plenty of water-room; for the more water it is boiled in, the better it will look, and the tenderer it will eat.

Observations

In "Mrs Mason's Ladies' Assistant" this joint is called haunch-bone; in "Henderson's Cookery," edge bone; in "Domestic Management," aitch-bone," in "Reynolds' Cookery," ische bone. We have also seen it spelt ach-bone, and each-bone.