539. How To Cure Hams

The following is the Newbold receipt for curing hams.

Seven pounds of coarse salt,

Five pounds of brown sugar,

Half an ounce of pearl-ash, two ounces of saltpetre, Four gallons of water.

Boil the above ingredients together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it over your hams, and let them remain in it eight weeks.

The above proportions are for one hundred pounds of meat.

541. How To Cure Dried Beef

For one hundred pounds of beef: Seven pounds of coarse salt,

Five pounds of brown sugar,

Half an ounce of pearl-ash, two ounces of saltpetre. Four gallons of water

Boil the sugar, salt, pearl-ash, saltpetre and water together, skim it and pour it over the meat when it is cold. At the end of three weeks take out your beef. This is the celebrated Newbold receipt.

542. How To Cure Beef And Hams

Half a bushel of fine salt, Half a pound of saltpetre, Half a gallon of molasses.

Mix the salt, saltpetre, and molasses together well with your hands, until the mixture resembles brown sugar.

Rub the meat well with this mixture, then place it in your tubs, with the fleshy side up; it should have a coating of the salt, etc, at least half an inch thick. At the end of ten days, or two weeks 23* at farthest, take out your beef, and hang it in a dry place. Hams should remain in the salt from five to six weeks.

Never smoke beef. Hams would be better if not smoked.

543. How To Cure Shad

Clean the shad nicely, place them in layers with back down, and laid open so as the inside of the fish may be up. Sprinkle each fish plentifully with ground salt, and let them stand twenty-four hours. This draws out all the blood. Wipe them all dry with clean napkins.

Place them in layers in a clean tub, with the backs down as before. For one hundred shad take half a pound of saltpetre, and two pounds of brown sugar. Strew plenty of rock salt over them with the saltpetre and sugar, there is no danger of putting on too much salt as they will only absorb a certain quantity.