These are the flesh of older animals than pork, and consequently, if digested, they are more nutritious; but as they are hardened by deep "curing," they are more difficult of digestion in their lean parts, and what I have said under the head of "Beef and Mutton" on the importance of "cutting thin slices across the grain," applies in its fullest force to these, and to all meats hardened by curing and pickling. The great value of bacon is as a store of fat in a compact and agreeable form (See Fat), and when toasted in slices, which secures thorough cooking, the fat seldom disagrees even with delicate stomachs. This is not the case with the toasted lean. Much of the objection to cured meat is removed in the case of tongues in consequence of their peculiar "grain," which enables the digestive juices to penetrate them easily; and many hams and gammons of bacon which have been well cured, well soaked, and skilfully cooked, and then thinly sliced across the grain, can be well digested by even weak stomachs; but all these provisions are necessary.