Preservatives. These consist of such substances or methods as are employed for preventing decay in fruits, meat, and other perishable matter; together with valuable antiseptics.

1599. To Dry Fresh Meat

1599.     To Dry Fresh Meat. Cut the flesh into slices from 2 to 6 ounces in weight, immerse a small portion at a time in boiling water for 5 or 6 minutes, using only just water enough to cover the meat, and adding fresh water only to keep the liquor up to its original quantity. Lay the meat to dry on open trellis-work in a drying stove, keeping the temperature at about 122° Fahr. In about two days the meat will be completely dry, having lost about 2/3 its weight. Add a little salt and spice, especially coriander, to the liquor or soup in which the meat was immersed, and then evaporate it to a gelatinous consistence. "When the flesh is perfectly dry, dip it, piece by piece, in the gelatinous matter liquefied by a gentle heat, and replace it in the stove to dry, repeating this varnishing and drying 2 or 3 times, so as to get the coating uniformly thick. Meat thus dried will keep good for a year.

1600. To Smoke Meat

1600.    To Smoke Meat. This process consists in exposing meat, previously salted, to wood-smoke, in an apartment (usually called a smoke-house), into which the smoke is admitted by flues at the bottom of the side walls. The meat absorbs the pyroligneous acid of the smoke, and gets dried at the same time. It may be protected from soot by rubbing over with bran, or wrapping in a cloth. The smoke from oak or beech wood is preferable ; and the smoking is better slow and gentle than rapid and powerful; the latter plan being too often adopted from motives of economy. Hams thus prepared, as is often the case, are ham merely on the surface, and corned pork inside. This process is sometimes imitated by immersing the meat for a few hours in diluted pyrolygneous acid, but it is apt to harden or toughen the meat.

1601. Smoking Fluid

1601.     Smoking Fluid. One drop of creosote in a pint of water imparts a smoky flavor to fish or meat dipped into it for a few-minutes.

1602. To Dry-Salt and Pickle Meat

1602.    To Dry-Salt and Pickle Meat.

This is best performed by well rubbing the meat with a mixture of salt, 2 pounds; saltpetre, 2 ounces; and moist sugar 11/2 ounces, till every crevice is thoroughly penetrated, after which it should be set aside till the next day, when it should be covered with fresh salt in such parts as require it. It may then be advantageously placed in any proper vessel, and subjected to pressure, adding a little fresh salt as necessary, and turning it daily till sufficiently cured. When the brine as it forms is allowed to drain from the meat, the process is called dry-salting; but when, on the contrary, it is allowed to remain on it, the article is said to be wet-salted. On the small scale, the latter is most conveniently performed by rubbing the meat with salt, etc., as above, and after it has lain a few hours, putting it into a pickle formed by dissolving 4 pounds salt, 1/2 or 1 pound sugar, and 2 ounces saltpetre in 2 gallons water. This pickling liquor gets weaker by use, and should therefore be occasionally boiled down a little and skimmed, at the same time adding some more of the dry ingredients.