INTRODUCTION.
AN APPARATUS FOR DRYING AND SMOKING.
I recommend this apparatus, having, for many years, employed exactly such an one in my own business.
The Chimney should be three brick walls of light structure, a back and two sides, to be run up to the height of about nine feet from a paved floor. It must be open in front for a yard high from the bottom, and then a wooden door-frame must be put in, to carry a door five feet high, or, preferably, two doors, each two feet six inches, one above the other, the advantage of which will be seen when you come to make use of it. Above this door there must be brick-work again, for one foot higher, and then the top must be covered over. The inside of the chimney must be one yard wide, and two feet six inches deep, that is, from the front to the back. On each side there must be fixed a framework of wood, with strips one inch square, nailed across at the distance of six inches apart, these reaching from the bottom of the door-frame and terminating within a foot of the top of the chimney; on these strips will rest your spits or rods when laden with fish. Six inches from the top, two or three iron bars, with movable hooks running on them, must be fixed in the brickwork, which will be able to sustain the weight of sides of bacon, hams, salmon, &c. &c. A sheet of strong wire-work, or a plate of sheet-iron, perforated with many holes half an inch in diameter, must be fixed upon the bottom of the door frame. This will distribute the smoke in its ascent, and receive any small fish that may fall from the spits while being smoked. Six inches from the top of the chimney a wooden pipe six inches square must be introduced, to carry the smoke out of the room or shed, and in this must be put a valve or slide, which, when shut, will increase the volume of vapour in the chimney, and when opened will discharge the same; thus you will have the force of the fumigation completely under your command. A door of light sheet-iron should be hung at the open space at the bottom of the front, and so as to be let down or kept open at your pleasure, by means of which the heat from your fire may be reduced as necessity may require, by letting in the cold air, and this can be let down partially or totally when it is desirable to increase the draught. This iron door must not reach quite to the floor, but leaving about six inches open, to keep a small current of air always in the chimney. This construction has many advantages over the old-fashioned close-fronted chimneys.
The Spits, or Rods, must be of any tough wood, perfectly round and a little pointed at one end, half an inch diameter and three feet long. These are for bloaters, &c. For sprats and other small fish, you must have spits of iron wire, also a yard long, and pointed bluntly. For split mackerel, kippered herrings, &c., you must have deal rods of inch square wood, and with wrought-iron sprigs, two inches long, driven through them, and protruding on the other side, on which the shoulders of the various sorts of fish must be fixed.
The Horses, on which the rods must rest while drying the fish, must be plainly made by fixing two upright posts, in figure like the Roman capital letter T inverted, thus ┴ at the distance of three feet from each other, by means of two or three connecting rails. The posts may be six feet long, with strips of wood nailed across them six inches apart; on these will rest all the different sorts of rods when loaded with fish, and will correspond with the wood-work inside of your chimney.
FUEL FOR SMOKING.
Oak lops, or the extreme branches of that tree, such as charcoal is made from in the country places; it may be procured in large towns from manufacturers of rustic chairs and garden seats. Dried fern and short grass, the latter being pared off the heaths and short pastures, very thin, and well dried in the air. Beech and birch chips, or sycamore, are used with all fine goods. Peat or bog-earth must be procured on account of its preservative and deodorising quality; it imparts a wonderfully mild and truly acceptable flavour mixed along with other fuel.
Oak sawdust must be from the dry, old, heart of oak trees; the outside slabs will not do, as being full of sour sap. It is needless to say all these should be quite dry when taken into your stock, and kept so, for it will not suit your purpose to have a damp fume in your chimney.
PRESERVATIVES.
All the manufactured white edible salts impart a bitter taste to meats and fish cured by them, particularly if the same are to be kept many months. This is the reason why bay salt is so much used in part, along with the common salt, and if bay salt was less expensive, it would be universally used, and alone. I cannot recommend too strongly the use of the rock salt of the Cheshire mines; it acts similarly to the bay salt, and is by no means expensive.
Foots of Sugar can be got from the wholesale grocers, and is much preferable to the common sorts sold. It is nearly double the strength, and is not so rank and mawkish in the flavour it gives. There is a quantity of it at the bottom of every cask of the West India sugar when first opened. It is preferable to treacle in many respects. To store your goods when cured, and to keep them in the best possible state of preservation, there is nothing so well adapted, and proved by experience to be effectual, as malt cooms, which should be contained in chests and boxes, with little bags of pulverised charcoal here and there distributed throughout. Hanging up hams, tongues, smoked meats, &c., in paper or calico bags, from the ceilings of kitchens, and all habitable rooms with fires in them, is an old, but very thoughtless, custom, for all the foul air in an used room is accumulated near the ceiling.
ON THE
CURING, SMOKING, AND PRESERVATION
OF
MEATS, FISH, GAME, POULTRY, & FRUITS.
ESSENCES.
The following are made use of in the preparation of the finer sort of meats, and are thus made:
Essence of Cinnamon.—Half an ounce of the essential oil to half an ounce of spirits.
Essence of Clove, Cassia, Nutmeg, and Allspice.—One ounce of any of the oils to half a pint of spirits.
Essence of Peppermint, Rose, and Almonds.—A quarter of an ounce of otto of roses, of essential oil of peppermint, or of almonds, to half a pint of spirits.
Essence of Lemon and Orange.—Three-quarters of an ounce of the essential oils to half a pint of spirits.
Essence of Thyme, Celery, Sage, and Mint.—Half a pint of rectified spirits to an ounce of any of these substances.
Essence of Vanilla.—Half a pint of spirits to half an ounce of vanilla pods.
Essence of Ginger.—Bruised ginger, eight ounces; chillies, quarter of an ounce; digest for a month and strain.
Essence of Cayenne Pepper.—Spirits, six ounces; water, half an ounce; Cayenne pepper, two ounces; red sanders, in powder, half an ounce; digest for ten days and strain.
Concentrated Essence of Ginger.—Unbleached ginger, bruised, one ounce; rectified spirits, two ounces; digest ten days, and strain.