KEEPING HAMS AND BACON SIX MONTHS.
Query.—A. J. M. writes: I would like to know how to keep hams and bacon in first class shape for the next six months without their getting mouldy and with the least possible shrinkage.
Ans.—There is no practical method for keeping hams and bacon for so long a time after they are smoked without their getting mouldy. There is a method for keeping them in sweet pickle for any length of time, provided you have cold storage facilities. All kinds of pickled meat if stored in a cooler in which the temperature is kept down to 28 degrees can be kept in this cooler for a year or even longer, and when removed will come out like fresh cured meat. Hams and other meats are often purchased when the market is low and stored in a freezer and kept here until such a time that they are in greatest demand and will sell at the highest price. At a temperature of 28 degrees the meat will not freeze after it is cured, and the brine, of course, does not freeze at that temperature. When meat is taken out of such cold storage to be smoked, it should be first soaked from three to five hours in fresh water, and then washed and smoked the same as regular fresh cured meat. Farmers often bury their smoked meats in their oat bins, and are enabled to keep them in good condition for some time, but this is a method which, perhaps, does not suit your purpose. It is best to keep the meat in sweet pickle until you are ready to smoke it, as this will insure a much better article.