To Cure Hams.
8 hams of good size.
8 quarts of fine salt.
4 quarts of brown sugar.
4 ounces of saltpetre.
1 ounce of washing soda.
1/2 ounce of ground mace.
1/2 ounce of ground clove.
Mix all the ingredients together and rub thoroughly into the hams. Pack the meat in a cask or tub having the skin side down. After three weeks change the top layer to the bottom. Let the hams lie in pickle for six or seven weeks; then wash them, and wipe them dry, and finally hang them up to smoke. It will take from one to two weeks to smoke them. They are often smoked three months.
Hams may be pickled in a brine such as is prepared for tongues. They should remain in it from four to six weeks, if they are to be kept through the year.
If you have no smoke-house, six or eight hams can be smoked in a hogshead. Fasten a strong piece of board or joist across the top of the hogshead and suspend the hams from this. Have an old tin or iron pan in which to make the fire. For fuel use corn cobs, green hickory, or oak chips. About twenty corn cobs are enough to use at a time. Have some ashes in the bottom of the pan. Put some live wood coals on this, and then pile on the corn cobs or chips, and place all under the hogshead. Cover the hogshead with several thicknesses of old quilts and carpets. This is to keep in the smoke and also to check the fire, which should just smoulder, making a great deal of smoke and little heat. The fire must be renewed every day. You must be careful not to get so much fire that the meat will be heated.
When thoroughly cured, sew each ham in a thick cotton bag and hang all in a cool dry place, or pack them.