Pork 20 stone; salt, 20 lbs.; saltpetre, 20 oz.; sugar, 10 oz.; 14 to 21 days.
KENTISH MODE OF CUTTING UP AND CURING A PIG.
To a porker of sixteen stone Kentish weight (that is to say, eight pounds to the stone, or nine stone two pounds of common weight), allow two gallons of salt, two pounds of saltpetre, one pound of coarse sugar, and two pounds of bay-salt well dried and reduced to powder. Put aside the hams and cheeks to be cured by themselves; let the feet, ears, tail, and eye-parts of the head be salted for immediate eating; the blade-bones, and ends of the loins and ribs reserved for sausage-meat should it be wanted, and the loin and spare-ribs for roasting. Divide and salt the remainder thus: Mix well together the saltpetre, sugar, and bay-salt, and rub the pork gently with them in every part; cover the bottom of the pickling tub with salt, and pack in the pork as closely as possible, with a portion of the remaining salt between each layer. A very little water is sometimes sprinkled in to facilitate the dissolving of the salt into a brine, but this is always better avoided, and in damp weather will not be needed. If in a fortnight it should not have risen, so as almost entirely to cover the meat, boil a strong brine of salt, saltpetre, sugar, and bay-salt; let it remain until perfectly cold, and then pour it over the pork. A board, with a heavy stone weight upon it, should be kept upon the meat to force it down under the brine. In from three to four months it will be fit for table, and will be delicate and excellent pickled pork.
The pickling parts of a porker of sixteen stone (Kentish weight, or nine stone two pounds of common weight, or fourteen pounds to the stone); common salt, 2 gallons; saltpetre, 2 lbs.; coarse sugar, 1 lb.: bay-salt, 2 lbs.
FRENCH BACON FOR LARDING.
Cut the bacon from the pig with as little lean to it as possible. Rub it well in every part with salt which has been dried, reduced to powder, and sifted; put the layers of bacon close against and upon each other, in a shallow wooden trough, and set in a cool, but not a damp cellar; add more salt all round the bacon, and lay a board, with a very heavy weight upon it. Let it remain for six weeks, then hang it up in a dry and airy place.
Pork, 14 lbs.; salt, 14 oz.: 6 weeks.
TO PICKLE CHEEKS OF BACON AND HAMS.
One pound of common salt, one pound of the coarsest sugar, and one ounce of saltpetre, in fine powder, to each stone (fourteen pounds) of the meat will answer this purpose extremely well. An ounce of black pepper can be added, if liked, and when less sugar is preferred, the proportion can be diminished one half, and the quantity of salt as much increased. Bacon also may be cured by this receipt, or by the Bordyke one for hams. A month is sufficient time for the salting, unless the pork be very large, when five weeks must be allowed for a ham. The ingredients should be well mixed, and all applied at the same time.
To each 14 lbs. of pork, salt, 1 lb.; coarse sugar, 1 lb.; saltpetre, 1 oz.; pepper (if used), 1 oz.: 4 to 5 weeks.