For one hundred pounds of fine pork, take seven pounds of coarse salt, five pounds of brown sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, half an ounce of pearlash, and four gallons of water. Boil all together, and skim the pickle when cold. Pour it on the meat. Let hams or tongues remain in the pickling-tub eight weeks. Before it is smoked, hang it up and dry it two or three days. Three weeks will be sufficient for pickling beef. Previous to sewing the hams in cases, rub them all over with ground black pepper.
Soap-suds given frequently to pigs, when kept up to fatten, will greatly promote their health.
BOILED HAM.—
Having soaked a fine ham from early in the evening till near bed-time, putting it into warm water, and changing that water about ten or eleven o'clock—wash and brush it well in the morning, and trim it so as to look nicely all over. Lay at the bottom of the ham-boiler a bed of nice fresh hay, which will greatly improve the flavor. Let the hock bone be sawed off short. A long shank bone looks very awkward. Place the ham upon the hay—pour in plenty of cold water, and keep it simmering very slowly an hour before you allow it to boil. Then increase the heat gradually, and keep the ham boiling steadily for four, five, or six hours, according to its size and age. An old ham requires more soaking and boiling than a new one. Skim it frequently after the boiling begins. It will be much improved by transferring it to a spit, (having taken off the whole skin,) and roasting the ham, for the last two or three hours, basting it with its own essence. Save the skin to cover the cold ham, and keep it fresh. Before it goes to table cover the ham with grated bread-crumbs, sifted on so as to form a slight crust.
If the ham is to be eaten cold, and is intended for company, brush it all over with beaten yolk of egg. Then dredge on sufficient grated crumbs to form a crust half an inch thick, and finish by going all over it with cream. Set it to brown in an oven, or put it on the spit of a roaster. When cold, this glazing will be found surpassingly fine. Decorate the hock with white paper, handsomely cut, or with a bunch of flowers cut out of vegetables.
Carve a ham in very thin slices—if cut thick, they have not the same taste, besides looking ungenteelly.
BAKED HAM.—
For baking, take a small ham, or part of a large one, trimmed and made of good shape, cutting away whatever looks unsightly. Have the bone sawed off at the knuckle, or end of the hock. The evening previous to cooking, lay the ham in soak in a large pan of hot water. At bed-time pour off the water, and renew it. Keep it closely covered all night. In the morning wash and brush it well. Make a coarse paste of coarse flour mixed with water only, and roll it out about an inch thick. Line a clean iron bake-oven with this, and put in the ham, reserving enough of paste to cover the top. Pour in a very little water, merely sufficient to keep the ham from burning. Put on the lid of paste, and having wet the edges slightly press them together, so as to unite closely the top and bottom crust. Bake it over a steady fire, from four to five or six hours, or more, according to its size. When done, skim the gravy, remove the paste, (which is of no farther use,) and take off the skin of the ham. Dredge it all over with finely grated bread-crumbs, before it goes to table. A ham can scarcely be cooked too much, and too slow. The general fault is in cooking them too little, and too fast. A ham of the smallest size will require at least four hours baking or boiling, even after it has been all night in soak. Save the skin whole, to cover the cold ham when it is put away in the pantry.