One pound of common salt, one pound of bay salt, four ounces of saltpetre, two ounces of black pepper; pound them separately, then mix them, and rub the ham very well until the whole is used. Rub one pound of treacle on them; lay them in the pickle one month, turning them every day. The quantity here specified will do for two hams. Before you hang them up, steep them in a pail of water for twelve hours.
Westphalia Ham, to cure. No. 6.
Make a good brine of salt and water, sufficiently strong to bear an egg; boil and skim it clean, and when quite cold rub the meat with sal prunella and saltpetre mixed together. Put it in a vessel, and pour your brine into it; and, when the ham has been in the brine about fourteen days, take it out, drain it, and boil the brine, putting in a little salt, and letting it boil till clear. Skim it, and when cold put in your ham, rubbing it over with saltpetre, &c. as you did at first. Then let your ham again lie in the brine for three weeks longer; afterwards rub it well with bran, and have it dried by a wood fire.
English Hams, to make like Westphalia. No. 1.
Cut your legs of pork like hams; beat them well with a wooden mallet, till they are tender, but great care must be taken not to crack or break the skin, or the hams will be spoiled. To three hams take half a peck of salt, four ounces of saltpetre, and five pounds of coarse brown sugar; break all the lumps, and mix them well together. Rub your hams well with this mixture, and cover them with the rest. Let them lie three days; then hang them up one night, and put as much water to the salt and sugar as you think will cover them; the pickle must be strong enough to bear an egg: boil and strain it, and, when it is cold, pack your hams close, and cover them with the pickle at least an inch and half above their tops. Let them lie for a fortnight; then hang them up one night; the next day rub them well with bran, and hang them in the chimney of a fire-place in which turf, wood, or sawdust is burned. If they are small they will be dry enough in a fortnight; if large, in two or three days more. Then hang them up against a wall near a fire, and not in a damp place. Tongues may be cured in the same manner, and ribs of beef may be put in at the same time with the hams. You must let the beef lie in the pickle three weeks, and take it out when you want to boil it without drying it.
English Hams, to make like Westphalia. No. 2.
Cut off with the legs of young well grown porkers part of the flesh of the hind loin; lay them on either side in cloths, and press out the remaining blood and moisture, laying planks on them with heavy weights, which bring them into form; then salt them well with common salt and sugar finely beaten, and lay them in troughs one upon another, pressed closely down and covered with hyssop. Let them remain thus for a fortnight; then pass through the common salt, and with saltpetre rub them well over, which may be continued three or four days, till they soak. Take them out, and hang them in a close barn or smoke-loft; make a moderate fire under them, if possible of juniper-wood, and let them hang to sweat and dry well. Afterwards hang them up in a dry and airy place to the wind for three or four days, which will remove the ill scent left by the smoke; and wrap them up in sweet hay. To dress them, put them into a kettle of water when it boils; keep them well covered till they are done, and very few can distinguish them from the true Westphalia.
English Hams, to make like Westphalia. No. 3.
Take a ham of fifteen or eighteen pounds weight, two ounces of saltpetre, one pound of coarse sugar, one ounce of petre-salt, one ounce of bay salt, and one ounce of sal prunella, mixed with common salt enough to cover the ham completely. Turn your ham every other day, and let it remain in salt for three weeks. Take it out, rub a little bran over it, and dry it in a wood fire chimney, where a constant fire is kept: it will be fit for eating in a month. The quantity of the above ingredients must be varied according to the size of your ham. Before you dress it soak it over-night in water.