For curing fifty weight, allow three quarts of coarse salt, half a pound of saltpetre, and two quarts of good molasses. Add soft water enough just to cover the hams. Common sized hams should be kept in this pickle five weeks; larger ones six. They should all be taken out once a week, and those which were on the top laid in first, and the lower ones last. They should be smoked from two to three weeks with walnut wood or with sawdust and corn-cobs, mixed. Meat smoked with cobs is very delicate.
Pieces of beef for smoking, may be laid in this pickle, after the hams are sent to the smoke house; but more salt should be added.
The Knickerbocker Pickle.
To three gallons of soft water, put four pounds and a half of salt, coarse and fine, mixed; a pound and a half of brown sugar, an ounce and a half of saltpetre, half an ounce of saleratus, and two quarts of good molasses.
Boil the mixture, skim it well, and when cold pour it over the hams or beef. Beef laid down in this pickle, does not become hard, and is very fine, when boiled gently and long.
Some persons consider this the best of all methods for curing beef and hams.
How to keep Hams through the Summer.
When they are taken from the smoke house, do not suffer them to lie a single hour where the flies can find them. Sew them up in a coarse cloth or stiff brown paper, and pack them in ashes. There is no method so sure to preserve them from insects, and the effect of the ashes is to improve the meat; but care should be taken that the hams are so secured that the ashes will not touch them. The ashes should be perfectly cold and dry, and the barrel be in a dry, cool place.
To make Sausages.
A common fault is, that the meat is not chopped enough. It should be chopped very fine, and this is most easily done if it is a little frozen. When ready for the seasoning, put in just cold water enough to enable you to mix the ingredients equally; but be careful not to use more than is necessary for this purpose.