LIBRARY.
LAFAYETTE, IND^
VOL. LIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 8, 1904.
NO 41
MEAT FOR THE FARMERS TABLE.
Some Valuable Suggestions.
1st Premium.—In an experience of 40
years in putting up meat for my table
on the farm, I gathered many points from
the eaily packers of the city of Indianapolis, for I followed buying hogs in the
county, driving in and selling to the pack-
era. Iu those days we could not sel!
them on foot, but had to have them dressed and sell net, and this kept us three
days at least about the pork house. In
the first place, they would not kill thera
tlio day that they arrived. They must
cool down first The first lesson then is,
inner excite or weary your hogs, sheep
or cattle before killing. The second day
they w_re killed and hung to cool, and
they were very suro that all animal heat
had left tliem before they would put a
knife into them, and as they did not use
ico at this time they only killed when the
thermometer was at freezing and going
down, and you could not persuade them
to kill your hogs in gloomy, foggy weather
with a rising temperature. The second
lesson is, do not kill in foggy, gloomy
wnather. The  third  lesson  is,  not  to
cip. tliem until all the animal heat has left
tliem. Here are three points that should
be strictly ohserved, if you want sweet
meat.
You need not expect to get the best
of meat from second and third class stock.
Hogs that will net two hundred to two
hundred and fifty pounds, not over nine
months old, make the best and most economical meat for the farmer. You
might kill a larger one for lard.. For
beef, I would kill a two-year-old heifer and
persuade three of my neighbors to do the
same thing and exchange with them. The
beef will take care of itself in cold
weather, and you will have fresh beef
without running to the butcher. For
mutton I would kill a lamb at will.
If one has tainted hams, sour pickled
pork and strong lard, just follow them
through their hog butchering. Up in the
morning beforo day light, no attention paid
to the character of the weather, out at
tho peep of day, and after having run a
hog around the acre lot with the dog,
three or four times, they pound him on
the head with an ax until his brain is a
jelly, and then the longest knife on the
farm is plunged into his neck, with little
regard to the direction it may take, and
if the blood does not flow to suit, in goes
the  knife   the   second   time. You   see
the result after the hog is cut up—two
ruined shoulders. They now drag him
a hundred yards, over the rough, frozen
ground, to the scalding tub, and when
the hair is taken off he is red and bruised.
They hurry to get the hogs hung_ up by
noon. After dinner they are hurried to
the cutting block, and cut with a rush,
and the women soon have the lard over
the fire, and the sausage grinder is started, and by nine o'clock at night the hog
that was eating corn at six in the morning is in the salt tub, lard and sausage,
with all the animal heat in it. Who can
expect to have sweet meat and lard under such  conditions?
Well, butcher day has come. I genera
ally have five or six during the winter. 1
believe in having fresh moat through cold
weather. After breakfast and milking.
a feeding is done. We heat some water,
then kill one or two- hogs, according to
help, scald and scrape, hang up and gut,
and   repeat   until  we  aro  done.      After
hanging, wash with hot water and scrape
well, and after the entrails are removed
give  them  plenty  of  cold  water    inside, •
and then leave them hanging until next I
day.        You may take them at night and ■
either hang or lay them down.        Do not
let them freeze.        By next morning the
animal heat will all be out and you can
go to work as early as you please.
Grind up your ax or cleaver. Have
your knives sharp and keep them sharp,
if you want to do a nice job of trimming.
If you haven't got a steel, use a whetstone as you would a steel. I cut the '
head off, the first thing, and lay it aside. J
Then out along the backbone with cleaver
never sour. A small amount of saltpeter
may be used on all your pork. It will
require from five to six weeks for the
joints to take the salt, according to size.
The sides not so long.
Well, we are ready to smoke. Take
the joints out, rinsing off all loose salt,
put in your strings and bag, but do not
go to the chip pile, where the chickens,
hogs and cattle have mixed their droppings with the chips. If you want good,
sweet bacon, start your fire land add a
handful of pepper pods. I have tried
mauy ways of keeping bacon after it is
smoked, but the best way I ever found
was to leave it hanging where I smoked
Mount Baker, from North Fork of Nookscaelik ltiver,  Washington.
side. Then take out the leaf lard and
throw it into a tub. Next I take out the
ribs and lay aside. Then split it op_n
along  the  back. Then  cut  each  half
into three pieces, ham, shoulder nnd side.
Nowr you are ready for the trimming, and
your knife should be sharp. You can
trim to your notion, heavy or light. I
trim my hams and shoulders close, taking iall the fat part from them possible,
to leave it in goodshape,and ltake a strip
off of each side of middling. I then go
over the ribs and backbone, trim up and
break, ready for the cook. I next trim
up the- heads, taking off the heavy part
of thn jowl for lard, saving a few jowls
to be smoked. The heads and feet are
cleaned, and soaked over night in salt
water, then boiled tender, and your wife
knows how to take care of them.
Next comes the salting. Salt is cheap.
Do not fear to use it. Weak brine will
sour, strong brine cannot. All vessel-
used to salt in should be scalded before
used. Take a light barrel, cover the bot-
ton well witli salt. Tut in a layer of
hams, cover them well with salt, and repeat until you have the hams and shoulders all in. Let them stand six or eight
days, then fill up the barrel witli water,
adding five pounds of sorgum sugar to 50
gallon barrel, and, if you want some nice
breakfast bacon, take some of the lighter
sides and salt the same as the joints.
For pickle pork, cut the sides from back
to belly in three pieces, put in salt and
set the pieces on edge, cover well with
salt, kind repeat. This should be put in
barrel or jar by itself, and the only
secret in keeping it sweet is to keep the
brine strong. There should always lie
salt in sight on pickeled pork, and it will
or  ax,  and  take  it  out and  lay  to  ono
it. Make your smoke house entirely dark,
and you will have no trouble with the
skipper fly. If your meat gets damp in
rainy, cloudy weather, start your fire, and
put in an extra pepper pod, and tho flies
will get out, and you too.
If you want your lard to keep sweet,
cook it well and add a spoonful of salt
to the gallon, and keep in a cool place.
The back-bones and ribs salt lightly, or
put in weak brine. Y'ou may keep sausage some time by stuffing in entrails or
muslin, and smoking well. Your wife
has got the heads and feet cooked and in
pickle, long ibefore this, and now all you
have to do is to go to eating. I think it
good economy to uso the shoulders first.
Hams keep better.
Humanity generally prefers beef and
mutton flesh, and as I intimated in the
beginning of this article, farmers with
the proper arrangements can have fresh
meat six months in the year by a system
of interchanging with their neighbors. I
have often used a quarter of beef without salting, in the winter, but if a warm
spell catches you with your beef, cut it
up into steaks, roasts, boils, etc., and put
it into weak brine. Y'ou might salt some
of the round, and smoke or dry it. Smoke
some ribs and flank, and boil it next
spring. I saw tons of beef treated in
this manner in the far West 50 years
ago. Even in Miarion couuty, Indiana,
50 years ago, mutton hams were salted
and smoked and sold for venison hams.
That was when we were killing sheep
here for their pelts and tallow'. I think
this subject a timely one for discussion.
Meiat is the most costly product that
comes to our tables, nnd in my opinion we
will never eat much cheaper meat.
, Marion Co. I. N. C.
Good Recipe for Sausage.
2d Frcmium.—To cut up pork: Split
through spine, cut off each half of head
behind ears. Take off pieces in front of
shoulder for sausage. Take out leaf lard.
Cut out lean meat, ribs, etc., then the
ham and shoulder, and remove tlie loose
piece in front of ham for lard. Cut off
a narrow strip of the belly for sausage,
and cut up the rest, which is clear pork,
into five or six pieces of convenient size
for salting. The jowl may be smoked
with hams and the rest of head used for
head cheeso or put into sausage. Scorch
the feet over fire until the hoofs are easily removed, put in hot water and scrape
clean.        These aro ready for cooking.
The following pickle we have used for
years, and meat has kept perfectly. This
is for hams and shoulders, etc., is also
good for beef. To one hundred pounds
of meat take eight pounds of salt, five
of brown sugar (or five pints of gooil
molasses) two ounces of soda (about two
tnhlcspoonfuls) ono ounce saltpeter (do
not use more, it makes meat hard), four
gallons soft wta.ter, or enough to cover
meat. Heat the brine to boiling ami
let get cold. Before making the brine,
mix salt and sugsir and rub the meat with
part of it. Put some salt in bottom of
barrel or whatever is used to pack in.
Lay the meat in and when the brine is
oold pour over. For pickling beef for
dried beef, take out after it has been in
three weeks and dry. When dried put
in paper sacks in cool, dry, dark place. I
put a cheese cloth around beef to dry, as
it keeps it from dust.
Two pounds more salt may be added to
the above rule if hams and shoulders are
designed for long keeping, and these
should stay in brine from six to eight
weeks. Pack skin side down. Always
weight meat enough to keep it entirely
under the brine. Whon ready to smoke,
tako out and drain for two days, and then
smoke. We have used the condensed
smoke for some years, but like the old-
fashioned way as well, only it is more
trouble. Wo have never had any meat
spoil after this rule.
Always thoroughly cool meat beforo
cutting up and salting; never let it freeze;
always use water that is free from mineral substances.—rainwater, if clean, is
best.
To salt pork plain, put half a bushel of
salt in bottom of barrel, if a large quantity is to be salted. Make brine of salt
and water, strong enough, in fact so
strong it will not dissolve all the salt.
Pack meat skin down and weight to keep
covered. Itub hams after smoking and
dried beef with a mixture of pepper and
borax; this will keep insects away. Never
put any water in lard to try out. Heat
slowly and cook till the scraps fall to bottom of kettle. I try out much in the
oven, in pans. This prevents tlie dis-
agreeableodor from permeating the house.
If cooked till the scraps are brown, tho
lard will never spoil. Beef can be cooked and put up in glass can_, if desired,
and so kept fresh  the year around.
The following is a splendid sausage recipe: Sis pounds lean pork; 3 pounds
fat; 12 teaspoonfuls of powdered sage; (5
teiaspoonfills black pepper; G teaspoonfuls
of salt; 2 teaspoonfuls of powdered maco
or allspice; 2 'teaspoonfuls of powdered
cloves; 1 grated nutmeg. Mix and mako
in pats to fry, or put in jars and cover
with melted lard. It. S. M.
Likes L'quid Smoke.
3d  Premium.—The hog should  be well
(Continued on Page 10.)