covering it with salt, or immersing it in ready-made brine, where it is
kept till required; or it is only partially salted, and then hung up to
dry, when the meat is called white bacon; or, after salting, it is hung
in wood smoke till the flesh is impregnated with the aroma from the
wood. The Wiltshire bacon, which is regarded as the finest in the
kingdom, is prepared by laying the sides of a hog in large wooden
troughs, and then rubbing into the flesh quantities of powdered
bay-salt, made hot in a frying-pan. This process is repeated for four
days; they are then left for three weeks, merely turning the flitches
every other day. After that time they are hung up to dry. The hogs
usually killed for purposes of bacon in England average from 18 to 20
stone; on the other hand, the hogs killed in the country for farm-house
purposes, seldom weigh less than 26 stone. The legs of boars, hogs, and,
in Germany, those of bears, are prepared differently, and called hams.