sugar, 3/4 lb. of salt, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1/2 a teacupful of vinegar.
_Mode_.--Rub the hams well with common salt, and leave them for a day or
two to drain; then rub well in, the above proportion of sugar, salt,
saltpetre, and vinegar, and turn them every other day. Keep them in the
pickle 1 month, drain them, and send them to be smoked over a wood fire
for 3 weeks or a month.
_Time_.--To remain in the pickle 1 month. To be smoked 3 weeks or 1
month.
_Sufficient_.--The above proportion of pickle sufficient for 1 ham.
_Seasonable_.--Hams should be pickled from October to March.
NOVEL WAY OF RECOVERING A STOLEN PIG.--It is a well-known fact,
that in Ireland the pig is, in every respect, a domesticated
animal, sharing often both the bed and board of the family, and
making an outer ring to the domestic circle, as, seated round
the pot of potatoes, they partake of the midday meal called
dinner. An Irishman upon one occasion having lost an interesting
member of his household, in the form of a promising young
porker, consulted his priest on the occasion, and having hinted
at the person he suspected of purloining the "illegant slip of a
pig" he was advised to take no further notice of the matter, but
leave the issue to his spiritual adviser. Next Sunday his
reverence, after mass, came to the front of the altar-rails, and
looking very hard at the supposed culprit, exclaimed, "Who stole
Pat Doolan's pig?" To this inquiry there was of course no
answer;--the priest did not expect there would be any. The
following Sunday the same query was propounded a little
stronger--"Who of you was it, I say, who stole poor Pat Doolan's
pig?" It now became evident that the culprit was a hardened
sinner; so on the third Sunday, instead of repeating the
unsatisfactory inquiry, the priest, after, as usual, eyeing the
obdurate offender, said, in a tone of pious sorrow, "Mike Regan,
Mike Regan, you treat me with contempt!" That night, when the
family was all asleep, the latch of the door was noiselessly
lifted, and the "illegant slip of a pig" cautiously slipped into
the cabin.
TO SMOKE HAMS AND FISH AT HOME.