on a strong bench or stool, and the head is separated from the body at
the neck, close behind the ears; the feet and also the internal fat are
removed. The carcass is next divided into two sides in the following
manner:--The ribs are divided about an inch from the spine on each side,
and the spine, with the ends of the ribs attached, together with the
internal flesh between it and the kidneys, and also the flesh above it,
throughout the whole length of the sides, are removed. The portion of
the carcass thus cut out is in the form of a wedge--the breadth of the
interior consisting of the breadth of the spine, and about an inch of
the ribs on each side, being diminished to about half an inch at the
exterior or skin along the back. The breast-bone, and also the first
anterior rib, are also dissected from the side. Sometimes the whole of
the ribs are removed; but this, for reasons afterwards to be noticed, is
a very bad practice. When the hams are cured separately from the sides,
which is generally the case, they are cut out so as to include the
hock-bone, in a similar manner to the London mode of cutting a haunch of
mutton. The carcass of the hog thus cut up is ready for being salted,
which process, in large caring establishments, is generally as follows.
The skin side of the pork is rubbed over with a mixture of fifty parts
by weight of salt, and one part of saltpetre in powder, and the incised
parts of the ham or flitch, and the inside of the flitch covered with
the same. The salted bacon, in pairs of flitches with the insides to
each other, is piled one pair of flitches above another on benches
slightly inclined, and furnished with spouts or troughs to convey the
brine to receivers in the floor of the salting-house, to be afterwards
used for pickling pork for navy purposes. In this state the bacon
remains a fortnight, which is sufficient for flitches cut from nogs of a
carcass weight less than 15 stone (14 lbs. to the stone). Flitches of a
larger size, at the expiration of that time, are wiped dry and reversed
in their place in the pile, having, at the same time, about half the
first quantity of fresh, dry, common salt sprinkled over the inside and
incised parts; after which they remain on the benches for another week.
Hams being thicker than flitches, will require, when less than 20 lbs.
weight, 3 weeks; and when above that weight, 4 weeks to remain under the
above-described process. The next and last process in the preparation of
bacon and hams, previous to being sent to market, is drying. This is
effected by hanging the flitches and hams for 2 or 3 weeks in a room
heated by stoves, or in a smoke-house, in which they are exposed for the
same length of time to the smoke arising from the slow combustion of the
sawdust of oak or other hard wood. The latter mode of completing the
curing process has some advantages over the other, as by it the meat is
subject to the action of _creosote_, a volatile oil produced by the
combustion of the sawdust, which is powerfully antiseptic. The process
also furnishing a thin covering of a resinous varnish, excludes the air
not only from the muscle but also from the fat; thus effectually
preventing the meat from becoming rusted; and the principal reasons for
condemning the practice of removing the ribs from the flitches of pork
are, that by so doing the meat becomes unpleasantly hard and pungent in
the process of salting, and by being more opposed to the action of the
air, becomes sooner and more extensively rusted. Notwithstanding its
superior efficacy in completing the process of curing, the flavour which
smoke-drying imparts to meat is disliked by many persons, and it is
therefore by no means the most general mode of drying adopted by
mercantile curers. A very impure variety of _pyroligneous_ acid, or
vinegar made from the destructive distillation of wood, is sometimes
used, on account of the highly preservative power of the creosote which
it contains, and also to impart the smoke-flavour; in which latter
object, however, the coarse flavour of tar is given, rather than that
derived from the smoke from combustion of wood. A considerable portion
of the bacon and hams salted in Ireland is exported from that country
packed amongst salt, in bales, immediately from the salting process,
without having been in any degree dried. In the process of salting above
described, pork loses from eight to ten per cent. of its weight,
according to the size and quality of the meat; and a further diminution
of weight, to the extent of five to six per cent., takes place in drying
during the first fortnight after being taken out of salt; so that the
total loss in weight occasioned by the preparation of bacon and hams in
a proper state for market, is not less on an average than fifteen per
cent. on the weight of the fresh pork.
COLLARED PIG'S FACE (a Breakfast or Luncheon Dish).