The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves

Lastly, and before going on to individual recipes, it may be well to say a few words re sausage making. For these very little preparation is needed beyond well washed and dried bladders or skins, and a thoroughly efficient mincer in first-rate condition; for if not kept in this state the chopping blades will crush and pound the meat rather than finely mince it, in which case the sausages will be stodgy. Of sausages there are several kinds. 1. Those to be eaten fresh. 2. Those which are lightly smoked and usually cooked by boiling, after a short period of keeping. 3. Those smoked for a much longer time, and either boiled and eaten cold, or in some cases, after prolonged smoking, sliced very thinly and served without cooking, as hors d' oeuvre. Flitch, to Cure ( Old English mode). — Remove all the fat from the inside of a good flitch, and lay it on a board or trestle to let all the blood run off. (A curing place should always be kept cool and shady like a dairy.) Rub it very thoroughly on both sides with good salt, bay salt for choice, and leave it for a day in this. Now mix together lib. of fresh bay salt, l^oz. saltpetre, 21b. of coarse sugar, and 3|lb. of common salt. Lay the flitch in the trough, skin downwards, and rub the flesh very thoroughly with the mixture just given, being careful to rub it thoroughly well in, all over. Leave it in this for a fortnight, basting it every day with its own pickle, carefully examining it daily to see that the thick and folded parts are all right, and being careful at once to remove any sign of mould or clamminess. After this smoke it well, and then hang it in a dry, cool place. Oversmoking, or the hanging of the bacon when ready in either a hot kitchen or a sunny keepingplace is pretty safe to bring on rust. Rub each flitch well with common salt, leave it for twenty-four hours, then rub it off. Have ready a mixture made by pounding very finely and sifting, lflb. brown sugar, 2Hb. common salt, fib. bay salt, 4oz. saltpetre, and one cake sal prunella. Spread this over the flitches, and turn and rub them daily for a month. Hang up to dry. Or, make a mixture with l^lb. each of brown sugar and bay salt, 41b. common salt, and 4oz. saltpetre. Use as in the preceding recipe, then hang for a day or two, and smoke for a week. Flitch, to Cure ( Yorkshire fashion). — Let the pork hang for twelve hours after cutting up ; then for each stone of pork allow lib. salt, loz. saltpetre, and foz. coarse sugar. Rub the meat well first with the sugar and saltpetre, carefully removing any blood, &c., and then rub it well with the salt, which should have previously been slightly warmed before the fire, using only a part to begin with, and adding more as the first dissolves, or is absorbed. The meat should be laid on a clean stone or brick floor, and will take about a fortnight to three weeks to cure, according to the weather, which must be neither a severe frost nor damp when the curing is begun. When cured, hang the flitches in a cool, dry room, in a good draught, and leave them there till they are dry and the salt has crystallised on the surface. The bacon can then be stored in a chest on clean straw, a thick layer of this being placed above and below the flitch. For this method of curing allow lib. of salt, loz. of saltpetre, and -|oz.