Buckeye cookery

- with it. This quantity of sugar and salt will be sufficient for fifty pounds of meat. Have ready some large tubs, the bottom sprinkled with salt, and lay the meat in the tubs with the skin downward. Put plenty of salt be- tween each layer of meat. After it has lain eight days, take it out and wipe off the salt, and wash the tubs. Make a pickle of soft water, equal quanti- ties of salt and molasses and a little saltpetre; allowing five ounces of saltpetre to two quarts of molasses and two quarts of salt, which is the proportion for fifty pounds of meat. The pickle must be strong enough to bear up an egg. Boil and skim it, and, when it is cold, pour it over the meat, which must be turned frequently and basted with the pickle. The hams should remain in the pickle at least four weeks; the bacon three weeks. They should then be taken out and smoked. Having washed off the pickle, before you smoke the meat, bury it while wet in a tub of bran. This will form a crust over it, and prevent evaporation of the juices. Let the smoke-house be ready to receive the meat immediately. Take it out of the tub after it has lain, half an hour, and rub the bran evenly over it. Then hang it up to smoke with the small end downward. Tongues may be cured in the above manner. BRINE FOR BEEF, Hams anp SHOULDERS.—To one hundred pounds beef, take eight pounds salt, five of sugar or five pints molasses (Orleans best, but any good will do), two ounces soda, one ounce saltpeter, four gallons soft water, or enough to cover the meat. Mix part of the salt and sugar together, rub each piece and place it in the barrel (oak is best), having covered the bottom with salt. When the meat is all in, put the remainder of salt and sugar in the water. Dissolve the sodaand saltpeter in hot water, add it to the brine and pour over the meat; place a board on top of meat, with a weight sufficient to keep it under the brine. Let the pieces intended for dried beef remain in the brine for three weeks, take out, place in a tub, cover with water, let stand over night, string and dry. String it (smoke for a few days, if you like), hang it up to ceiling over the kitchen stove, or on a frame set behind the stove, turn round once a day so as to give all parts an equal exposure, and let remain for three or four weeks. Test by cutting a piece, which should be well dried on the outside, and free from rawness to the center. When dried, sprinkle with ground black pepper, put in paper sacks, tie up tightly, and hang in acool, dry, dark place, or put, without sacks, in an empty flour barrel, and cover closely. Boil brine, skim well, let cool, and’ pour over the bony pieces left. These are good boiled and eaten either hot or cold, and and will keep good for several months. Tongue may be pickled with the beef. Brine made the same way, with the addition of two pounds more of salt, is good for hams and shoulders. Take part of the mixture of salt and sugar, rub each piece thoroughly on fleshy side, lay in barrel (having first covered the bottom with salt) skin side down. When all are in, make a pickle of the remainder of the mixture, as directed in ‘‘ Brine for Beef,’ pour over the meat; have a round board, a little smaller than the barrel, place on the meat with a weight (a large stone is good, which may be washed clean and laid away to be used year after year), sufficient to keep it under the brine; let remain from four to eight weeks, according to size; take out, drain, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, particularly around the bone. Hang them ready to smoke, let them drain for two days, and then smoke with corn cobs or green hickory or maple wood, taking care to have smoke, but not fire enough to make heat. Hang up to smoke with hock downwards, as the skin then retains the juices of the meat.