Cassell's dictionary of cookery

only as salubrity is concerned. After six months, ordinary pork, if stiU kept in salt, generally begins to be too salt and to acquire a new flavour not very agreeable, in which that of a bloated herring is sometimes distinguishable. It is a curious fact, and one which it is useful to be acquainted with, that the saltness of meat which has been preserved in brine increases even after the meat has been removed from the brine. Thus if, in winter, a large piece of fresh beef be cut into equal parts of an equal quality, and both are immersed during the same length of time in the same brine, containing more salt than the water can hold dissolved— ^suppose for fourteen days — one of them, when dressed, will prove sufficiently salt to please many palates. Let the other, taken out of the brine at the same time, be set aside for six weeks, and it will be found on being duly boiled that it has grown by far more salt than the former, although, apparently, they were both exposed to the action of the salt during the same length of time. It should always be borne in mind that the true art of preserving meat by salting is to do so with the smallest quantity of salt that can be made to serve the purpose. — Donovan. Salzgurden. — This is a German pickle made of sour cucumbers. The cucumbers should be chosen half grown, smooth, and seedless. Let them lie in water for twelve hours, then wipe them dry. Get an unglazed earthenware crock, or a perfectly clean small barrel, and lay at the bottom of it a layer of vineleaves, some cherry-leaves, and two or throe walnut-leaves. On the top of these place cucumbers, packing them close, with a leaf or two between them ; cover the layer with wild cherry-leaves. Lay down another layer of cucumber, with here and there a sprig of green diU, and half a walnut-leaf. On these place another layer of vine and cherry-leaves, and proceed in this way till the crock or barrel is full. Prepare a weak brine : say, in the proportion of a handful of salt to a gallon of water. Pour this over the cucumbers till all are quite covered. Put on a cover, with a weight on the top, and set the vessel in a wanii place for a few days. When bubbles begin to appear on the brine, remove it to a cool and shady situation. In three or four weeks the salzgurden will be ready for eating. Some makers of salzgurden add to the brine a cupful of vinegar, or a few spoonfuls of tartaric acid, and sprinkle a few cloves or allspice here and there, with a bayleaf and some sliced horseradish. Samphire. — The samphire {Crithmum maritimum) has a poetical interest, and is one of the plants of Shakespeare. The " dangerous trade" of the samphire -gatherer arises from its growing on the sides of steep cliffs ; and one of the most ornamental features of the white cliffs of Albion is the dark green patches which this plant produces where it grows. It is gathered for the sake of the pleasant oil which is diffused throughout the plant, and M'hich renders it an agreeable addition to our food, especially when it is used in the fonn of pickle. Samphire is generally gathered where it grows, wild, but is sometimes very successfully cultivated in beds of sand, rich earth, and rubbish, occasionally sprinkled with a little salt. Samphire is about as wholesome as picklos generally.