The household cook book

pieces free from blood. Remove all bone, gristle and inferior pieces, and cut it into suitable pieces for the table, having them rather thin than otherwise. On the bottom of a Mason's self-sealing can put a little salt, pepper, and a dash of pulverized, sifted saltpetre; then put in a layer of meat, and on that sprinkle more of the same seasoning, and so on alternately, filling the can to within an inch of the top, pressing the layers down firmly while packing that there may be no air spaces. On the top layer use the seasoning more freely. Fill the can with lard, heated sufficiently to run smoothly. Cover with a paper bag, and keep in a cool, dark place. It will keep from January to July. Canned Meat No. 2 — Take fresh beef and boil it until all the bones will come out; then take the meat out, remove the bones and cut in short lengths, returning it to the liquor; season to taste with salt, pepper, a little mace, cloves and chopped onions, if liked. Take the meat from the liquor with a wire dipper, fill it into the cans, pour on the boiling liquor, and seal tight. Keep in a dark, cool place. CANNED CORNED BEEF — Before the brine sours or changes in the least, boil the meat till tender; then remove the bone, gristle, and white fiber, return to the boiling liquor, and when hot, can it, pressing it compactly; cover it well with the boiling hot liquor and seal Keep the cans in paper bags in a cool cellar. Examine on the approach of warm weather, and if on shaking the cans any bubbles arise, open such cans and use the meat at once. Pickled Tongue is also very nice put up in this way. Mince and Sausage Meat must be put into cans while at boiling keat, if thus preserved. Pbesebvino Meats. — All the resources of science have been called into play to devise means to preserve meat so that the surplus of one region can be transported unimpaired to supply the needs of another region less bountifully supplied. The 4 most important methods which have been devised are by drying, by cold, by heating and excluding the air, and by the use of antiseptics. They are all based on killing or preventing the development of the germs (bacteria) which cause putrefaction. Drying preserves meat and vegetables because the low forms of life, as well as the higher, cannot develop without a certain amount of moisture, but the flavor and other qualities of meat are not improved by drying. Freezing preserves the meat because cold checks the growth of all micro-organisms. In canning, the usual method is to heat the article enough to kill all the germs, and then seal it up so tightly that no more can enter. Antiseptics, like salt, sugar, etc., act by preventing the development of the micro=organisms which cause decay. The action of salt is to draw the juices and many of the nutritive elements out of the meat, and when they are once drawn out they can never be restored again, so that salted meat is never as nutritious as fresh meat. The salt also hardens the fiber of the meat and makes it less digestible. Salt has a whitening effect on the meat also, and to tjonnteract that, saltpetre is often added, bnt the latter tends to make the meat hard, dry and indigestible, and therefore a little cochineal is sometimes used for coloring instead. /v4 PICKLES, CATSUPS, SOYS, ETC.