Use and preparation of food

(h) Cook as usual until three-fourths done. (Bake, boil, fry, etc.) Pack into jars, add salt and the liquid from the cooked meat (or hot water). Sterilize three and one-half hours in water-bath canner or one hour under 10 pounds' pressure. B. Partial cooking and packing in hot fat may be used for preserving cooked meats during the cold winter months. (1) Method. — Meat is cut into pieces of suitable size, cooked by dry heat (fried or baked) until nearly done, then packed in a jar and covered with hot lard. Should be well covered and kept in a cool, dark place. (2) Suitable for pork sausage, spare ribs, or loin. C. Curing — (1) Ingredients used in curing meat: (a) Salt. — A good preservative when used liberally, but tends to dry out and harden the tissues. (b) Sugar. — A preservative when used in large quantities; usually added for the flavor. Molasses or brown sugar are frequently used. (c) Pepper. — Used chiefly for flavor, since the small quantity used is not sufficient for preservation. Not soluble, hence is used only in dry cures. (d) Saltpeter. — Sometimes used to preserve the red color of meat, but neither necessary nor desirable. (e) Borax. — Undesirable and unnecessary, When used, it hardens the tissues and causes waste of much of the outside of the meat. It is used to prevent infection of the meat by insects. (2) Dry curing — (a) Method. — A mixture of salt, sugar, and pepper in the proportions of 40 pounds salt, 10 pounds sugar, 4 pounds white or black pepper, and one-half pound red pepper are used to 1,000 pounds fresh meat. A larger proportion of the mixture is used to the same amount of meat in the southern States. The cure should be rubbed thoroughly over the meat and left until meat is thoroughly preserved (from one and one-half to two days for each pound of meat). (b) Suitable for pork, especially hams, shoulders, bacon, and Dixie squares.^ (3) Brine curing — (a) Method. — A brine made in the proportion of 8 pounds of salt to 2 gallons of Avater (or 7 pounds salt and 2 pounds sugar to 2 gallons of water if a sweet cure is desired) may be used to cover meat which has been rubbed well with salt and packed in a barrel. Meat should be repacked and covered with the same brine after several days, so that all parts of the meat may be reached by the brine. Time required is same as for dry cure. (b) Suitable for pork, such as bacon, hams, shoulders, and Dixie squares,^ or for "corned" beef (plate, rump, cross ribs, or brisket). (4) Smoking. — Dry or brine cured meats are often smoked to aid in their preservation (by means of the creosote from the smoke) and to add flavor. The pieces are washed to remove the outside salt, dried, and hung in the smoke from a small fire until sufficiently colored. The time varies from a few days to two weeks, depending upon the degree of flavor desired and whether a continuous or intermittent fire is kept. Hickory is considered the most desirable, but any wood may be used for the fire except pine, which deposits a black soot on the meat. ' Dixie squares are square pieces of the jowl of tbe pig.