AGRICULTURAL.

Press, Volume XIX, Issue 2706, 2 January 1872, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL.

Ie appears that in certain parts of America, the winners of prizes for prepared articles of produce at agricultural exhibitions are compelled to give the particulars of their preparation. For instance we have before us four receipts for curing 1000 lbs. of pork, as given by the winners of the first, second, third, and fourth premiums at a recent exhibition held by the Maryland State Agricultural Society. As this branch of industry has made such rapid studies in Canterbury during the last few years, it will be interesting for those of our readers interested in the matter to compare these methods with those adopted by themselves, and we shall therefore give them in extenso: —The first premium was obtained by Mr Thomas Love. He mixed 2$ lbs of saltpetre, finely powdered, with half a bushel of fine salt, 3 lbs of brown supar and half a gallon of molasses. He rubbed the meat with the mixture, and packed with skin down. He turned the next over once a week, and added a little salt. After the meat being down for three or four weeks, he took it out, washed it, and hung it up for two or three weeks, until it was dry. He then smoked it for three or four weeks, and packed it away in a cool place in chaff or hay. He specially avoided a cellar for the purpose of keeping the meat cool. The second premium was obtained by Mr T. H. McHenry, by the following process:— The meat after being cut out, was rubbed piece by piece with very finelypowdered saltpetre, on the flesh side, and where the leg was cut oft* a tablespoonful (not heaped) was applied to each ham, and about half that quantity to each middling and jowl, all well rubbed in. It was then salted by packing a thin coating of salt on the flesh side of each piece, about half an inch thick. The pieces were packed on a scaffolding, or on a floor with strips of plank laid a few inches apart all over it—that is, under the meat. The pieces were placed skin side down, in the following order:— First layer, hams ; second, shoulders ; third, jowls; fourth, middlings, with the spare ribs taken out. If the weather was mild, the meat was allowed to lie for six weeks, and, if very cold, for eight, the brine being allowed to run off freely. The third premium was won by Mrs Marriott, who adopted the following receipt:—To half a bushel of fine salt was added 31bs brown sugar, 2ilbs saltpetre, half a gallon of best molasses. These ingredients were mixed together, and each piece was rubbed well in with the mixture until it was absorbed. The meat was taken out of the pickle once a week for six weeks: the first and second time the meat was taken out a plate of alum salt was added to the pickle. The fourth was won by Mr Charles Jessop, whose receipt ran thus:—To 2|lbs saltpetre, dried and | finely powdered, were added half-a---bushei of best Liverpool salt, 3lbs of brown sugar, and half a gallon mo- j lasses. All the ingredients were mixed in a vessel, the meat well rubbed down, and packed with skin down. After being in ealt for three or four weeks, the pieces were taken out, washed clean, dried and hung up for smoking. Three weeks were sufficient to smoke them thoroughly. When emoked they were taken down and bagged, or packed away in dry chaff or cut straw. They were examined occasionally, and if found to be at all damp, the packing was renewed with dry material. Thus much for Messrs Love, M'Henry, Jessop, and Mrs Marriott, and no doubt our bacon curers are indebted to the above named quartette for the publication of their receipts. Whether these receipts are sufficiently explanatory to answer the beneficial purposes intended by the originators of the scheme, we leave the public to decide.