Farmhouse Fare

[aris]

I bought this book at a boot sale - it dates from the 70's, but the recipes seem older than that. It is called Farmhouse Fare and looks like one of those books where hundreds of people contribute family recipes. There is a whole section on Pig curing. Fortunately the OCR software on my scanner can read it all in (i'd never have typed it all) so i'll slowly scan in these recipes, and post them here.

If you see any spelling mistakes or something that looks obviously wrong, let me know - OCR software is never perfect. It has particular difficulties with the 1/4 and similar subscripts - substituting them with a ^ or a | or sometimes an 'I'. I've tried to fix these, but if you see any errors, please let me know.

NOTE: These recipes are here for historical reference - the amounts of saltpeter have not been checked for current EU or US health standards.

[aris]

BEER AND JUNIPER CURE FOR HAMS

A ham of 16 Ibs.
1 Ib. salt.
1 lb. soft brown sugar.
1/4 lb. juniper berries.
1/2 oz. bay salt.
1/2 oz. saltpetre.
3 pints of beer.

PUT all above ingredients into a saucepan and just let it boil. Leave the liquor to get cold and pour over the ham. Rub every day for first few days, then every 2 or 3 days for a month, then take out of pickle, hang up and dry.

From Miss L. A. Honour, Oxfordshire.

[aris]

CUMBERLAND CURE

A 20 st. pig.
1 1/2 st. salt.
1/2 lb. saltpetre.
1 Ib. brown sugar.

LAY hams, flitches and shoulders on a stone slab, rind to the top. Rub salt into rind until moisture forms. Turn over, take out all blood veins and sprinkle all over with saltpetre and brown sugar (more so about the bones and veins), then cover with salt. Leave 1 day, when salt will have moistened. Cover again, and do so each day for 3 or 4 days.

Take out flitches at the end of 14 days, shoulders and hams at the end of 21 days. Wash all pieces with a cloth dipped in lukewarm water and hang to dry. Curing time from November until March.

From Mrs. T. Fox, Cumberland.

[aris]

DEVONSHIRE CURE

7 Ibs. of bay salt.
2 ozs. of saltpetre.
1 Ib. of treacle.

HAVE in a vessel 8 quarts of boiling water, add the above ingredients and stir until all are dissolved. Place freshly-cut hams in an earthenware standard, then, when pickle is cold, pour over them. After 6 weeks, take hams out, thoroughly dry them, put in muslin bags and store in malt dust or wood ashes. Better still, if an open fireplace is available, hang hams in the chimney for a fortnight before storing.

From Mrs. M. Twkett, Devonshire.

[aris]

HEREFORD HAM AND BACON CURES

For each stone of pork you will need:
1 Ib. salt.
6 ozs. moist sugar.
1 oz. saltpetre.
3/4 pint pickling vinegar.

TO prepare: remove the backbone and ribs from the flitches and cut off the feet. Cut off the thick shoulder end as it takes longer to pickle than the rest of the flitch. Saw into the hip joints of the hams and remove the head of the thigh-bone. Sprinkle all the pieces of meat with plenty of salt and lay them on sloping boards for 24 hours to drain. Then wipe with a cloth. To pickle: First rub in the saltpetre, then the salt. Lay the pieces skin down on a little salt in a pickling trough, and spread the sugar on top. Leave for 3 days, then pour the vinegar into the trough.

Bathe the pieces with the pickle several times a day and turn them every other day. Bacon and cheeks will take 10 to 14 days. Hams and shoulders from 3 weeks to a calendar month according to the size.

Pork so cured will keep perfectly through the hot weather, if hung in a dry place and protected from flies. If liked, smoking is an advantage. If the above are found too salt, it is a good plan to soak the bacon for 12 to 24 hours before using.

From Mrs. M. WUsdon, Herefordshire.

[aris]

LEICESTERSHIRE METHOD

THE usual way to cure and preserve bacon is with salt and saltpetre. The method I adopt is, first to prick the hams and shoulders with a sharp pricker on the rind side, in about a score of places, then rub the rind with a small amount of saltpetre, finishing off with salt until it sweats. I don't use much saltpetre except round the bone of the hams and shoulders, as too much saltpetre has a tendency to make the meat hard.

Put on plenty of salt and then change the meat round in 3 days' time, adding more salt; about 3 weeks is the time I allow for curing.

When cured, I dry the meat well with a brush and cloth. I do not wash it as I think it causes reast. I then dredge it well with flour; this helps it to dry. When dry, I paint the meat side with paraffin wax, melt the wax and paint the meat side with a small brush. This has no taste or smell and will keep the meat from reast and also keeps out the flies, as it seals the meat. I have used this method for some years and have not known it to fail.

From W. M. Booth, Leicestershire.

[aris]

LINCOLNSHIRE CURE

WHEN the pig is cut up ready for curing, I have ready 2 lumps of salt (about 3 to 3 1/2 stone) cut up fine, and 1/2 to 3/4 Ib. of saltpetre. This quantity is for about a 30-stone pig.

Place the flitch in the salting tub and rub the rind well with a little saltpetre, paying particular attention to the shoulder part and where the bone has been cut off, putting a little extra saltpetre into the pocket part and filling it with salt. Rub all over with salt.

Turn the flitch over and leave it the meat side uppermost, then sprinkle it with saltpetre, rub all over with salt, and leave nicely covered all over with salt.

The ham is cured in the same way, but using a little more saltpetre as the ham is thicker. Let there be plenty of fresh air in the place where it is cured. After a day or two, if the salt has run into the meat and left bare places, cover them again with salt.

After about a month it is cured and should be taken out and the salt rubbed off and the meat hung up to dry. When dried a little, it will then be ready to put into a bacon bin or clean bacon bags to keep the flies from it.

I have used this method for 30 years and have never had any go wrong. I put 1/4 Ib. brown sugar on the ham and shoulder, for moistness, but it cures without.

From Mrs. Mason, Lincolnshire.

[aris]

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE HAMS

FOR a ham of 18 or 20 Ibs. Rub well with salt and leave until the next day, then wipe dry with a cloth. Rub in 1 oz. of saltpetre. Mix together 1 Ib. salt and 1/4 Ib. of pepper, rub with this each morning for 3 days, then pour over 1 Ib. treacle, baste, turn each day for 1 month, from first putting in salt. Allow to drain for 1 day, then hang in a cool, dry place. When dry, tie up in ham bags, let hang for at least 3 months.

From Mrs. F. Cooch, Northamptonshire.

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SWEET METHOD

THE following method has been used in my family for many years, and it is believed to be an old Nottinghamshire recipe.

Strew common salt over the meat and let it drain for a day and a night.

To every 5 Ibs. of meat allow 1/4 Ib. of salt, 2 ozs. saltpetre, 1 oz. salt prunella, 1/4 Ib. sugar (coarse brown sugar if possible). Pound the saltpetre and salt prunella very finely and mix with common salt and sugar. When well-blended, rub the bacon well; turn and rub every day for 3 weeks.

From Miss M. Neville, Essex.

[aris]

OLD DERBYSHIRE CURED HAM

(For a ham weighing 10-12 Ibs.)
1 pint old ale.
3/4 Ib. bag salt.
1 pint of stout.
3/4 Ib. coarse salt.
1 Ib. treacle.
1/4 oz. saltpetre.

PUT the ingredients into a saucepan, boil for about 5 minutes. While the mixture is boiling, rub the ham with coarse salt and put it in a large pickling-pan. Then pour over the mixture while it is hot. Keep the ham in pickle for 3 weeks, turning and rubbing it every day. After this, take out, put it into a thin cotton bag, and hang it up in the kitchen.

From Mrs. M. Johnson, Nottinghamshire.

[aris]

PICKLING BACON

8 Ibs. of salt.
1/4 Ib. saltpetre.
3/4 Ib. brown sugar.
4 gallons of water.

BOIL for 20 minutes and keep scum removed. When cold put the bacon in and leave about 10 days; turn every day. It does not need to be rubbed.

From Mrs. Seatey, Somersetshire.

[aris]

PICKLING HAMS

A 20-lb. ham.
1 Ib. bay salt.
2 Ibs. common salt.
2 ozs. of mustard.
1 oz. saltpetre.
2 ozs. black pepper.

POUND all the ingredients and mix together, rub the hams with the mixture and let them lie in it for 4 days, rubbing them well every day. Then pour over them 1 ^ Ibs. of treacle. Keep them in the pickle for a month or 5 weeks. It is best to turn them and throw the pickle over them each day.

When taken from the pickle, put them in cold spring water for 24 hours, then hang them up to dry. When cooked the hams must not be soaked first, but put over the fire in cold water.

From Mrs. Sazley, Somersetshire.

[aris]

ROCK SALT AND RED PEPPER

THOROUGHLY rub the fresh hams with a mixture of 4 Ibs. good rough salt and 1 1/2 ozs. saltpetre. Fine salt is of no use for curing hams. Place in a trough, rind downward; and allow to drain for 48 hours, by which time all impurities will have been forced out. Then the curing proper begins.

Make up a mixture of 4 Ibs. crushed rock salt, 1 1/2 ozs. saltpetre, 2 Ibs. brown sugar, and 2 ozs. red pepper for 100 Ibs. meat. Thoroughly rub in; then pile the hams in a tub, and cover the whole with 1/2 in. of salt. All the liquor now collecting should be poured over the meat. In 10 days' time, repeat the rubbing, and pile in the tub as before.

At the end of another 10 days the hams can be removed, the salt, etc., can be brushed off, the rinds thoroughly washed with warm water. They can now be rolled up, and the pieces tied in cloths, and hung up in a cool place ready for use.

From Miss Eliza Walker, Lanarkshire

[aris]

ROXBURGHSHIRE METHOD

Take 3/4 lb of brown sugar; 1/2 oz. of pepper, and mix together/ in a basin. As hams are put into hogshead separately put a small quantity over each one. I have a hogs- head kept specially for the purpose and I put a layer of salt in the bottom. I take hind quarters first and rub salt well into skin, then I turn it over and put a generous supply of salt thickly over fleshy parts. Where bones are taken out, I push salt well in, also in the shank ends.

Next, I take shoulders and do exactly the same as above. Lastly, the sides; rub skins well, also ends of each, turn skins and cover shoulders with salt. Cover with a clean cloth to exclude the air, and finally cover with a board to keep clean. After 12 days I take all out of hogshead, clean it out, and put shoulders in first, this time with a little fresh salt; repeat with hams next until all is done. I take sides out after about 3 weeks and roll, leave the hams another fortnight and hang them up.

I may add that I have salted all our pigs for years and never had a scrap of bad meat.

From Mrs. J. G. Martin, Roxburghshire.

[aris]

SPICED AND ROLLED BACON

A 15-score pig.
28 Ibs. salt.
2 Ibs. brown sugar.
2 ozs. mixed spices.
2 ozs. Jamaica pepper.
1 oz. saltpetre.

I HAVE all the bones removed, even the ham ones, and cut the sides into halves. I take about 2 Ibs. of salt and 1/2 oz. of saltpetre and rub the skin side until it sweats, putting a little of the remaining saltpetre into the places where the shoulder and loin bones came from, and giving the bacon a good rubbing all over the flesh side with whatever saltpetre I have left. Then I cover the pork completely with salt, about 7 Ibs. to each piece.

I lay the meat in the salting trough, one piece on top of the other, and turn every second day for 12 days, putting the top one at the bottom, by which time the salt is absorbed. I brush off any surplus and sprinkle over with brown sugar, 1/2 Ib. to each piece, and let it stand for 2 days more.

Then the bacon is ready for rolling. I put the spices and pepper into a dredger and give a sprinkle to each piece, then take a good strong twine or cord (not too thin), and tie round the roll every 2 1/2 ins. till I come to the end. I make a strong loop to hang the rolls up by, and in a few days I can begin to use the bacon.

I've always done mine this way since coming to England from Scotland, and have never had a piece go wrong yet.

From Mrs. Jean A. Bryers, Northamptonshire.

[aris]

SUFFOLK SWEET CURE

Here is a method of curing bacon and hams which was passed on to my husband and we have found it very successful:

1 qt. beer.
1 qt. best vinegar.
1 Ib. gran. sugar.
1/2 oz. saltpetre.
1 Ib. bay salt.
1 Ib. cooking salt.
1/2 oz. peppercorns.
1/2 oz. cloves.

BOIL all together. Take 2 ozs. hops and boil in a quart of water for 1/2 hour, strain and add to liquid above. Pour over meat when cold.

The container should be shallow, and the meat should be baled over with the liquid daily. Hang up thin parts after 3 weeks and the hams and thick parts after 6 weeks.

From Mrs. E. J. Clarke, Suffolk.