Thursday, February 13, 1913.]
the CAROLINA UNION PARMER
Page Three
I he Hog and Its Products
Erom Bulletin N. C. Dept, of Agricullure
To Make Gool Hams.
To make good bacon will require
good hogs. By that is meant a medi
um weight hog which has been prop
erly corn-fed, and watered with
clean water. The choicest bacon is
made from hogs from twelve to eigh
teen months old and weighing 125 to
200 pounds.
They are killed on the farms on a
cold morning: well bled, well scalded
and well cleaned. They should hang
all day, be housed at night, not allow
ed to come in contact w’ith each oth
er, and cut and salted next morning.
Do not cut them up the day of kill-
ing.
Do not salt the meat before the
animal heat has cooled out. More
meat is spoiled by the salting and
packing in bulk before it is thorough
ly cooled than from any other cause.
Cut out the backbone and pull out
the ribs. Trim the hams and shoul
ders close. Leave no surplus bumps
or points and make the cuts as shape
ly as possible. The trimmings are
worth more made into sausage and
lard than if left to mar the appear
ance of the cured meat. The sides
or middlings should also be carefully
trimmed, and one or two four-inch
strips cut lengthways from the thin
part to be cured as breakfast bacon.
This is important, as these cuts are
much sought after, and bring 2^
cents more per pound than the whole
sides, when properly cured.
When the meat has been properly
trimmed then the curing begins; use
about one pound of ground saltpetre
to 400 pounds of meat. That is a
heaping teaspoonful to the ham, more
or less, according to size. This is rub
bed in on tlie flesh sides and around
the bones. Use flne salt, and rub it
in well, heaping it up on the flesh
sides to some extent. Don’t cut a
gash for salt in the ham. If desired,
one pound of sugar, may be added to
each twenty pounds of salt. The
meat should then be packed up in
piles on plank flooring of some kind,
and raised ofE of the ground; a plank
frame, or large trough is better. The
platform on which the meat is pack
ed should be slanted so as to allow
the melted salt to drip away. In
about a week take down the pile, re
salt and replace the pieces in the
pile and let them cure for four or flve
weeks longer, according to size.
When the meat is again taken up,
brush off the salt and rub well with a
tablespoonful of mixed ground pep
per—red and black. If you prefer a
body to hold this pepper, use a small
quantity of good quality molasses,
well rubbed on; then the mixed pep
pers. The joints are now ready to
hang for smoking. With large wire
needle or smaU knife, insert strong
twine and hang in the upper part of
the smoke-house, hook end 'down, anc
start a “smudge” or small Are made
of green hickory (preferred), or rec
oak, beech wood or corn cobs. Smoke
every day for about threj3 weeks, or
until the meat has taken on the rich
brown color desired; and your hams
are now ready for bagging: or if pre
ferred, bagging may be done at time
of first hanging.
To bag the hams, make bags of
common unbleached sheeting; drop
the hams into the bags, hock down,
and sew or tie up tight at the top
Then saturate the sacked hams thor
oughly in a thick solution of ashes
, and hot water; or as others prefer,
into a lime bath, made up as for
white-washing. These dips serve to
exclude all insect pests and to pre
serve the color and flavor of the meat
enclosed.
It is better to hang the hams in
the darkest part of the smoke-house.
Shoulders and breakfast strips
treated like hams will pay well for
the trouble.
Butchering Time.
As the frosts begin to whiten the
landscape in the early ■ morning,
housekeepers in the country begin to
plan for the approaching butchering
time. Visions of the most substan
tial additions to the family larder
lend enthusiasm as the event ap
proaches, and especially so among
the younger members of the house
hold. The good wife and mother
views it in a different light, as it will
entail much exacting labor upon her
and her assistants.
The blazing Are for heating stones;
the squealing porkers and the siz
zling noise of the heated stones as
they are thrown into the water makes
the heart of the lads jubilant. Near
by are the tables and clean tubs
where the housewife and her assist
ants await to do their part. The flrst
and most disagreeable task is the rid
ding of the fat from the intestines;
this is best done before they cool;
care, cleanliness and patient dexter
ity are essential in this work; the fat
thus removed should be allowed to
stand awhile in cold water, when it
will make pure, sweet lard.
In cutting the hams, shoulders,
breakfast strips, and sides, do not
spare the knife. The trimmings
from these will go into both the lard
fat and the sausage meat. Such trim
mings improves the appearance of the
larger cuts and the trimmings are
worth just as much into lard or sau
sage.
The cuts and several approved
methods of curing meats are describ
ed elsewhere in this Bulletin, but ow
ing to the tasteless and generally un
satisfactory sausage products turned
out by some of the butchers in the
towns of this country, it is deemed
advisable to add a few recipes for
making sausage and souse.
Sausage.—1. Put the meat through
the grinder twice (after the first time
add the seasoning which will be well
distributed when the meat goes
through the grinder the second time);
carefully remove all lumps and
strings. To twenty-five pounds of
meat add one gill black pepper, near
ly a pint of fine salt, and two gills
beaten or ground sage. A little
ground ginger added, it is said, will
aid in its digestion. This meat may
be “cased” and smoked if desired;
or it may be partially cooked and
covered, in a jar, with melted lard
and kept for several months, provid
ed the air is kept from the meat. A
little red pepper is demanded by some
tastes.
Sausage.—2. Twelve pounds of
lean and six pounds of fat pork; ten
tablespoonfuls of powdered sage; six
tablespoonfuls black pepper; same of
fine salt; two tablespoonfuls powder
ed mace; same of cloves, and one
grated nutmeg. Grind and mix as
above. This is a rich, highly season
ed sausage, especially suited to fam
ily use. A teaspoonful of ground red
pepper is added by some mixers in all
sausage.
Bologna Sausage (Cooked.)—Four
pounds of lean beef; four of veal;
four of pork; four of salt pork—not
smoked; two of beef suet. Grind all
the meat together. Before the sec
ond grinding add and well mix in the
following: ten tablespoonfuls ground
sage; two ounces each of marjoram,
parsley, savory and thyme, a table
spoonful of cayenne pepper and two
of black pepper; two grated nutmegs;
a tablespoonful of ground cloves; two
minced onions, and salt to taste. Af
ter the second grinding stuff into
beef-skins; tie these up, puncture
each in several places to allow es
cape of steam; put into hot water
and gradually heat to boiling and
cook for an hour. Take out the
skins and lay on clean straw in the
sun to drain and dry. Hang up in
cool dark cellar; if to be kept longer
than a week, rub melted butter on
the outside and then rub with pep
per or ground ginger. No further
cooking is needed; serve in slices
from which the skin has been re
moved.
Souse.-r-This is made of the head,
ears, and feet. Clean them thor
oughly. Boil in salted water until
perfectly tender. Strip the meat from
the bones and chop fine; season with
salt, pepper, sage, sweet marjoram, a
little cloves, and half a cup or more
of strong apple vinegar. Mix all
thoroughly together, and mould in
bowls or shallow stone jars. To keep
for several weeks take the meat from
the moulds and immerse in strong
vinegar.
Several of the above recipes are
from Marion Harland’s Common
Sense in the Household.
Co-operative Killing and Curing.
The time-honored custom of neigh
bors assisting each other at the year
ly slaughter of the hogs and the oft-
time practice of employing some
neighbor more skilled in the espe
cial arts of the trade suggest the
thought that a further co-operation
may be not only desirable, but abso
lutely necessary in the preparation of
pork products in such a condition
that they may compete with the im
ported material prepared by profes
sionals, many of whom have but a
single motion to perform and all of
whom are continually engaged,
Americans are not inclined to look
with favor to Europeans as teachers
in economic questions; but, in co-op
erative association, at least one na
tion of industrious people are far
ahead of what we may expect to be
come in many years, partly on ac
count of our surroundings, and partly
on account of our conservatism and
natural distrust of untried condi
tions.
About twenty years ago there was
initiated in Denmark a system of
creamery co-operation which has
since spread until the bulk of milk
supplied to its chief cities is supplied
by it, and whose example has borne
fruit in this country and is daily in
creasing. By its means, cream, but
ter and cheese are handled more
cleanly, more cheaply and in a better
condition in its finished products.
These creameries are entirely con
trolled by the milk producers and as
the name implies by all working to
gether for the common end. Each
small owner could not purchase all
the improved apparatus for handling
milk, nor perhaps could attend to all
the manifold duties connected with
its manufacture, but some could de
vote their time and all be sharers of
the Income derived.
The creamery associations soon
stimulated the dairy industry on ac
count of the increased profits, so that
an outlet for the waste products be
came necessary and the fattening of
swine began. At first there was no
trouble in disposing of the live swine
to Germany, but soon there was
raised a prohibition against the im
portation of the swine by the Ger
man Government, and then another
outlet was sought. The present sys
tem of co-operative abattoirs or
slaughter houses, resulted. So re
markable had been the result of co
operation in creameries that this was
the logical sequence of events.
The flrst abattoir was established
in 1887 for the slaughter of hogs and
the preparation of salted and smoked
meats. In 1888 five others followed.
By 1896, twenty-flve had been estab
lished with a membership of 68,000
farmers. The least of these abattoirs
slaughtered in 1896, 4,602 head; the
largest, 53,961; all slaughtered 701,-
041 head, or an average of 28,042
head for each.
The capital necessary to establish
these was primarily, borrowed upon
the recognized credit of the members
of the society. The loan was facili
tated by bankers and tradesmen of
neighboring villages, whose interests
were increased by the creation of
such important enterprises.
All were admitted as members,
whatever -the number, w'ho raised
swine and engaged to deliver at the
abattoir all that they intended to sell,
at a weight between 160 and 200
pounds.
The societies all work under fixed
regulations as regards deliveries, pay
ments, fees, withdrawal at the end of
stated times and other necessary de
tails of business.
Disputed points are submitted to
the General Assembly, presided over
by the President. Questions of dis
pute between the members and the
abattoir are settled by a Board of Ar
bitration, composed of one judge
named by the Assembly, one by the
abattoir committee, and a third by
the claimant.
In all other cases a committee
named by the General Assembly rep
resents the abattoir in all its acts,
conforming to the rules and regula
tions of the society under the respon
sibility of the General Assembly. A
commercial member, who can not
otherwise belong to the society, is ap
pointed.
Although ample provision has been
made in the organic law of the so
ciety for its dissolution at any time,
none of them have yet been obliged
to avail themselves of it. On the
contrary, their prosperity affords the
most striking proof of the results that
can be obtained by a w’ell applied and
seriously undertaken co-operative so
ciety.
The above notes have been taken
from a recent report made to the
French Minister of Agriculture on
this important phase of work. While
as before stated, it may be too early
to undertake any business on the
scale attained in Denmark, it is not
too early to combine resources and
plan for such a business as will meet
the needs of our communities.
In 1895, there were about 1,200,-
000 hogs of all conditions; as given
in the tax list in North Carolina. This
would make an average of about 12,-
500 for each of the ninety-six coun
ties. If it is admitted that but half
of these are to be slaughtered an
nually there would be about 6,000 •
for each county. Until cold storage
can be established the conditions of
climate and farming are such that-
the killing must occur in the colder
months of fall and winter.
If at this time those having sur
plus hogs would band together and
take the hogs to some central point,
preferably the farm of a member, and
there employ men of experience and
skill to cut up, cure and smoke the
meat there could probably be enough
savings made in the waste, sufficient
improvements made in the products
to profitably repay for the trouble
taken in organizing and the expenses
met in erecting killing sheds, scald
ing tanks, cutting and salting rooms,
smoke-house and storage rooms. All
products needed at home, or that
could be made use of, could easily be
returned in condition to be most
easily handled. The products pre
pared for market could either be
sold by the company or according to
the arrangements made by the origi-
(Continued on page 15.)