For best quality of bacon, the proper meat is of first importance. Withes or strings of basket wood, bear’s grass, or coarse, stout twine, one in the hock end of each ham and shoulder, and two in the thick side of each middling, are fastened in the meat by which to suspend it for smoking. Before it is hung up the entire flesh surface of the hams and shoulders, and sometimes the middlings also, is sprinkled thickly with fine black pepper, using a large tin pepper box to apply it. Sometimes a mixture of about equal parts of black and red pepper helps very much to impart a good flavor to the meat. It was thought formerly that black pepper, applied to meat before smoking it, would keep the bacon bug (Dermestes) “skippers” from being troublesome. But it is now known that the skipper skips just as lively where the pepper is. The meat is hung upon sticks or on hooks overhead very close together, without actually touching, and is ready for smoking. THE SMOKEHOUSE.The meat house is of course one with an earth, brick, or cement floor, where the fire for the smoke is made in a depression in the center of the room, so as to be as far as possible from the walls. A few live coals are laid down, and a small fire is made of some dry stuff. As it gets well to burning, the COMBINED SMOKEHOUSE AND OVEN.The oven, shown in Fig. 18, occupies the front and that part of the interior which is represented in our illustration by the dotted lines. The smokehouse occupies the rear, and extends over the oven. The advantages of this kind of building are the perfect dryness secured, which is of great importance in preserving the meat, and the economy in building the two together, as the smoke that escapes from the oven may be turned into the smokehouse. This latter feature, however, will not commend itself to many who prefer FIG. 18. COMBINATION SMOKEHOUSE AND OVEN. Cloudy and damp days are the best for smoking meat. It seems to receive the smoke more freely in such weather, and there is also less danger of fire. The smoke need not be kept up constantly, unless one is in a hurry to sell the meat. Half a day at a time on several days a week, for two or three weeks, will give the bacon that bright gingerbread color which is generally preferred. It should not be made too dark with smoke. It is a good plan, after the meat is smoked nearly enough, to smoke it occasionally for half a day at a time all through the spring until late in May. It is thought that smoke does good in keeping the Dermestes out of the house. The work of smoking may be finished up in a week, if one prefers, by keeping up the smoke all day and at night until bedtime. Some smoke more, others less, according to fancy as to color. No doubt, the more it is smoked, the better the bacon It is necessary, before the smoking is quite completed, to remove the meat that is in the center just over the fire to one side, and to put the pieces from the sides in the center. The meat directly over the smoke colors faster than that on the sides, although the house is kept full of smoke constantly. Some farmers do not care to risk the safety of their meat by having an open fire under it, and so set up an old stove, either in the room or on the outside, in which latter case a pipe lets the smoke into the house. A smoldering fire is then kept up with corn cobs or chips. But there is almost as much danger this way as the other. The stovepipe may become so hot as to set fire to the walls of the house where it enters, or a blaze may be carried within if there is too much fire in the stove. There is some risk either way, but with a properly built smokehouse, there is no great danger from the plan described. THE MEAT IS NOW CUREDand, if these directions have been observed, the farmer has a supply of bacon as good as the world can show. Some may prefer a “shorter cut” from the slaughter pen to the baking pan, and with their pyroligenous acid may scout the old-fashioned smoke as heathenish, and get their bacon ready for eating in two hours after the salt has struck in. But they never can show such bacon by their method as we can by ours. There is but one way to have this first-class bacon and ham, and that way is the one herein portrayed. TO MAKE A SMOKEHOUSE FIREPROOFas far as the stove ashes are concerned, is not necessarily an expensive job; all that is required is to lay FIG. 19. FIREPROOFING A SMOKEHOUSE. A WELL ARRANGED SMOKEHOUSE.A simple but satisfactory smokehouse is shown in the illustration, Fig. 20, and can be constructed on the farm at small cost. It is so arranged as to give direct action of smoke upon the meat within, and yet free from the annoyance that comes from entering a smoke-filled room to replenish the fire. The house is square, and of a size dependent upon the material one may have yearly to cure by smoke. For ordinary use, a
SMOKING MEATS IN A SMALL WAY.A fairly good substitute for a smokehouse, where it is desired to improvise something for temporary use in smoking hams or other meat, may be found in a large cask or barrel, arranged as shown in the engraving, Fig. 22. To make this effective, a small pit should FIG. 22. A BARREL SMOKEHOUSE. ANOTHER BARREL SMOKEHOUSE.For those who have only the hams and other meats from one or two hogs to smoke, a practicable smokehouse, like that shown in Fig. 23, will serve the FIG. 23. BARREL SMOKEHOUSE WITH FRENCH DRAFT. |