Home Pork Making

The Art of Raising and Curing Pork on the Farm

Home Pork Making
The Art of Raising and Curing Pork on the Farm

A complete guide for the farmer, the country butcher and the suburban dweller, in all that pertains to hog slaughtering, curing, preserving and storing pork product—from scalding vat to kitchen table and dining room.

This edition features
 • illustrations
 • a linked Table of Contents
 
CONTENTS
Introduction.
Pork making on the farm nearly a lost art—General merit of homemade pork—Acknowledgments.
Chapter I.—Pork Making on the Farm.
Best time for killing—A home market for farm pork—Opportunities for profit—Farm census of live stock for a series of years.
Chapter II.—Finishing Off Hogs for Bacon.
Flesh forming rations—Corn as a fat producer—Just the quality of bacon wanted—Normandy Hogs.
Chapter III.—Slaughtering.
Methods employed—Necessary apparatus—Heating water for scalding.
Chapter IV.—Scalding and Scraping.
Saving the bristles—Scalding tubs and vats—Temperature for scalding—“Singeing pigs”—Methods of Singeing.
Chapter V.—Dressing and Cutting.
Best time for dressing—Opening the carcass—Various useful appliances—Hints on dressing—How to cut up a hog.
Chapter VI.—What to do With the Offal.
Portions classed as offal—Recipes and complete directions for utilizing the wholesome parts, aside from the principal pieces—Sausage, scrapple, jowls and head, brawn, head-cheese.
Chapter VII.—The Fine Points in Making Lard.
Kettle and steam rendered—Time required in making—Storing.
Chapter VIII.—Pickling and Barreling.
A clean barrel one of the first considerations—The use of salt on pork strips—Pickling by covering with brine—Renewing pork brine.
Chapter IX.—Care of Hams and Shoulders.
A first-class ham—A general cure for ham and shoulders—Pickling preparatory to smoking—Westphalian hams.
Chapter X.—Dry Salting Bacon and Sides.
Proper proportion of salt to meat—Other preservatives—Applying the salt—Best distribution of the salt—Time required in curing—Pork for the south.
Chapter XI.—Smoking and Smokehouses.
Treatment previous to smoking—Simple but effective smokehouses—Controlling the fire in smoke formation—Materials to produce best flavor—The choice of weather—Variety in smokehouses.
Chapter XII.—Keeping Hams and Bacon.
The ideal meat house—Best temperature and surroundings—Precautions against skippers—To exclude the bugs entirely.
Chapter XIII.—Side Lights on Pork Making.
Growth of the big packing houses—Average weight of live hogs—“Net to gross”—Relative weights of various portions of the carcass.
Chapter XIV.—Packing House Cuts of Pork.
Descriptions of the leading cuts of meat known as the speculative commodities in the pork product—Mess pork, short ribs, shoulders and hams, English bacon, varieties of lard.
Chapter XV.—Magnitude of the Swine Industry.
Importance of the foreign demand—Statistics of the trade—Receipts at leading points—Prices for a series of years—Co-operative curing houses in Denmark.
Chapter XVI.—Discovering the Merits of Roast Pig.
The immortal Charles Lamb on the art of roasting—An oriental luxury of luxuries.
Chapter XVII.—Recipes for Cooking and Serving Pork.
Success in the kitchen—Prize methods of best cooks—Unapproachable list of especially prepared recipes—Roasts, pork pie, cooking bacon, pork and beans, serving chops and cutlets, use of spare ribs, the New England boiled dinner, ham and sausage, etc.