Ham, to cure. No. 14.
Take a quantity of spring water sufficient to cover the meat you design to cure; make the pickle with an equal quantity of bay salt and common salt; add to a pound of each one pound of coarse brown sugar, one ounce of saltpetre, and one ounce of petre-salt; let the pickle be strong enough to bear an egg. If you design to eat the pork in a month or six weeks, it is best not to boil the pickle; if you intend it for the year, the pickle must be boiled and skimmed well until it is perfectly clear; let it be quite cold before you use it. Rub the meat that is to be preserved with some common salt, and let it lie upon a table sloping, to drain out all the blood; wipe it very dry with a coarse cloth before you put it into the pickle. The proportion of the pickle may be this: four pounds of common salt, four pounds of bay salt, three pounds of coarse sugar, two ounces of saltpetre, and two ounces of petre-salt, with a sufficient quantity of spring water to cover what you do, boiled as directed above. Let the hams lie about six weeks in the pickle, and then send them to be smoked. Beef, pork, and tongues, may be cured in the same manner: ribs of beef done in this way are excellent.