" You must, on examining the lists of' prices, bear in mind, that meat thus preserved eats nothing, nor drinks—is not apt to get the rot, or to die—does not tumble over board, nor get its legs broken, or its flesh worn off its bones, by knocking abput the decks of a ship in bad weather—it takes no care in the keep ing—it is always ready—may be eat cold or hot— and thus enables you to toss into a boat in a minute, as many days' cooked provisions as you choose—it is not exposed to the vicissitudes of markets, nor is it scourged up to a monstrous price (as at St Helena), because there is no alternative. Besides these ad vantages, it enables one to indulge in a number of luxuries, which no care or expence could procure." The property of salt to preserve animal substances from putrefaction, is of most essential importance to the empire in general, and to the remote grazing districts in particular. It enables the latter to dis pose of their live stock, and distant navigation is wholly dependant upon it. All kinds of animal sub stance, may be preserved by salt, but beef and pork are the only staple articles of this kind. In general, the pieces of the animal best fitted for being salted are those which contain fewest large blood-vessels, and are most solid. Some recommend all the glands to be cut out, and say, that without this precaution meat cannot. be preserved ; but that this is a mistake, the salt udder and glands of the tongue, every day's experience, shows.
The salting may be performed either by dry rubs bing, or by immersing the meat in pickle. Cured in the former way the meat will keep longer, but it is more altered in its valuable properties ; in the let ter way it is more delicate and nutritious. Six pounds of salt, one pound of sugar, and four ounces of saltpetre, boiled with four gallons of water, skim med and allowed to cool, forms a very strong pickle, which will preserve any meat completely immersed in it. To effect this, which is essential, either a heavy board, or flat stone, must be laid upon the meat. The same pickle may be used repeatedly, provided it be boiled up occasionally with addition al salt to restore its strength, diminished by the combination of part of the salt with the meat, and by the dilution of the pickle by the juices of the meat extracted. By boiling, the albumen, which would cause the pickle to spoil, is coagulated, and rises in the form of scum, which must be carefully removed.
Dry salting is performed by rubbing the surface of the meat all over with salt ; and it is generally be lieved that the process of salting is promoted if' the salt be rubbed in with a heavy hand. On the con trary, it is said, that in very hot countries, e. g. Ja maica, where it is so necessary that the action of the salt should take place as quickly as possible, the mode of salting a round of beef, is to place it on two sticks over a tub of water, with the small end uppermost, and to cover it with a heap of salt, which penetrates through the veins and arteries, and among the fibres, in the state of a saturated solution. How
ever this may be, it is almost certain that very little salt penetrates, except through the cut surfaces, to which it should therefore be chiefly applied; and all holes, whether natural or artificial, should be par ticularly attended to. For each twenty-five pounds of meat, about a pound of coarse-grained. salt (St Ubes's is the best) should be allowed, and the whole, previously heated, rubbed in at once. When laid in the pickling tub, a brine is soon form ed by the salt dissolved in the juice of the meat which it extracts, and with this the meat should be rubbed every day, and a different side turned down. In ten or twelve days it will be sufficiently cured.
For domestic use, the meat should not be salted as soon as it comes from the market, but kept until its fibre has become short and tender, as these changes do not take place after it has been acted up on by the salt. But in the provision trade, "the ex pedition with which the animals are slaughtered, the meat cut up and salted, and afterwards packed, is astonishing." (Wakefield's Ireland, Vol. I. p. 750.) By salting the meat while still warm, and before the fluids are coagulated, the salt penetrates immediate ly, by means of the vessels, through the whole sub stance of the meat ; and hence meat is admirably cured at Tunis, even in the hottest season; so that Mr Jackson, in his Reflections on the Trade, of the Mediterranean, recommends- ships being -supplied there with their provisions.
" Take half a pound of black pepper, half a pound of red or kyan pepper, and half a pound of the best saltpetre, all beat or ground very fine; mix these three well together, then mix them with about three quarts of very fine oak: this mixture is sufficient for eight hundred weight of beef'. As the pieces are brought from the person cutting up, first sprinkle the pieces with the spice, and introduce a little into all the thickest parts ; if it cannot be done otherwise, make a small incision with a knife. The first salter, after rubbing salt and spice well into the meat, should take and mould the piece, the same as wash ing a shirt upon a board ; this may be very easily done, and the meat being lately killed, is soft and pliable; this moulding opens the grain of 'the meat, which will make it imbibe the spice and salt much, quicker than the common method of' salting. The first salter hands his piece over to the second salter, who moulds and rube the salt well into the meat, and if he observes occasion, introduces the spice ; when the second salter has finished his piece, he folds it up as close as possible, and hands it to the packer at the harness tubs, who must be stationed near him : the packer must be careful to pack his harness tubs as close as possible.