little fresh salt, and put the beef into the pickle; rub and turn it every day for three or four days, and it will be ready to dress, and if the pickle have been previously well prepared, will be found to have a very fine flavour.
Cut a round into pieces of 5 lb. weight each, and salt them very well; when sufficiently salted, hang the pieces in a wood-smoke chimney to dry, and let them hang three or four weeks. This may be grated, for breakfast or luncheon. Another.—Cut a leg of beef like a ham, and to one of 14 lb. make a pickle of 1 lb. salt, 1 lb. brown sugar, 1 oz. saltpetre, and 1 oz. bay salt. Rub and turn the ham every day for a month, then roll it in bran and smoke it. Hang it in a dry place. Broil it in slices.
To rather more than a sufficient quantity of water to cover it, put 7 or 8 handsful of bran, a few bay leaves, also salt enough to give a strong relish; boil this an hour and a half, then strain it. When cold, pour the pickle from the sediment into a pan, and put the meat into it.
Any of these pickles may be used again. First boil it up and take off all the scum.
It is always the best plan to deal with a respectable butcher, and to keep to the same one. He will find his interest in providing his regular customers with good meat, and the best is always the cheapest, even though it may cost a little more money.
- Beef is best and cheapest from Michaelmas to Midsummer.
- Veal is best and cheapest from March to July.
- Mutton is best from Christmas to Midsummer.
- Grass Lamb is best from Easter to June.
- House Lamb comes in in February.
- Poultry is in the greatest perfection, when it is in the greatest plenty, which it is about September.
