A Survey of 18th- and 19th-Century Food Preservation Techniques in Philadelphia 1.

If you wish to salt fat pork, scald coarse salt in water and

skim it, till the salt will no longer melt in the water. Pack

your pork down in tight layers; salt every layer; when the

brine is cool, cover the pork with it, and keep a heavy stone

on top to keep the pork under brine. Look to it once in a

while, for the first few weeks, and if the salt has all melted,

throw in more. This brine, scaling and skimmed every time

it is used, will continue good twenty years. The rind of the

pork should be packed towards the edge of the barrel.44

Salting meat was a less time consuming task that salting pork. Child explained

that “you have nothing to do but rub in salt plentifully, and let it set in the cellar a day or

two…In summer, it will not keep more than a day and a half; if you are compelled to

keep it longer, be sure and rub more salt, and keep it carefully covered from cellarflies.”

45

43 Deborah Norris Logan, Diary VII, December 28, 1824. Historical Society of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.