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18TH CENTURY LIVING HISTORY IN AUSTRALIA.

Monday 4 July 2016

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.

2 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

I copied that and saved it in my "homesteading skills" file!

Keith said...

Good one.
Keith.