Ans.--If you keep the temperature of the small room which you mention at from 35 to 40 degrees it will answer the purpose for curing. The oak tierces for curing are all right provided they are new. We advise that you wash them out with scalding hot water, so as to get rid of the oak taste. If the tierces are not new, then you must make doubly sure that they are scalded out thoroughly and at the same time you should use our Ozo for cleansing them.
The old ice-box which you mention can be used for dry salting hams and shoulders when the weather gets cold, provided you do not let the meat freeze. You must not let the temperature get below 35 degrees, because at a lower temperature, meat will not take on salt. Hams can be dry salt cured just the same as side meats, but when hams are very thick, we would advise that you pump them. Our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” will give you full information as to the pumping process and a formula for making the pumping brine. Hams are very seldom dry salt cured; they are nearly always sweet-pickle cured. A sweet pickle or sugar cured ham has a much finer flavor than the dry salt cured ham.
If you pack side meat properly and overhaul it regularly until it is fully cured, and if you keep the temperature of the curing room at about 38 degrees, you will have no trouble in keeping dry salt meat in salt all winter. Of course if you keep it in salt too long, it will get very salty. Our book on curing meats will give you full directions for dry salt curing. Hams, after they are fully cured in brine, can be rubbed with salt and kept in a cooler for several months, and if desired, all winter, but the shrinkage will be great and they will take on salt and might become too salty for your trade.
_Query.--E. & W.: We are having trouble with our lard; the oil separates from the lard during the warm weather so part of the lard is really oil, and we cannot use it in that condition. Our business is too small to justify us in employing a practical man to take charge of our lard. We ask you for your advice._
Ans.--To keep the oil from separating from the lard, you should carry out the following directions: First, you should provide yourself with a lard cooler with an agitator attached, as the lard after it is rendered and when it begins to cool should be agitated until it becomes thick like cream, before it is run into the buckets. If lard is not agitated, when it is cooled the stearin crystallizes and the oil separates from the stearin, but by chilling the lard and by agitating it while it cools, the stearin does not get a chance to crystallize and the oil will not separate and the lard will keep better in this condition. Lard that is put up in winter for summer use is much improved by adding about ten per cent of tallow, but when this lard is sold, it should be sold as lard with ten per cent of tallow added. If you wish to treat the lard that you have on hand, we advise you to treat it as follows: For every 100 lbs. of lard, put 100 lbs. of water in your lard kettle; add to it four ounces of our Lard Purifier, and throw 100 lbs. of lard into this water. Start the fire and gradually heat it until the lard is melted and is as hot as it will stand without boiling over. Keep on stirring the lard until it begins to melt, so as to thoroughly wash it. After the lard is thoroughly washed, you will find a certain amount of scum will come to the top, skim this off and then allow the lard to settle for about two hours, so that all the water will separate from the lard and settle down at the bottom. Skim the lard off the top of the water and then let it cool, but keep on agitating it or stirring it while it is cooling, until it is thick like cream.