HOW TO
CUT UP AND CURE PORK.--Have the hog laid on his back on a stout, clean
bench; cut off the head close to the base. If the hog is large, there
will come off a considerable collar, between head and shoulders,
which, pickled or dried, is useful for cooking with vegetables.
Separate the jowl from the face at the natural joint; open the skull
lengthwise and take out the brains, esteemed a luxury. Then with a
sharp knife remove the back-bone the whole length, then the long
strip of fat underlying it, leaving about one inch of fat covering the
spinal column.
The leaf lard, if not before taken out for the housewife's
convenience, is removed, as is also the tenderloin--a fishy-shaped
piece of flesh--often used for sausage, but which makes delicious
steak. The middling or sides are now cut out, leaving the shoulders
square-shaped and the hams pointed, or they may be rounded to your
taste. The spare-ribs are usually wholly removed from the sides, with
but little meat adhering. It is the sides of small, young hogs cured
as hams that bear the name of breakfast bacon, The sausage meat comes
chiefly in strips from the backbone, part of which may also be used as
steak. The lean trimmings from about the joints are used for sausage,
the fat scraps rendered up with the backbone lard.
The thick part of the backbone that lies between the shoulders, called
griskin or chine, is separated from the tapering, bony part, called
backbone by way of distinction, and used as flesh.
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