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Bacon, to Cure and Keep Free from Rust (cobbett's Recipe)

William Cobbett, in his "Rural Economy," gives the following method of curing bacon. Practical persons highly recommend it:--"Take two sides or flitches of bacon, rub the insides with salt, then place one on the other, the flesh-side uppermost, in a salting-trough which has a gutter round its edges to drain away the brine; for to have sweet and fine bacon the flitches must not be sopping in brine, which gives it the objectionable taste that barrel and sea-pork have. Everyone knows how different is the taste of fresh dry salt from that of salt in a dissolved state; therefore, change the salt often--once in four or five days--let it melt and sink in, but not lie too long; change the flitches every ten days; put that at bottom which was first on the top. This mode will cost a great deal more in salt than the sopping mode, but without it the bacon will not be so sweet and fine, nor keep so well. The time required in making the flitches sufficiently salt depends on circumstances. It takes a longer time for a thick than a thin flitch, and longer in dry than in damp weather, or in a dry than a damp place; but for the flitches of a hog of seven or eight stones, in weather not very dry or damp, about six weeks may do; and as the flitches should be fat, it receives little injury from over salting."