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Pork, Pickled

As pork will not keep unless it is salted, it should be cut up as soon as it is cold, and in such pieces as will lie quite flat in the pan. Strew a layer of salt and a slighter one of sugar at the bottom of the salting-pan. Rub the sides of the pork over with sugar and salt, lay the pieces skin downwards in the pan, and between each layer of meat put one of sugar and salt. When the pan is full, cover the whole with a layer of salt sufficiently thick to exclude the air. Lay a cloth over the pan, and put a board with a weight upon it over the cloth to keep the meat in the brine. Leave it for a week or ten days. If at the end of that time the salt has not dissolved into a brine, sprinkle a little warm water over the top layer of salt. It is better, however, to avoid doing this if possible: it should only be found necessary in very dry weather. Pork pickled in this way will be ready for use in three or four months, and will be found excellent. If guarded from the air, it will keep good for two years. Although salt-petre is more commonly used than sugar in pickling meat, the latter imparts the finer flavour, though there is no reason why both should not be used for pork as well as beef.