Common Salt, Bay Salt, Saltpetre, Sal Prunella, and coarse brown Sugar or treacle, are all used in salting meat. Common Salt is made from the evaporated brine which collects by the trickling of surface-water on to the great beds of Rock Salt, or Mineral Salt. For instance, in the salt-mine at Northwich, in Cheshire, which covers an area of forty acres, the brine is found at a depth of some forty yards, lying at the top of a bed of rock salt thirty-six yards thick. Rock salt is reddish-brown in colour, but in England the salt evaporated from the water which rests on it is of the purest white and of absolute cleanliness. Bay Salt, on the contrary, is dirty, so much so that in France it is called sel gris, and is known to con- tain fifteen per cent, of impurity. The reason is that Bay Salt is produced from the evaporation of sea water stored in shallow basins, with mud floors, instead of the iron or prepared-clay salt- pans set over fires wrhich are used for rock salt. However, at Salt Lake in America the water is, like that of the Dead Sea in Palestine, 6^ times salter than any sea, and the evaporated salt is pure enough to be used without any artificial refining. Bay Salt, in spite of its impurities, was (and is) frequently used in curing meat, as it is said to give a sweeter flavour than other salt. Saltpetre is found on the surface of the earth, chiefly in Bengal, Chili, and Burmah. It is not a European product, although in Germany it is very successfully imitated in chemical “ Saltpetre Plantations.” Saltpetre is used in salting meat when, as in a cold round of beef, the meat is required to look red. Sal Prunella, so often mentioned in old recipes, is nothing but Saltpetre which has been fused and poured into moulds. The composition of the Saltpetre has not been altered in the least. The name comes from pruna, or live coal (so called in alchemy), on account of the appearance of the molten mass of Saltpetre/1' Sugar makes the meat mellow and rich. The very coarse brown sugar of old days is now so difficult to get that common molasses or treacle, in the same proportions, is frequently substituted for it. In salting meat it is better to let the meat hang for two or * Sal Prunella can be bought from any good chemist. 206 SALTED MEAT three clays so as to become tender. But it must be fresh when salted, although it need not be quite freshly killed. If it is not fresh it will spoil. Very cold weather is quite as bad a time for curing meat as very hot weather. In hot weather the meat changes before it can be affected by the salt, and in severe weather the meat is so hardened and its juices so congealed that no salt can penetrate it. It is a good plan to sprinkle meat with water and hang it up to drain a few hours before salting is begun ; this cleanses it from any blood, and makes it more delicate. If the weather is at all frosty, warm the salt in a frying-pan over the fire, or it will not rub sufficiently into the meat. When saltpetre is used the regular proportion is half an ounce of salt- petre to half an ounce of sugar or molasses (one dry table- spoonful is equal to one fluid ounce), and one pound of salt. Brisket of beef should be jointed so as to let the salt in. Every pipe or kernel in meat must be removed, and all holes filled with salt.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Common Salt, Bay Salt, Saltpetre, Sal Prunella, and coarse brown Sugar or treacle, are all used in salting meat. Common Salt is made from the evaporated brine which collects by the trickling of surface-water on to the great beds of Rock Salt, or Mineral Salt. For instance, in the salt-mine at Northwich, in Cheshire, which covers an area of forty acres, the brine is found at a depth of some forty yards, lying at the top of a bed of rock salt thirty-six yards thick. Rock salt is reddish-brown in colour, but in England the salt evaporated from the water which rests on it is of the purest white and of absolute cleanliness. Bay Salt, on the contrary, is dirty, so much so that in France it is called sel gris, and is known to contain fifteen per cent, of impurity. The reason is that Bay Salt is produced from the evaporation of sea water stored in shallow basins, with mud floors, instead of the iron or prepared-clay saltpans set over fires which are used for rock salt. However, at Salt Lake in America the water is, like that of the Dead Sea in Palestine, 6^ times salter than any sea, and the evaporated salt is pure enough to be used without any artificial refining. Bay Salt, in spite of its impurities, was (and is) frequently used in curing meat, as it is said to give a sweeter flavour than other salt. Saltpetre is found on the surface of the earth, chiefly in Bengal, Chili, and Burmah. It is not a European product, although in Germany it is very successfully imitated in chemical “ Saltpetre Plantations.” Saltpetre is used in salting meat when, as in a cold round of beef, the meat is required to look red. Sal Prunella, so often mentioned in old recipes, is nothing but Saltpetre which has been fused and poured into moulds. The composition of the Saltpetre has not been altered in the least. The name comes from pruna, or live coal (so called in alchemy), on account of the appearance of the molten mass of Saltpetre.* Sugar makes the meat mellow and rich. The very coarse brown sugar of old days is now so difficult to get that common molasses or treacle, in the same proportions, is frequently substituted for it. In salting meat it is better to let the meat hang for two or * Sal Prunella can be bought from any good chemist. SALTED MEAT three clays so as to become tender. But it must be fresh when salted, although it need not be quite freshly killed. If it is not fresh it will spoil. Very cold weather is quite as bad a time for curing meat as very hot weather. In hot weather the meat changes before it can be affected by the salt, and in severe weather the meat is so hardened and its juices so congealed that no salt can penetrate it. It is a good plan to sprinkle meat with water and hang it up to drain a few hours before salting is begun ; this cleanses it from any blood, and makes it more delicate. If the weather is at all frosty, warm the salt in a frying-pan over the fire, or it will not rub sufficiently into the meat. When saltpetre is used the regular proportion is half an ounce of saltpetre to half an ounce of sugar or molasses (one dry tablespoonful is equal to one fluid ounce), and one pound of salt. Brisket of beef should be jointed so as to let the salt in. Every pipe or kernel in meat must be removed, and all holes filled with salt.

Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book