Modern cookery for private families

between the skin and flesh of the knuckle. The part of the shoulder provincially called the hand, is also occasionally pickled in the same way as hams and bacon, or it is salted and boiled, but it is too sinewy for roasting. After these and the head have been taken off, the remainder, without further division than being split down the back, may be converted into whole sides, or _flitches_ as they are usually called, of bacon; but when the meat is large and required in part for various other purposes, a chine may be taken out, and the fat pared off the bones of the ribs and loins for bacon; the thin part of the body converted into pickled pork, and the ribs and other bones roasted, or made into pies or sausages. The feet, which are generally salted down for immediate use, are excellent if laid for two or three weeks into the same pickle as the hams, then well covered with cold water, and slowly boiled until tender. The loins of young and delicate pork are roasted with the skin on; and this is scored in regular stripes of about a quarter of an inch wide with the point of a sharp knife, before the joints are laid to the fire. The skin of the leg also is just cut through in the same manner. This is done to prevent its blistering, and to render it more easy to carve, as the skin (or _crackling_) becomes so crisp and hard in the cooking that it is otherwise sometimes difficult to divide it. To be at any time fit for table, pork must be _perfectly sweet_, and thoroughly cooked; great attention also should be given to it when it is in pickle, for if any part of it be long exposed to the air, without being turned into, or well and frequently basted with the brine, it will often become tainted during the process of curing it. TO MELT LARD. Strip the skin from the inside fat of a freshly killed and well-fed pig; slice it small and