Modern cookery for private families

while it is hot. When part only of a ham is dressed, this mode is better far than boiling it. TO BOIL BACON. When very highly salted and dried, it should be soaked for an hour before it is dressed. Scrape and wash it well, cover it plentifully with cold water, let it both heat and boil slowly, remove all the scum with care, and when a fork or skewer will penetrate the bacon easily lift it out, strip off the skin, and strew raspings of bread over the top, or grate upon it a hard-crust which has been toasted until it is crisp quite through; or should it be at hand, use for the purpose the bread recommended at page 103, then dry it a little before the fire, or set it for a few minutes into a gentle oven. Bacon requires long boiling, but the precise time depends upon its quality, the flesh of young porkers becoming tender much sooner than that of older ones; sometimes too, the manner in which the animal has been fed renders the meat hard, and it will then, unless thoroughly cooked, prove very indigestible. From ten to fifteen minutes less for the pound, must be allowed for unsmoked bacon, or for pickled pork. Smoked bacon (striped), 2 lbs., from 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hour; unsmoked bacon or pork, 1 to 1-1/4 hour. _Obs._—The thickest part of a large side or flitch of bacon will require from twenty to thirty minutes longer boiling than the thinner side. BACON BROILED OR FRIED. Cut it evenly in thin slices or _rashers_, as they are generally called, pare from them all rind and rust, curl them round, fasten them with small slight skewers, then fry, broil, or toast them in a Dutch oven; draw out the skewers before they are sent to table. A few minutes will dress them either way. They may also be cooked without being curled. The rind should always be taken off, and the bacon gently toasted, grilled, or fried, that it may be well done without being too much dried or hardened: