le is usually both larger and fatter than that supplied to the London
consumer, it is customary to remove the skin and fat down to the lean,
and, salting that, roast what remains of the joint. Pork goes further,
and is consequently a more economical food than other meats, simply
because the texture is closer, and there is less waste in the cooking,
either in roasting or boiling.

792. IN FRESH PORK, the leg is the most economical family joint, and the
loin the richest.

793. COMPARATIVELY SPEAKING, very little difference exists between the
weight of the live and dead pig, and this, simply because there is
neither the head nor the hide to be removed. It has been proved that
pork loses in cooking 13-1/2, per cent. of its weight. A salted hand
weighing 4 lbs. 5 oz. lost in the cooking 11 oz.; after cooking, the
meat weighing only 3 lbs. 1 oz., and the bone 9 oz. The original cost
was 7-1/2d. a pound; but by this deduction, the cost rose to 9d. per
pound with the bone, and 10-1/4d. without it.

794. PORK, TO BE PRESERVED, is cured in several ways,--either by
covering it with salt, or immersing it in ready-made brine, where it is
kept till required; or it is only partially salted, and then hung up to
dry, when the meat is called white bacon; or, after salting, it is hung
in wood smoke till the flesh is impregnated with the aroma from the
wood. The Wiltshire bacon, which is regarded as the finest in the
kingdom, is prepared by laying the sides of a hog in large wooden
troughs, and then rubbing into the flesh quantities of powdered
bay-salt, made hot in a frying-pan. This process is repeated for four
days; they are then left for three weeks, merely turning the flitches
every other day. After that time they are hung up to dry. The hogs
usually killed for purposes of bacon in England average from 18 to 20
stone; on the other hand, the hogs killed in the country for farm-house
purposes, seldom weigh less than 26 stone. The legs of boars, hogs, and,
in Germany, those of bears, are prepared differently, and called hams.

795. THE PRACTICE IN VOGUE FORMERLY in this country was to cut out the
hams and cure them separately; then to remove the ribs, which were
roasted as "spare-ribs," and, curing the remainder of the side, call it
a "gammon of bacon."

Small pork to cut for table in joints, is cut up, in most places
throughout the kingdom, as represented in the engraving. The sale is
divided with nine ribs to the fore quarter; and