What were they making?

[Dhiana]

Found an old, handwritten recipe titled, "meat" in an old recipe book that used to belong to my great-aunt.
I cannot figure out exactly what they are making, can you?

"1 hundred lbs meat
10lbs salt
3lbs brown sugar
2oz of salt petter
and 4 - 5 pails of water
let stand 6 weeks
bail water and
weigh the meat"

It looked like a bacon/curing type recipe until I got to the water.
The water thing just confuses me.

TIA

[Selah]

Dhiana, I agree...it looks like something to do with pork meat. How mysterious! :)

[herbgeek]

Sounds like some type of curing, a ham perhaps?

[catherine]

Ham sounds right to me.

[CathyA]

Just a recipe for a type of preserving? Although I'm not sure why they would have to weigh the meat.

[Mrs. Hermit]

Its brined cured ham (or really any meat will work with that mix). The reason you have to weigh the meat before curing is to ensure that the salt/meat ratio is correct. Too much salt and the meat shrinks and loses condition. Too little salt and the meat spoils. The reason for weighing it after might be to check afterwards that your ratio was correct and be assured that the meat will keep.

[CathyA]

I wonder if this was then stored without refrigeration?

[Dhiana]

Thanks for the solutions! My family were mid-western farmers, I'm very sure they had pigs so a brine cured ham sounds like a winner :)

The cookbook is copyright 1924 Modern Pricilla Cookbook and I know my family was quite poor so I doubt they would have had
a refrigerator/icebox large enough for 100lbs of meat.

Thanks for the help!