Part 6
It is, therefore, plain to be seen that what is known as the superior quality is the best Ham that the packer can turn out. As stated, the Hams are superior before they are cured. They are properly kept all through the process of curing, and the moment they are fully cured they are taken out, smoked and sold. It is only by handling Hams in this manner that it is possible to maintain a grade of superior quality. All Hams cannot be handled in this way, owing to the fluctuation of supply and demand, but the packer aims to keep them fully up to superior grade by a frequent and discriminating culling. This should convince anyone in doubt upon this question that they are erroneous in supposing that all hams are alike, and that all hog meat is high grade pork, when, in fact, it has various grades of quality.
HOW TO SMOKE PICKLE-SOAKED MEAT.
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It sometimes happens that butchers leave their Hams in brine too long and they become pickle-soaked. Once in this pickle-soaked condition, it is well known that it is a very difficult matter to smoke the Hams, because, even though they are sweet when they go into the Smoke House, they will come out sour. Hams should not be left in brine over ninety days, and at the very outside not more than one hundred days, unless they are put into a freezer and kept at a temperature of 28 degrees, at which they can be kept as long as desired. But it is frequently the case that they are left in pickle five or six months in an ordinary cooler. Hams thus over-pickled cannot fail to cause trouble in the Smoke House, and we would advise that all Hams that have been left in the brine for such a long time should be washed off in warm water after first letting them soak in cold water 2 to 4 hours. They should then be hung up to dry and kept in a well ventilated room where the temperature is not too high. A room in which the circulation of air is good and which can be well ventilated by opening the windows and doors, and which does not rise in temperature above 60 to 70 degrees, would answer the purpose for drying out. It will do no harm to let the Hams hang two or three weeks before smoking. They can then be put in the Smoke House and smoked gently, using as little heat as possible. For the purpose of this light smoking, it is best to use sawdust instead of wood, or mostly sawdust, and a small amount of wood, in order to reduce the heat. The Smoke House should also be constructed in such a way that it can be sufficiently ventilated to let cool air into it and thus make sure of a cool smoke. If Hams are smoked under such conditions, they should come out of the Smoke House without souring.
The souring of pickle-soaked Hams is due to the brine fermenting in the Hams when they are placed in the warm Smoke House. Hence the advisability of drying out the Hams well before placing them in the Smoke House, and of smoking them in a cool smoke. When Meat has been in brine a very long time and has become pickle-soaked, and is afterward soaked in cold water, the greatest of care must be taken not to keep it in cold fresh water too long, otherwise the meat will absorb more moisture. It is also a good plan to soak Meat that has been in brine 60, 70 or 80 days in cold water. When Hams are fully cured, the strength of the brine may be reduced somewhat, after which the Hams may be permitted to remain in the brine about 30 days longer. Hams are fully cured in 70 days, and may be allowed to remain in a weaker brine 30 days longer, but no longer. After 30 days they must be taken out of this reduced brine, and, if it is so desired, they may be kept in a low temperature two or three weeks longer before smoking, but at the end of that time they must be smoked.
CLEANING LARD TIERCES FOR CURING PURPOSES.
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As is well known, Butchers experience a great deal of trouble when they use second-hand lard tierces for curing meats, owing to the fact that the lard soaks into the pores of the wood, where it becomes tainted and rancid. No amount of washing or scalding will thoroughly cleanse such tierces or make them as good as new. The lard is run into the tierces while it is hot and the fat naturally soaks very deeply into the wood. After these tierces are emptied and are used for curing purposes, the old lard remains in the pores and becomes rancid and contaminates the brine and also the meat.
It is a fact that many Butchers use old lard tierces for curing purposes and neglect to thoroughly clean them; and even if they have been well cleaned, it is well known that, notwithstanding every precaution taken, there is still left in the tierces a taint which affects the flavor of the meat.
USE ONLY PURE SPICES
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We strongly recommend our friends to use only Pure Spices for three very good and sufficient reasons. First, for flavor; second, for uniformity, which will insure your sausage always being the same in flavor; third, for economy, as pure spices are cheapest in the final analysis.
Then again, the Pure Food Laws should not be over-looked. In States where the use of cereal in sausage is forbidden, the one safe-guard against prosecution is to use absolutely Pure Spices and avoid so-called sausage seasonings which contain cereals as an adulterant. In our laboratory we have repeatedly found cases where as much as 50% bread crumbs were mixed into spice to cheapen it. The bread crumbs mixed with the seasoning into the sausage meat would be detected by the chemists and microscopists of the various State Pure Food Departments, making the butcher who used such seasonings liable to prosecution for adding adulterants to his sausage.
If you will bear in mind that spices are of value only to the extent that they contain the flavoring principle of the particular Spice, you will readily understand that buying adulterated Spices is just throwing so much money away. For instance, in the case of White Pepper, there is an Oil of Pepper and certain resins. Presuming that you do pay the legitimate wholesale price for the sausage seasoning which contains only the best Singapore White Pepper and do have to pay a few cents a pound more than for one which is diluted down with 50% bread crumbs, the pure and unadulterated Spice is by far the cheapest in the end. You are also assured of always obtaining a uniform flavor in the finished sausage meat.
There is probably no other material in use by the butcher that is as liable to adulteration as Spice. To the average user the adulteration is very difficult to detect, because the aroma of the Spice is there and the adulterant is so cunningly ground and mixed in with the Pure Spice that, to the naked eye, it looks like the genuine article. But once the chemist or the microscopist secures a sample of these adulterated goods one glance through the microscope and a simple test for starch, which comes from the added cereal present, is sufficient. These adulterations not only occur in the largest used Spice like Pepper, but many of the other higher priced Spices like Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Mace, Allspice, Ginger, etc., are equally the subject of adulteration at the hands of unscrupulous manufacturers and jobbers whose only object is to undersell the legitimate importer and grinder of real 100% Spice.
A CHEAP TEMPORARY SMOKE HOUSE.
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This illustration will give some idea of how a temporary smoke house can be rigged up with very little trouble, which will answer the purpose nicely.
Very often it becomes necessary for a butcher to re-smoke some bologna that has been shipped to him from a packer, and it is sometimes necessary to re-smoke Hams and Bacon. Also, a butcher will often want to cure a small quantity of meat and would like to smoke it.
When butchers who are not equipped with a smoke house have to do this, they may be at a loss to know what to do.
Take a clean sugar barrel and knock out the bottom; then set the barrel on top of a box about four feet long, one or two feet high and as wide as the barrel. If a box of this shape cannot be obtained, a large dry goods box will answer. Bore auger holes through the box under the barrel, to let the smoke through. Get a large piece of tin, galvanized iron or sheet iron, about one foot wide and 2 feet long and bend it into the shape of a pan, or take an old roasting pan. Dig a hole in the ground at the front end of the box, so fire can be put onto this piece of tin, sheet iron or pan and then placed under the box with the fire on it. After the fire is placed under the box, place a board over the hole. All crevices must be banked with dirt around the box, to keep the smoke in.
The meats to be smoked should be hung on sticks with long strings on them, so as to let them down to about the middle of the barrel. Cover the barrel up with a gunny sack, so as to let a draft pass through and still retain the smoke in the barrel.
This makes a first class temporary smoke house with very little trouble and expense.
HOW TO KEEP HAMS, SHOULDERS, BACON, DRIED BEEF, AND ALL KINDS OF PICKLED MEATS IN BRINE FOR A YEAR OR LONGER.
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All kinds of pickled meat after it is fully cured, if stored in a cooler in which the temperature is kept down to 28 degrees can be kept in this cooler for a year, or even longer, and when removed will come out similar to fresh cured meat. During the time when Hams and other meats are low in price, they can be stored in a freezer, and kept there until such a time as they are in greatest demand and will sell at the highest price. This enables the packer to reap a larger profit. At a temperature of 28 degrees, the meat will not freeze after it is cured, and the brine of course does not freeze, as salt water will not freeze, at that temperature. When meat is taken out of such cold storage to be smoked, it should first be soaked for three to five hours in fresh water, then washed in boiling hot water and smoked the same as regular fresh cured meat.
WASHING CURED MEAT BEFORE SMOKING.
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Hams, Shoulders, Bacon and all cured meats whether dry salted or cured in brine, should be washed in hot water and scrubbed with a brush before being put into the smoke house. This is very important, as the meat thus scrubbed will come out of the smoke looking much better. The water should be as hot as the men can work with. The hotter the water, the better the meat will look after being smoked.
BRINE ABSORBS FOREIGN ODORS
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Warm carcasses of meat should never be put into a cooler where meat is being cured in open vats, as the cold pickle will absorb the impure animal heat, and odors which these carcasses give off. Never allow sour pickle of any kind to remain in the curing room, as cold brine or water will absorb all foreign odors. To demonstrate this, take a glass of cold water, set it on a table next to a glass of tainted brine, and cover both with a bucket or pan; allow them to remain over night, and the next morning the cold water will have the same odor as the tainted brine. This will easily prove how meat can be tainted when curing in open tierces or vats, if anything sour or spoiled is in the cooler; therefore, curing rooms must be kept as clean as possible.
HOW LONG BRINE SHOULD BE USED
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The length of time that brine should be used depends entirely upon the quantity of brine that you have in the barrel and the amount of meat that you put in each week. When the meat is packed solid it takes about 5 gallons of brine to each 100 pounds of meat. On the other hand if you put 25 gallons of brine in a tierce in which you place but a few pieces of corned beef from time to time as the meat accumulates your brine would be sufficient to cure 500 pounds of meat; if the barrel was nice and clean, the meat in good condition when put in the brine, and generally speaking conditions are favorable it will cure a great deal more than 500 pounds.
The brine may be used until it begins to get thick and show foam on the top; then of course it is advisable to make a new brine, at the same time washing the tierce out thoroughly.
DRY SALT MEATS.
=Short Ribs= (Regular) are made from the sides of the hog, between the Ham and Shoulder, having the loin and ribs in, and backbone removed.
=Extra Short Ribs= are made from the sides of the hog, between the Ham and Shoulder, with loin taken out, but belly ribs left in.
=Short Ribs= (Hard) are made from the sides of the hog, between the Ham and Shoulder, having the loin, ribs and backbone in.
=Short Clears= are made from the sides of the hog, between the Ham and Shoulder, having the loin in, and ribs and backbone removed.
=Extra Short Clears= are made from the sides of the hog, between the Ham and Shoulder with loin and all bones taken out.
=Long Clears= are made from sides, Ham being cut off, but Shoulders left in, back bone and ribs removed, shoulder blade and leg bone taken out, and leg cut off close to the breast.
=Extra Long Clears= are made from sides, Ham being cut off, back bone, loin and ribs removed. Shoulder blade and leg bone taken out and leg cut off close to the breast.
=Short Clear Backs= are made from the backs of hogs with the loin left in, but ribs and backbone removed; also known as =Lean Backs= and =Loin Backs=.
=Short Fat Backs= are made from the fat backs of prime hogs, being free from lean and bone, and properly squared on all edges.
=Dry Salt Bellies= are made from medium size hogs, cut square and well trimmed on all edges, with ribs left in.
=Dry Salt Clear Bellies= are made from medium size hogs, cut square and well trimmed on all edges, with ribs taken out.
HOW TO CURE DRY SALT SIDE MEATS.
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=First=--Thoroughly chill the hogs so they are firm and solid. This will require letting them hang in the cooler after they are killed about 48 hours. Should the sides not be perfectly solid and thoroughly chilled, when cut up, spread them on the floor of a dry cooler for 24 hours, which ought to be long enough in a fair cooler to thoroughly chill them.
=Second=:--Make a tub of brine, using 15 lbs. of salt and 1 lb. of =Freeze-Em-Pickle= to each 5 gallons of brine.
=Third=:--Take a pickle pump, and pump some of the above brine into the sides along the backbone, being careful to get it all through the thick part.
=Fourth=:--Dip the sides into the tub of brine, and then lay them on a table or trough and rub thoroughly with dry salt. They must be dipped in brine, so that the =Freeze-Em-Pickle= will get all over the meat, and so the salt will adhere to the meat.
=Fifth=:--Clean the floor in the cooler or curing room with =Ozo Washing Powder=; sprinkle the floor lightly with salt; and then pile the sides one on top of the other with the meat side always up. Between each side spread a layer of salt, and see that all parts of the meat are covered with the salt. The more salt put on it the better.
=Sixth=:--Five days after salting the sides, shake off the salt, and pump them again in the same manner as when first salting; dip into the vat of brine, and dry salt again; then stack up the same as in the first instance, putting salt between each layer, and repeating this overhauling every ten days until the sides are cured.
HOW LONG TO CURE DRY SALT SIDES.
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Light sides will fully cure in from 30 to 35 days, and should be resalted three times, which with the first salting received by them, will give them four saltings during the curing period. These saltings are given on the first day, the fifth day, the fifteenth day, and the twenty-fifth day.
HOW LONG TO CURE HEAVY DRY SALT SIDES.
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Heavy sides will be fully cured in from 50 to 60 days, according to size, and should be resalted five times during the curing, as follows: The first day, the fifth day, and then every ten days. After 45 days, the meat need not be rehandled, and can then remain in the cooler piled up, as long as one wishes to keep it. It should not be taken out of the cooler, however, until it has been in salt 50 to 60 days, according to the season of the year.
TEMPERATURE OF COOLER FOR DRY SALTING.
Full information as to the temperature of the cooler for dry salting will be found on page 46 under the head “Temperature.”
DRY SALT CURING BY BUTCHERS WHO HAVE NO ICE MACHINE.
Small butchers, who have no ice machines, and simply use an ice box for a cooler, must use the greatest care to see that the meat is well chilled before salting, and they must also use plenty of salt. For the special benefit of small butchers, we will say that we fully realize the conditions which surround them, and we are well aware that they cannot get the temperature in an ice box as low as with an ice machine; but nevertheless, they can always cure meat with the =Freeze-Em-Pickle= process, and get better results.
DESCRIPTION OF BARRELED PORK.
=Mess Pork= is made from the sides of well-fattened hogs, split through the backbone, and cut in strips about six inches wide.
=Mess Pork Short Cut= is made from the backs of prime hogs, split through the backbone, backbone left in, and bellies taken off; cut into pieces six inches square.
=Clear Back Pork= is made from the fat part of the backs of prime hogs, being free from lean and bone, even in thickness, and cut into pieces about six inches square.
=Family Pork Lean= is made from the top of shoulders, when cut into California Hams. It has one-half of the blade bone in, and is about two-thirds fat, and one-third lean.
=Clear Bean or Butt Pork= is made from the fat cheek or jowl, cut square.
=Clear Brisket Pork= is made from the Briskets of prime medium weight hogs, ribs removed and pieces cut about five inches wide.
=Rib Brisket Pork= is made from the Briskets of prime medium hogs, ribs left in, and cut into pieces about five inches wide.
=Loin Pork= is made from the end of the back next to the Ham, with both lean and fat, and has a portion of the tail bone in.
=Pig Pork=: Light selected boneless Bellies cut into five inch pieces, trimmed square.
=Belly Pork=: Selected heavy weight Bellies, cut into five inch pieces, with ribs left in.
=Extra Short Clear Pork= is made from the sides of hogs, with the loin and backbone removed, and the Belly ribs left in, cut into strips five inches wide, squared at each end.
=Lean End Pork= is made from selected medium weight Rib Bellies, cut into strips five inches wide.
DIRECTIONS FOR CURING BARRELED PORK.
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Never pack more than 190 lbs. of pork in an ordinary pork barrel.
=First=:--If it can possibly be obtained, it is always best to use coarse rock salt, or coarse evaporated salt, which is made especially for this purpose; but if coarse salt cannot be obtained, any salt will answer the purpose. In packing it is necessary to use 35 lbs. of salt for each barrel, over and above the salt used in the brine.
=Second=:--Take a perfectly clean pork barrel, and throw three handfuls of salt on the bottom of the barrel.
=Third=:--Put in a layer of pork; throw three handfuls of salt over this layer.
=Fourth=:--Keep packing layer after layer, until the 190 lbs. of pork are packed in the barrel, and while packing put three handfuls of salt over each layer of the pork.
=Fifth=:--The following are the proper proportions for brine for 190 lbs. of pork: Put 10 gallons of cold water in a keg or tub; dissolve in this water 2 lbs. of =Freeze-Em-Pickle= and 30 lbs. of salt. Stir this well until it is all dissolved, and then pour the brine over the pork which has been packed as above directed.
=Sixth=:--If the barrels are to be headed up, head up first, and then put in the brine through the bung hole.
TEMPERATURE FOR BARRELED PORK.
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It is necessary that the greatest care should be exercised not to let the pork freeze while curing. Brine for barreled pork will not freeze at the freezing point of water, but the meat in the brine will freeze, and will not cure if the temperature is lower than the freezing point for any length of time. See instructions as to Temperature to be found on page 46.
BARRELED PORK NEED NOT BE OVERHAULED.
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Barreled Pork when packed in accordance with these directions with =Freeze-Em-Pickle= and Salt, and then stored in a cooler, will not spoil, but will cure with a delicious flavor. It is not necessary that barreled pork should be overhauled; overhauling is required only for dry-salt and sweet-pickled meats. After the pork is fully cured, which will vary according to the size of the pieces, from 40 to 60 days, the pork can be shipped anywhere, into any hot climate and will remain in perfect condition without spoiling.
Extreme care must be exercised to thoroughly chill the pork before it is packed; if animal heat is left in the pork, it will not cure properly, any more than will hams when they are put into brine, with the animal heat left in them. Good results when curing barreled pork, cannot be expected if the meat is not in proper condition when packed.
DRIPPINGS FROM REFRIGERATING PIPES.
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Never allow the drippings from refrigerating pipes along the ceiling, or from ice chambers, to drip into open vats containing meats while curing, as they will reduce the strength of the brine and make no end of trouble.
Keep the cooler as dry and as clean as it possibly can be kept. A damp, dirty cooler breeds millions of germs. These germs affect the brine and the curing of the meat.
RECIPE FOR CURING SPARE RIBS.
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For each 100 pounds of spare ribs make the brine as follows: 5 pounds of common salt, 1 pound of =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, 2 pounds of best granulated sugar and 5 gallons of cold water.
Cure in this brine from 10 to 12 days. The temperature of the cooler in which the spare ribs are cured can be anywhere from 36 to 43 degrees, but it should not vary from this range of temperature. It is best to leave the spare ribs in the cure from 10 to 12 days, though they will be cured sufficiently in 7 to 8 days.
If the above method is carefully carried out, the result will be a fine, mild, sweet cure and not too salty.
Before placing the spare ribs in the brine they should be handled in the same manner as hams and shoulders. In other words, they should be rubbed in half of the above quantity of salt, =Freeze-Em-Pickle= and sugar, and the mixed =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, sugar and salt that is left after rubbing should be used for making the brine.
HOW TO CURE BEEF TONGUES.
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=First=:--Cut the tongues out of the heads as soon as possible, and with warm water scrub off all the slime and dirt, with a stiff brush; hang up in a cooler on a hook at the gullet, to make the tongues thick instead of long and thin.
=Second=:--Let them hang for at least 24 hours in a cooler.
=Third=:--When the tongues are thoroughly chilled and firm, cut off the surplus fat and square the tongues at the gullet by trimming off all ragged pieces.
=Fourth=:--Put them into a strong common salt brine to beach them, and leave them in this brine from 10 to 20 hours.
=Fifth=:--Take them out of this brine and rub the slime off the tongues and out of the gullet, and also rub the gullet with dry salt.