HOW TO PREVENT HAMS FROM SOURING IN THE HOCK.
Query.—C. F. G. Co. write: “We have a lot of hams that we put down in dry salt to cure about six or seven weeks ago, and we have discovered that they have become tainted in the hock, while the balance of the piece of meat is all right. Can you tell us any way to rehandle or overhaul these hams to save them? The front or butt end of the ham is sound and all right and sweet; the bad part is in and around the hock end or leg end. Could this taint and odor be removed and the meat made sweet by putting these hams down now in a strong salt brine and punching holes in the hock end of the pieces so that the brine could quickly get into the tainted part? Would salt brine save them now? We will thank you for any advice or plan of action that will help to save us from loss.”
Ans.—It is more difficult to cure hams by the dry salt process than it is by the brine process. If these hams had been pumped before packing them in the salt, there would not have been so much danger of shank sour. Hams being very thick, it takes a long time for the salt to draw through them; therefore, if they are first pumped and packed in dry salt, you can readily see that the salt draws through quicker and thus gives them a chance to cure from the inside as quickly as they would cure from the outside. Only under one condition can you pump these hams, make them sweet and save them. For instance, if the hams are taken from the salt and upon trying them with a ham trier they are found to be sweet but turn sour when they are placed in the smoke house, then you can save them. Such a condition would show that the hams are not fully cured around the bone and around the shank joints. In that event, they can be pumped with pickle and fully cured around the bone so that they will not sour when placed in the smoke house. It is necessary to explain that meat is frequently perfectly sweet when it comes out of cure, but it is not fully cured. In such a condition when it is placed in a warm smoke house, it will sour in the smoke house. This, of course, can be avoided by fully curing the hams. If, on the other hand, the hams are already sour and tainted when they come out of the cure, whether it be dry salt or sweet pickle, then nothing can be done with them to make them sweet. Meat once spoiled, remains spoiled. If the hams are sour when they come out of the cure, but sour only in the shank, then the proper thing to do is to cut off the shank; in other words, cut off all the sour or tainted meat and use the butt ends for boiled hams. You can boil and slice them and sell them in your store. You must be careful to cut off all the tainted parts because any of the tainted meat which is left will taint all the rest of the meat when the butt is boiled. You, of course, understand that during the process of boiling, the good meat will absorb the taint from the bad meat. We regret that you did not write us for advice before you began curing the hams, as we would have advised you to cure in brine. We will send you by mail, free of charge, our book, entitled “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” which covers every point that its title indicates. The advice given in this book as to the handling of meats, you will find very valuable and covers the whole ground, from the condition of the animal before killing to the handling of the meat through the chill room and through the entire curing process. We call your special attention to the various articles for curing meats, which will give you the temperature for curing, how to overhaul the meat, how to pump the meat and how to make the brine for pumping. Full directions for curing the hams you will find carefully indexed. By following the advice given in these pages, you will have no loss from the souring of meats, but on the contrary, will be enabled to turn out meat of the highest quality possible.