MEAT MOULDING IN A COOLER.
Query.—M. & S. Co.: Please forward to us one of your brine tester hydrometers. Ought fresh beef to mould in a cooler where the temperature is 36 degrees, after being in there ten to fourteen days? We have lost meat this way in a cooler with three coats of white lead throughout and the temperature maintained by ice. Not only has meat moulded, but it has had a pine taste.
Ans.—As requested, we have sent you a hydrometer by express. You wish to know if fresh beef stored in a cooler ten or twelve days should begin to become mouldy. You say that your cooler is cooled by ice and that its temperature is 36 degrees. We are inclined to believe that your thermometer is not accurate. It would be very difficult to get the temperature of a cooler down to 36 degrees with ice. If an ice box is kept closed from Saturday night until Monday morning the temperature runs down to 36 or 37 degrees, but where it is in constant use, and opened from time to time throughout the day it is almost impossible to reduce the temperature to 36 degrees, unless the cooler is a very small one and a large amount of ice is packed in the ice chamber above. Try another thermometer. It is important to have one that is right. Do not buy a cheap thermometer for a cold storage tester. If your cooler is constructed properly it should be perfectly dry and all the drip water drained without entering the storage chambers. A cooler, even when cooled with ice, should be so dry on the inside that a match might be struck on the sides. If the cooler is moist, there is no need to search further for the cause of your meat moulding. If the cooler is perfectly dry then the beef will keep about two weeks without moulding, then it is liable to mould slightly, but not enough to do any harm. It is frequently stored three weeks before it is consumed, and when kept that long it is tender and juicy—in other words, it is “ripe.” You say that your meat tastes of pine. You did not state whether or not your cooler was a new one or not. If it is a new one and has been properly constructed it should not give meat a taste; if it has been made from boards not thoroughly dry it will cause meat to taste of pine and it might even be responsible for some mould. Then again the walls may have been stuffed with green pine sawdust, and this will cause trouble. It may be that your cooler is a home-made one, not properly constructed; perhaps the circulation is not right. You merely state that the meat moulds and tastes of pine, whereas you should have given full details. If you will send us a drawing of your cooler and full details we will be able to give you the cause of your trouble and the remedy as well.