Ans.—You have been very fortunate indeed to have escaped trouble if you have always cured your bacon as you explain. There are many things which you have done while curing which are likely to cause you serious trouble, and which should never be done in the future. You are lucky that some of the meat did not spoil completely. It is never advisable to use lard tierces for curing, as the lard is run into the tierces while hot, and the fat naturally soaks into the wood. This fat in time becomes rancid, and is likely to contaminate the brine and also the meat, even though you scald out the tierces, you do not get the grease out of the pores of the wood. It is always best and safest to use new tierces for curing purposes; in fact, there is great risk in using anything else. You should never use brown sugar for sweet pickle, but the very best grade of granulated sugar. Brown sugar is always more likely to contain foreign substances detrimental to the brine, and in most cases causes the brine to turn ropy, sometimes even causing it to ferment. The purest of sugar should always be used for sweet pickle. You have deviated from one of the greatest essentials to successful curing by not observing the most important of all requirements and that is an even temperature of about 38 degrees during the entire period of curing. You state that your meat was sometimes in a temperature below freezing point, but never cold enough to freeze the meat in the brine. Such a degree of temperature is enough to ruin your meat, as the curing room should never be allowed to go below 36 degrees. The moment you get the temperature below 36 degrees, the meat ceases to take on salt and will not cure; besides, it is likely to spoil in the brine. It is all right to cure heavy Breakfast Bacon six weeks, but bacon from light or small hogs will cure perfectly in twenty to twenty-five days. The meat, however, at a temperature below freezing point would not cure in six weeks or even in a much longer time. We, of course, understand that the temperature in your curing room was not always below the freezing point, but it should never be that cold.
We are going to send you free of charge our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” and we will ask you to read carefully all we have to say on “General Hints for Curing Meats,” which covers the entire process, including chilling, overhauling, pumping, packing, temperature, etc. You will also note that we advise against the use of molasses and syrup barrels, as they are liable to cause ropiness of the brine. Also note what we have to say in regard to the handling of meat in curing, the chilling room, the condition of the meat, and the proper time to slaughter. If you will read carefully all we have to say in reference to curing in this book and will follow our methods and instructions, you cannot fail to turn out the finest kind of mild cured sweet pickled meat, having a most delicious flavor and a beautiful appearance. We ask you to make the trial and report results.
HOW TO TREAT PORK WHICH IS TOO SALTY.
Query.—F. B. writes: “We have about twenty barrels of pork that have become very salty in the brine. What would you do and how can we get the brine out?”
Ans.—Salt pork is usually put down in very strong brine, therefore it is perfectly proper that pickled pork should be very salty. If it is desired to store the pork for a long time, it should be left in the strong brine and in order to freshen it so that it will not be so salty, the pork should be washed in fresh water. It is best to handle one barrel at a time as it is to be sold or used in the market. The water in which the pork is soaked should be as cold as possible; in fact, it would do no harm to put a little ice in it. By allowing the pickled pork to soak in the fresh water, a great deal of the salt will be drawn from the meat. The meat should be soaked twenty-four hours altogether, and during the daytime the water should be changed every six hours. After the meat has been soaked, it can be placed in a mild brine, which should not be over 40 degrees strength, but if the meat can be disposed of in a few days, it is not necessary to keep it in the brine at all. It will be sufficient to place it on a shelf in the ice box; at the end of three or four days, it might be necessary to wash it off with fresh water.
IMITATION BULL-MEAT-BRAND SAUSAGE BINDER.
QUERY.—G. H. F. writes: We recently ordered from a jobber 50 lbs. of Freeze-Em Pickle and 100 lbs. of Bull-Meat Sausage Binder. The Freeze-Em Pickle was not shipped but we received a barrel of what is claimed to be Bull-Meat Sausage Binder. We notice that the Bull-Meat Sausage Binder is not put up in the regular way. It is in a plain keg without any of your labels upon it. We are suspicious about its genuineness. Do you ever ship Bull-Meat Sausage Binder in this way? As yet we have not opened the package to test it.
Ans.—You can rest assured that you have not received our goods and you should return them at once. We never pack goods of ours of any description except in our well known packages with labels on the outside and circulars inside. We never sell Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder in any other manner than in red drums, which are familiar to you and the trade generally. These drums vary only in size, otherwise they are identical in every particular. They have our large label on the head and our long label on the side, just as you see them illustrated in the cuts which you will find in our circulars and advertisements. You have received some substituted article which the shipper has sought to impose upon you with the hope that you would not question its genuineness. We leave to your own ideas of fairness as to just how such a firm should be regarded. Our goods are the first and genuine of their kind and have won great prestige among butchers all over the United States. Unscrupulous parties in trade seek to reap some advantage from our great reputation by substituting worthless preparations upon which they make a big profit. You should always be careful in ordering your goods to specify the article wanted and insist that the name of B. Heller & Co. shall be upon the package and that you will accept no other. Upon receiving the goods, you should always inspect the labels and see that they are ours. Do not be misled by similar names or packages resembling ours.
COMPLYING WITH FOOD LAWS IN CURING MEATS.
Query.—F. K. writes: “We should like to have you inform us what we can use in our state for curing meat and at the same time keep within the restrictions of the law. They have prosecuted butchers all over the state of Pennsylvania for using preservatives of some kinds, and it leaves everyone in the meat business at a loss to know what to do. We can’t keep meat or cure it without using preservatives of some kind. What would you advise us to do?”