—From the bung gut is often removed the membrane, known as “bung gut skins.” These are used by gold beaters. They are handled as follows: The bung gut skins should be started at the cap end, being careful to remove the skin for about four to six inches from the end of the cap, then remove same around the bung end, back of the cap end first, and next take off toward the open end, after the bung is skinned back as far as possible beyond the small intestine. The skins are thin and difficult to remove; there is no difficulty experienced, however, in getting them thirty inches or over in length. After the skin is removed it is placed in ice water, and, when well chilled, is salted thoroughly in the cap and outside. The object of putting the skin in ice water is to facilitate handling.
After they are thoroughly salted they are hung over a bar covered with a piece of burlap and allowed to hang for one or two days, until they are thoroughly drained, or dried. When dry each skin is separately handled, the loose salt shaken off, and examined for holes and fat and ragged ends. Holes near the edge of the skins can be cut out without materially injuring them. All fat on the edge and ragged ends should be cut off. After the skins have passed this inspection they should be spread full length and width on a table, one over the other, gathered in bunches of fifty, tied in the center and packed in a tierce. Care should be taken in handling the skins not to let them come in contact with any iron as that will discolor them. Many casing men object to removing the bung gut skins, believing that it injures the casing. If they are handled carefully, however, the injury will not be more than five per cent.
Beef Bladders.
—Bladders should be cut with a long neck and after they have been fatted should be blown up as large as possible and hung in a dry room to dry. After they are blown and dried, the necks are cut off and they are flattened out and packed in bundles of twelve each. The first grade consists of bladders fourteen inches in length, with or without necks. The second grade consists of bladders from eleven to thirteen inches in length with the neck. The third grade consists of bladders with or without necks, not under nine inches in length.
Beef Weasands.
—After the meat has been removed from the outside the weasand is turned wrong side out, washed, both ends tied, and blown full of air. After they are blown with compressed air they are hung in a dry room, which should have a temperature of 110° to 120° F., and left there until thoroughly dried. They are then taken out, the ends cut off, the weasands put in bundles of twenty-five each, twenty bundles tied together into a large bundle, five or ten of these large bundles constituting a case. Regular weasands must be of prime quality, properly dried, entirely free from worms, and at least twenty-four inches long, allowing not over four pieces of shorter (same to be at least eighteen inches long) to the bundle of twenty-five. Two of such short ones will be counted as one full weasand.
Narrow weasands are those which, while being dried, have a weight of about three pounds hung on the end, drawing them out as long as possible, which has the tendency to make them narrow. These should not be blown as full of air as those not drawn. After they are dried they must be at least twenty-six inches long and from two to two and one-half inches in width when flattened out. Other conditions same as the regular weasands, except that they must be entirely free from skin worms and skin-worm marks.
Packages.
—The packages used for beef casings are usually soft wood tierces, free from any stain such as occurs in an oak stave. A second-hand glucose tierce is preferable. They should be cleaned thoroughly before filling, by scraping free from any char, and then well washed.