—This should be done carefully and accurately through the backbone. A wide blade chopper is by all means preferable.
Washing.
—The hog when once cleaned, and after eviscerating and before splitting or pulling the leaf lard, should not be washed further unless it be on the neck, since water on split backs is detrimental to the keeping quality of pork loins.
Drying.
—Few appreciate the value and importance of “skin drying” hogs by dry-shaving and dry-scraping the surface. The advantage to refrigerating more than overcomes the initial cost of the labor necessary.
FIG. 105.—HOG SCRAPING GANG AT WORK.
Care in Chill Room.
—It is in this particular part of the house that the most careful and minute attention to details is necessary in order to turn out meats in the best marketable condition, as only a few degree deviation in temperatures from carefully set rules in the handling of chill rooms, shows excess per cent of sour meat found thirty to sixty days afterward, when the meats are brought from the curing cellar. This, therefore, is a department that should receive the most careful attention. A wrong start here can never be righted afterward. The rule for operation is previously given under another chapter. (See Chapter on [Coolers]).
