SECRETS OF MEAT CURING AND SAUSAGE MAKING TEXT

dissolved, place the skins into it. Have sufficient water so that all the skins are entirely covered. Tan small, thin skins in this solution for 24 hours. Goat, sheep, calf and dog skins should be allowed to tan from two to three days, according to their thickness. Cattle or horse skins, or skins of a similar nature, require one week in this solution to properly tan them. During the tanning process remove the skins and replace them in the same solution twice a day, so that the solution gets over all parts of the skins uniformly. After tanning, drain off all the solution that can easily be drained off, and spread the skins out with the flesh side up, away from the sun. Third:--Make a heavy flour paste; thin enough to spread easily. Now cover the entire flesh side of the skin with a thin layer (about one-eighth inch) of this paste. Let the skins and flour paste dry for two to four days, according to the weather. The paste will absorb the moisture out of the skins and soften them. Fourth:--When the skins become dry, work them so that the paste is shaken off. If the skins have been allowed to dry too long, they will be too hard to work, and they should be softened by sprinkling some dampened sawdust over the skins and leaving it on them over night. The skins should next be softened and worked by pulling them over the edge of a table or box, until soft and pliable. POLISHING HORNS. (_Copyrighted; Reprint Forbidden._) [Illustration: POLISHING HORNS] If the horns are rough, first take a file and file through the rough horn, down to the solid horn, and file the horn into proper shape, smoothing the tip and shaping the large end to suit the fancy. After they have been filed, take sand paper and rub the horn with the sand paper until it is nice and smooth, then finish the rubbing with very fine sand paper, so as to take out all the scratches. After it has been sand papered, take a piece of glass and scrape it until very smooth. Polish by rubbing with powdered rotten stone and machine oil. The polishing must be done with the palm of the hand, and the horn should be rubbed until beautifully polished. WHY DRIED BEEF DOES NOT THOROUGHLY DRY. _Query.--R. B. writes: “We are having trouble with our Dried Beef. It doesn’t seem to dry out. We have it hanging in the cooler.”_ Ans.--Your beef doesn’t dry out because you keep it in the cooler. In order to dry beef, it is necessary to hang it in a dry room. You can hang it right out in the market for that matter and there it will dry rapidly, in fact, it will dry too quickly so that it will become hard. Dried Beef will dry some in the smoke house, but not sufficiently. We send you a copy of our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” which will give you full particulars in reference to this entire subject. BULL-MEAT PREFERABLE FOR SAUSAGE. _Query.--Z. & R. write: There is a prevailing notion among local butchers that bull meat possesses qualities which make it superior to first-class steer or cow meat for making bologna and wieners. Is this not an erroneous idea? How can bologna and wieners be prevented from turning dark and shrinking within a few days after making if exposed to the air?_ =Ans=:--The opinion of your local butcher is correct as far as it concerns bull meat as the best meat for bologna and wienerwurst. The reason for this is that bull meat contains a great deal of gelatine in various forms and far more than even the meat of either steer or cow. If you take the bull meat and chop it up, you will find that it is sticky and binds together, while if you take meat from an aged cow and chop it up it will not bind together, is mushy and soft to the touch, and when cooked frequently crumbles and falls apart. In answering your next question, we can say that the probable cause in most cases why sausage dries up, shrivels up, shrinks or turns dark within a short time after being made is because it was not properly handled. It is also possible that these effects of which you complain were due to causes produced by the way you salted your meat or what you salted it with. If you will follow our instructions on Bologna making given in our book “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” you should have no further trouble. The book is sent free. HOW TO MAKE A PAPER BAROMETER _Question.--J. K. writes: Can you tell me how a Barometer can be made with paper that tells what the weather is going to be?_ Answer.--Paper barometers are made by impregnating white blotting paper in the following liquid, and then hanging up to dry: Cobalt Chloride 1 oz. Sodium Chloride ½ oz. Acacia ¼ oz. Calcium Chloride 75 gr. Water 3 fl. oz. The amount of moisture in the atmosphere is indicated by the following colors: Rose Red Rain Pale Red Very Moist Bluish Red Moist Lavender Blue Nearly Dry Blue Very Dry SOUR SAUSAGE _Question.--B. & W. write: We have been using your Bull-Meat-Brand-Flour through all of last winter, and found it satisfactory in every way. We have been using also your Freeze-Em Pickle. Since hot weather began our sausage has soured. We have lost over 100 lbs. of sausage through its souring. Can you tell us what is the probable cause of our sausage becoming sour?_ (_Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden._) Answer.--We will say that the cause of your sausage souring may be due to several things. Either your grinder has become dull, causing the meat you run through it to heat in the grinding, or it may be due to the fact that the meat was not cold enough to prevent it from heating while being ground. Another cause for trouble of this kind is in the mixing machine. In mixing meat too much, a considerable quantity of air is forced into the meat, which will often cause it to sour during the warm seasons of the year. During hot weather it is advisable to grind a small quantity of ice with the meat to keep it cold. We also advise the use of our “A” Condimentine preparation. This is a very useful product for keeping in condition all fresh sausage. It is entirely harmless, containing no substances injurious to health. Complies with all pure food laws. We are quite positive that you are souring your meat in the grinding, or in the mixing. Please let us know if you have a mixing machine, or whether you mix your meat by hand. If you have no mixing machine you are souring your meat while grinding it. You should mix ice with your meat before grinding it. Grind the meat and the ice together, and use “A” Condimentine. Your troubles will then disappear. SPICED BEEF _Question.--W. C. K. writes: I was very much interested in your magazine “Success With Meat,” and wish you would send me a formula for the making and curing of Spiced Rounds of Fresh Beef. In our city we have a great demand for spiced beef and I want the very best formula obtainable, which I know you can furnish me. I have used Freeze-Em-Pickle for a good many years and always get splendid results from its use._ Answer.--We are very glad that you like “Success With Meat,” and are pleased to learn you have obtained such uniformly good results with Freeze-Em-Pickle. To make rolled spiced beef take 100 lbs. of boneless beef plates and cure them in brine made as follows: 5 gallons of cold water. 5 lbs. of common salt. 1 lb. Freeze-Em-Pickle. 2 lbs. of granulated cane sugar. 6 to 8 ounces Zanzibar Brand Corned Beef Seasoning. Cure the plates in this brine 10 to 20 days in a cooler. The temperature should not be higher than 42 to 44 degrees Fahr., but a temperature of 38 to 40 degrees is better for curing purposes. The Zanzibar Brand Corned Beef Seasoning gives a delightful flavor to the brine. After the meat has been fully cured in accordance with the above formula sprinkle some Corned Beef Seasoning on the meat; then roll the meat and tie it tight with a heavy string. Some people also like a garlic flavor and if desired a small quantity of Vacuum Brand Garlic may be added to the brine or sprinkled over the meat before it is rolled. Where you want to cure rumps or rounds of beef that weigh from 12 to 25 lbs. each, we advise that you pump them just the same as a ham would be pumped with a pumping brine made as follows: ½ lb. of Freeze-Em-Pickle. 1 lb. of pure granulated sugar. 2 lbs. of salt. 1 gallon of water. By following the above suggestions carefully you should have no trouble in turning out delicious corned beef. SOUR HAMS--HOW TO PREVENT. _Query.--F. B. writes: “Have you any chemical compounds that will help us to take care of some sour hams? We have some hams that are just a little sour and thought perhaps you would help us in the matter.”_ Ans.--We do not prepare anything which would help you in the least. The trouble arises from imperfect curing and the only time that we could have been of help to you would have been when you commenced to put the hams in the pickle; we could have then given you full instructions for pickling the hams in such a way that they could not have soured. In nearly all cases the souring is around the bone. In your case it is best to cut out the bone and trim away the sour meat. After being thus carefully trimmed, they can be rolled, tied and sold for boned hams. You can always avoid the danger of sour hams by exercising extreme care in properly chilling the meat before curing. Most all souring arises from the fact that the meat is not chilled through to the bone. If all the animal heat is thoroughly removed before curing, the hams will come out of the pickle cured all the way through. If you will follow closely the directions contained in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” you will never have trouble with your hams. We take great pleasure in sending you a copy of this book free of charge. FREEZE-EM-PICKLE LEGAL EVERYWHERE. _Query.--S. G. Co.: You will please send us a 500-lb. barrel of Freeze-Em Pickle, if you can guarantee it to comply with the Pure Food Laws._ Ans.--Shipment of 500 lbs. Freeze-Em-Pickle, which you ordered by mail, went forward today. We beg to inform you that this product complies with requirements of all Pure Food Laws and is perfectly legal to use everywhere. We know that you will be highly pleased with Freeze-Em-Pickle. The Freeze-Em-Pickle process of curing meat gives it a uniform bright red color and a sweet sugar cured flavor and enables it to retain all of its albumen. It also prevents the meat from drying up and hardening when fried or cooked, or from crumbling when sliced up after being cooked. It may be used in the brine, or it can be sprinkled dry over the meat before it is packed for storage. See our directions for using it. MAKING SOAP FROM RENDERED FAT _Question.--C. J. B. writes: Can you give me a formula for making soap? I have a surplus stock of rendered fat that I would like to convert into soap._ (_Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden._) Answer.--We will give a very good formula for making soft soap and hard soap. To 20 pounds of clear grease or tallow take 17 pounds of pure white potash. Buy the potash in as fine lumps as it can be procured and place it in the bottom of the soap barrel, which must be water-tight and strongly hooped. Boil the grease and pour it boiling hot upon the potash then add two large pailfuls of boiling hot water; dissolve 1 pound of borax in 2 quarts of boiling hot water and stir all together thoroughly. Next morning add 2 pailfuls of cold water and stir for half an hour; continue this process until a barrel containing 36 gallons is filled. In a week, or even in less time, it will be ready for use. The borax, and also one pound of rosin, can be turned into the grease while the grease is boiling. Soap made in this manner is a first-rate article, and has a good body. The grease must be tried out, free from scraps, ham rinds, bones, or any other similar kind of matter; then the soap will be as thick as jelly, and almost as clear. To make soft soap hard put into a kettle four pailfuls of soft soap, and stir in it by degrees about one quart of common salt. Boil until all the water is separated from the curd, remove the kettle from the fire and draw off the water with a siphon (a yard or so of rubber hose will answer); then pour the soap into a wooden form in which muslin has been placed. For this purpose a wooden box sufficiently large and tight, may be employed. When the soap is firm turn out to dry, cut into bars with a brass wire and let it harden. A little powdered rosin will assist the soap to harden and give it a yellow color. This must be added in the kettle when the soap is boiled. If the soft soap is very thin, more salt should be added. WHY BOLOGNA DRAWS WATER WHEN IT IS BOILED _Question.--J. B. writes: I again write you for information. When I boiled my bologna the meat drew water. I added the water the second time I ground the meat. Why did the meat draw water while the sausage was being boiled?_ _I am glad to say that your advice in reply to my last letter enabled me to completely overcome the trouble I had with my corned beef. I am now using the galvanized iron tank as you recommended, and have discarded my old corned beef barrel. I will further say that since I began using your products, that I am selling three times as much sausage as I formerly did. I am greatly pleased with all the goods that I have bought from you._ (_Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden._) Answer.--There are three principal reasons for meat drawing water while the bologna is being boiled. The first is that you probably “killed” the meat in the grinding of it, by your knife not being sharp enough, or that your meat soured in the grinding of it by the meat not being cold enough. If you desire to work in some water while grinding the meat, use chipped ice instead of water. The ice will keep the meat cool and stiff, and the meat will not quash, or mash down. The use of ice will prevent the meat from getting warm. Another cause for bologna drawing water while being boiled is that you have heated the bologna too hot while it was in the smokehouse, or you are boiling bologna at too high a temperature. Boiling bologna at 160 degrees Fahrenheit would hardly spoil it, but we recommend boiling bologna at 155 degrees Fahrenheit. Possibly you boil the bologna too long. When you take your bologna out of the cooking water do you pour cold water over them? This also has a bearing on the case. Watch carefully all of the above points and you will not have any more trouble. Refer to our book. OLD BARRELS INFECTED WITH GERMS WILL CAUSE ROPY BRINE _Question.--W. & Sons write: Can you advise us about our corned beef pickle? We made it according to directions given in your book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making.” But our brine gets “ropy” as you call it. We use pure cane sugar. We keep our cooler at 38 to 40 degrees Fahr., and are at a loss to know what is the cause of our trouble. Please advise us in this matter._ (_Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden._) Answer.--Ropy brine can come about even when pure cane sugar is used in curing. This condition is caused by germs which develop in the brine and cause the brine to thicken. You will find that the barrels which contain your brine are infected with germs. The best way to get rid of these germs is to first empty the barrels; then put the barrels into a vat and boil them. Also scrub the barrels inside and outside. For this purpose they should be rinsed with boiling water to which has been added Freeze-Em, 4 ounces to each gallon, and afterwards a last rinsing with our Ozo washing powder, or soda, in the water that you use for washing the barrels. After the barrels are thoroughly washed and rinsed with cold water, they should then be put out of doors where the sun can shine upon them and in them for several days before they are again used and placed in the cooler. Barrels in which corned beef is cured should be made of hardwood. If you are using a syrup barrel or a molasses barrel, you will find that the pores of the wood have become filled with syrup or molasses, which causes the brine to become thick. We think this is the cause of your trouble. The best barrels to use are tierces that are made of oak, such as lard is shipped in by the packers. The wood of these tierces becomes saturated or filled with lard, and the lard prevents the brine from penetrating or soaking into the wood. Be sure that whatever barrels you use are made of hardwood, and not of white wood or other soft wood, of which many kinds of barrels are made. HOW TO MAKE FERTILIZER FROM BEEF BLOOD _Question.--J. E. P. writes: Please tell me how to utilize and handle beef blood so as to make fertilizer out of it. I am killing from ten to fifteen head of cattle each week, and thus have quite a quantity of blood._ Answer.--Blood in a packing house is handled as follows: It is first drained from the killing floor into vats and when the vats are filled, live steam is turned on and the blood is boiled until congealed. It is then put in large powerful presses and all the water pressed out, the congealed blood remaining in the press cloth. From the presses it is put through a fertilizer dryer and then is known as dried blood. Where you only kill 10 to 15 head of cattle a week, it would not pay you to dry the blood in this way. A very fine fertilizer, however, can be made from the blood either for your own use or to sell by boiling the blood in a kettle over a fire or else putting it into a tank and blowing live steam in it; then separate from the water as best you can and mix with black earth, spreading it out thin in the sun to dry. The boiled blood should be mixed with about its own weight in black earth. This makes a wonderful fertilizer and ought to bring you many extra dollars. ICE VS. ICE MACHINE IN SMALL PLANTS _Query.--F. S. writes: “I would like to know if an ice machine can be had small enough for a retail meat market and would it be profitable to take the place of an ice box? If you can do so, please give me this information and where I can get the ice machine. Ice here for a summer’s use will cost about $75.”_ Ans.--You state that the cost of ice for the summer season in your market would be about $75.00; therefore, it will not pay you to put in an ice machine, as the cost of operating such a machine for an ice-box would be a great deal more than $75.00 for the season. For instance, if you could obtain electric power or a gas engine for operating the ice machine, you could figure on using at least $7.50 to $10.00 a month for power alone. In addition to this, you would have the expense of repairs and the wear and tear on the machinery, also the cost of ammonia and the interest on your investment. For a small plant, it is always cheaper to use ice for an ice-box, when it is possible to secure the ice at a reasonable figure. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN POTATO FLOUR AND BULL-MEAT BRAND SAUSAGE BINDER? _QUERY.--J. G. Co. writes: Will you kindly state the difference between your Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder and Potato Flour, as we have received several circulars from you on Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder and have always been using potato flour heretofore, and if you will explain to us the difference, and if your Bull-Meat Sausage Binder is better for us, we will be glad to use it._ Answer.--The difference between Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder and Potato Flour is this, potato flour is made from potatoes and the absorbing properties of a pound of potato flour or potato starch are much less than you would imagine. If you will take a gallon of water and put into this water one pound of potato flour and let it stand for one hour, all the Potato Flour will have settled to the bottom