Chapter XIV: Preface (7)

“A” Condimentine will keep pork sausage in condition, so that it may be shipped, if necessary, for a considerable distance and still retain its own natural color. Your sausage maker will find this method of keeping fresh pork sausage from souring for a reasonable length of time in warm weather of great advantage and save you from severe losses. “A” Condimentine is legal to be used under the National and all State Pure Food Laws. The sausage does not have to be labeled to show the presence of “A” Condimentine. We will be pleased to have you try out our recommendation for retarding fresh pork sausage from souring and report to us your success at an early date.

IS FREEZE-EM PICKLE LEGAL TO USE?

_Query.--W. K. I am a butcher and sausage maker, and also cure a great many hams and bacon. I have used a good bit of your Freeze-Em Pickle and am well pleased with it, and I wish to ask if it can be used with safety under the new pure food laws. That is, the new state food law. The man I have been getting Freeze-Em Pickle from says “Yes” and the States Attorney says “No,” so I write you and would like to have you explain the situation and oblige._

Ans.--Replying to your recent favor it affords us pleasure to advise you that =Freeze-Em-Pickle= does comply with the requirements of your new state food law, and that you need have no fears in continuing its use. In fact, =Freeze-Em-Pickle= complies with the requirements of all the state food laws, as well as with the regulations under the National Pure Food Law, and it is being used all over the U. S. It is evident that the State’s Attorney confuses =Freeze-Em-Pickle= with the preservatives which are prohibited under your new state law. All antiseptic preservatives, for the purpose of keeping fresh meat fresh and meat food products in a fresh condition, are positively prohibited under your new state food law. =Freeze-Em-Pickle= does not come in this class. The ingredients of which =Freeze-Em-Pickle= is composed have not been ruled against by any of the pure food laws. We are pleased to hear your praise of =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, although this is the universal report we get when it is properly used. We enclose a circular concerning its use, which you may not have seen, and this will give you further information concerning the manufacture of Bologna and Frankfort Sausage, Corned Beef, etc. We also enclose circular concerning our Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder, which is unquestionably the best Binder on the market. This also complies with the pure food law. So does our Vacuum Brand Garlic Compound and our Prepared Sausage Seasoning, and Red and White Konservirungs-Salt. We will be pleased to hear from you whenever we can be of further service to you.

ADVICE TO A PACKER WHO WAS DECEIVED.

N. & W. complain that a firm to whom they gave an order for 25 pounds of Freeze-Em Pickle and a barrel of Bull-Meat Sausage Binder, sent them 25 pounds of an inferior substitute and a barrel of flour which was an imitation of Bull-Meat Sausage Binder. The firm states that they did not know very much about how the label of Freeze-Em Pickle looked and, therefore, did not notice the fraud until after they had used some of the imitation. They ask what they should do about it.

Ans.--Return the goods to your jobber, even though you have used half of them, inform him that you will not pay for the goods on the ground that you did not order them, but had ordered B. Heller & Co.’s goods, and that you will in future buy your goods from such firms as will send you what you want and order. This is a simple remedy for the trouble which you have.

ADVANTAGES OF STEAM-JACKET KETTLE IN RENDERING LARD.

_Query.--C. W. F. asks: Is there any advantage in rendering lard in a steam-jacket kettle?_

Ans.--There is. Both a caldron and a steam-jacket kettle work well. The best lard is made in one or the other. A steam tank in which the fat is put, and the steam turned right into it, will not produce as good lard as either the caldron or the steam-jacket kettle. The steam mixes right with the lard and the latter therefore contains a large amount of moisture and the lard does not keep well. Another disadvantage is that water used in the boiler is not always pure. If the boiler is not cleaned once a week the water will have a bad smell. Steam made from this water and turned into lard can not be expected to improve its flavor, even though it should not actually harm it. Those who kill large numbers of hogs usually have a steam tank for making steam rendered lard and a steam-jacket kettle for making their finer brands of kettle rendered lard.

SEASONING FOR SAUSAGES.

_Query.--T. U.: Will you please send me a copy of your book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making.” I have always used the following seasonings in my sausage: Pepper, summer savory and sage, and would like to know if you can recommend anything to me which will give the sausage a better flavor than these spices will. Any information you can give me in the seasoning of sausage will be very much appreciated._

Ans.--The Seasonings which you have been using are being used by a good many Sausage Makers, but a real fine flavored Sausage cannot be made with them. If you wish to increase your Sausage trade right along, and want to make Sausage that your trade will relish and enjoy, you must use the very finest Seasonings obtainable, as the Seasoning really is the life of the Sausage. We are manufacturing the Zanzibar Brand Sausage Seasonings, which we make for all kinds of Sausage. These Seasonings are made after secret formulas which have been in our family for a good many years. The flavor that these Seasonings impart to the Sausage is something very fine; it must be tasted to be appreciated, as we cannot describe in a letter what the flavor really is. It is a peculiar combination which everyone likes and it is something that will soon increase your Sausage trade. Zanzibar Brand Sausage Seasonings are manufactured from only high grade Spices and we guarantee them to be absolutely free from any adulteration. We are sending you our circular and price list and would be pleased to receive your order for any quantity that you may desire, and we will say in advance that when you once use them you will never again want to make Sausage without these Seasonings.

SOLE MANUFACTURERS OF ZANZIBAR CARBON.

_Query.--C. & K. write: “Are you the sole manufacturers of Zanzibar Carbon?”_

Ans.--Yes, and we were the first to put a preparation of this kind upon the market.

QUICKEST WAY TO CURE MEATS.

_Query.--W. & B. write: Our capacity for curing meats is limited for the want of room. Can you give us a formula or a recipe that will give a good cure in the shortest possible time? We would like something that is reliable._

Ans.--Our Book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” will give you all the information in reference to curing meats which you may desire. The curing period can be greatly shortened by pumping the meat. It will also give you a better article. Our book, which is mailed to anyone requesting it, free of charge, will give you full directions for pumping, and also the formula for making the pumping brine. By following the instructions which this book contains, you will be able to turn out the finest kind of mild cured and sweet pickled meats, which will have a delicious flavor and a fine color. It will be necessary, however, for you to fully carry out our directions in reference to chilling meats and overhauling them, also the temperature to be maintained during the curing period.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FREEZE-EM AND FREEZE-EM-PICKLE.

_Query.--L. B.: We have been using some of your goods and notice that you speak of Freeze-Em-Pickle for curing meats. Is this product the same as Freeze-Em? We have been getting our goods from our jobbers, and in their catalogue they also speak of Freeze-Em-Pickle. We would like one of your books on the secrets of meat curing and methods of smoking and curing, as we are young in the curing of meats yet and would like all the information possible._

Ans.--Your letter received and we are pleased to note that you have been using some of our goods and find them very satisfactory. You say you have read of our =Freeze-Em= and also our =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, and you would like to know whether they are both the same. They are not the same. Before the various pure food laws went into effect, we sold =Freeze-Em= as a preservative, also as a cleansing agent. As so many of the pure food laws objected to the use of preservatives, we discontinued selling =Freeze-Em= as a preservative, and now sell and recommend it as a cleansing agent only.

=Freeze-Em-Pickle= is an entirely different preparation. This was placed on the market with a special view to supply the butcher with a preparation that will comply with all food regulations under all food laws. =Freeze-Em-Pickle= is to be used for curing all kinds of meat, such as hams, bacon, corned beef, bologna trimmings, pork sausage trimmings, and meats of all kinds, and it is also excellent for use in chopped beef, to keep it in a fresh condition. =Freeze-Em-Pickle is not a Chemical Preservative.=

DIFFICULTIES WITH CURING BRINE AND HOW TO OVERCOME THEM.

_Query.--W. S. & Co.: We are so situated that we have to boil all the water that we use in our brine. After boiling it we run it into a cooling tank and let it cool. We have made some experiments with your Freeze-Em Pickle and like it to cure very well, and have decided to adopt its use in the curing of all of our meats. Now, what we want to know is, can we dissolve the Freeze-Em Pickle in the boiling hot water and then cool it and run it through coils the same as we do now with the water? Would the heat affect the Freeze-Em Pickle? Our vats when full hold 6,900 lbs. of medium sized hams. According to the size of the kettle and the amount of water to boil at one time, it would require 58 pounds of Freeze-Em Pickle. What we want to do is this: we do not want to weigh the Freeze-Em Pickle for each vat, but simply want to make a large quantity of brine and then run the prepared brine on to our hams. We have been using saltpetre and molasses for our brine and we are having trouble with it getting ropy and stringy. Will syrup answer the same as molasses or sugar, and is New Orleans molasses the best, or should granulated sugar be used entirely? Kindly let us know what you consider the best for hams._

Ans.--First of all, we advise that after the water is boiled, that it is allowed to settle and precipitate so that all the solids will settle to the bottom of the settling tank. It should settle at least 24 hours before the solids will have separated and gone to the bottom. Then the water should be drawn off, but not from the bottom of the tank, but at least a foot from the bottom. The water that will come off from above will be nice and clear. This water should then be run into another tank, called the mixing tank, in which the sugar, salt and =Freeze-Em-Pickle= should be dissolved; this will make the stock brine which can be run down into the cellar over cooling pipes, so as to chill it properly before it is put on the meat. The reason the brine that you are making becomes ropy is that you are using the wrong sugar. If you will use absolutely pure granulated sugar or absolutely pure syrup made from granulated sugar you will have no trouble from ropy brine. We strongly advise the use of nothing but absolutely pure granulated sugar. We find that it gives the best results. It costs a little more than the unrefined product but you get less vegetable substance in your brine, and the brine will therefore keep much longer. The brine in which hams have been cured can be used a second time for curing breakfast bacon, and the breakfast bacon will be even better than if put into fresh brine. As your vats are large, the meat will pack very tight on the bottom, and we wish to caution you to be sure and overhaul your meat promptly five days after it is packed and continue overhauling as per directions in our book on curing meats and making sausage. If you follow these directions you will not have any ropy brine or any spoiled meat, but all your meat will come out uniform and will have the proper flavor.

TOUGH AND SALTY CORNED BEEF.

_Query.--E. W. G. writes: I have had complaints from several large institutions I serve that my corned beef is tough and too salty. I would like to know about what proportions of salt and saltpetre to use. It is only recently that I have had these complaints, in fact, I have been in the retail business for about ten years and have been very successful with my corned beef._

Ans.--If you will use the following in curing plates, rumps, briskets, etc., for corned beef, you will have no trouble. Use for 100 lbs. of meat:

Five pounds of common salt, 1 lb. of =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, 2 lbs. of best granulated sugar, 5 gallons of cold water.

Cure the meat in this brine fifteen to thirty days, according to weight and thickness of the pieces. If you are taking pieces out of the brine from day to day and adding others, you should keep up the strength of the pickle to sixty degrees by adding a small quantity of =Freeze-Em-Pickle= and salt from time to time as you withdraw and replace the meat. One of the first essentials to producing first-class corned beef is to be careful about the temperature during the curing period. An even temperature of 38 degrees Fahrenheit is always the best for coolers and for curing meat. If maintained at this degree, there will be no trouble from taking on too much salt, provided, of course, the meat has been properly chilled through before placing it in the brine for curing. In order to produce a good cure, all the animal heat must be extracted from the meat before it is packed, otherwise it will become soft and spongy in the brine, and pickle-soaked.

KEEPING HAMS AND BACON SIX MONTHS.

_Query.--A. J. M. writes: I would like to know how to keep hams and bacon in first class shape for the next six months without their getting mouldy and with the least possible shrinkage._

Ans.--There is no practical method for keeping hams and bacon for so long a time after they are smoked without their getting mouldy. There is a method for keeping them in sweet pickle for any length of time, provided you have cold storage facilities. All kinds of pickled meat if stored in a cooler in which the temperature is kept down to 28 degrees can be kept in this cooler for a year or even longer, and when removed will come out like fresh cured meat. Hams and other meats are often purchased when the market is low and stored in a freezer and kept here until such a time that they are in greatest demand and will sell at the highest price. At a temperature of 28 degrees the meat will not freeze after it is cured, and the brine, of course, does not freeze at that temperature. When meat is taken out of such cold storage to be smoked, it should be first soaked from three to five hours in fresh water, and then washed and smoked the same as regular fresh cured meat. Farmers often bury their smoked meats in their oat bins, and are enabled to keep them in good condition for some time, but this is a method which, perhaps, does not suit your purpose. It is best to keep the meat in sweet pickle until you are ready to smoke it, as this will insure a much better article.

USES FOR DRIED BEEF ENDS.

_Query.--C. E. C. writes: “Can you inform me the best and most profitable way for disposing of my Dried Beef ends? I am in the sliced Dried Beef business and have no way of using up my ends. Thanking you in advance.”_

Ans.--There are three ways for disposing of beef ends to advantage and profit. They may be ground up in an Enterprise Chopper and sold to hotels and restaurants for use as Minced Dried Beef to be prepared and served in cream. They can also be sold to concerns engaged in the baked bean business, where the ends can be cut up and baked with pork in the beans. Restaurants can also use dried beef ends to excellent advantage by putting them in soup. They will give a delicious flavor to all kinds of soups, if boiled at the same time with other soup meats.

HOW TO PREVENT HAMS FROM SOURING IN THE HOCK.

_Query.--C. F. G. Co. write: “We have a lot of hams that we put down in dry salt to cure about six or seven weeks ago, and we have discovered that they have become tainted in the hock, while the balance of the piece of meat is all right. Can you tell us any way to rehandle or overhaul these hams to save them? The front or butt end of the ham is sound and all right and sweet; the bad part is in and around the hock end or leg end. Could this taint and odor be removed and the meat made sweet by putting these hams down now in a strong salt brine and punching holes in the hock end of the pieces so that the brine could quickly get into the tainted part? Would salt brine save them now? We will thank you for any advice or plan of action that will help to save us from loss.”_

Ans.--It is more difficult to cure hams by the dry salt process than it is by the brine process. If these hams had been pumped before packing them in the salt, there would not have been so much danger of shank sour. Hams being very thick, it takes a long time for the salt to draw through them; therefore, if they are first pumped and packed in dry salt, you can readily see that the salt draws through quicker and thus gives them a chance to cure from the inside as quickly as they would cure from the outside. Only under one condition can you pump these hams, make them sweet and save them. For instance, if the hams are taken from the salt and upon trying them with a ham trier they are found to be sweet but turn sour when they are placed in the smoke house, then you can save them. Such a condition would show that the hams are not fully cured around the bone and around the shank joints. In that event, they can be pumped with pickle and fully cured around the bone so that they will not sour when placed in the smoke house. It is necessary to explain that meat is frequently perfectly sweet when it comes out of cure, but it is not fully cured. In such a condition when it is placed in a warm smoke house, it will sour in the smoke house. This, of course, can be avoided by fully curing the hams. If, on the other hand, the hams are already sour and tainted when they come out of the cure, whether it be dry salt or sweet pickle, then nothing can be done with them to make them sweet. Meat once spoiled, remains spoiled. If the hams are sour when they come out of the cure, but sour only in the shank, then the proper thing to do is to cut off the shank; in other words, cut off all the sour or tainted meat and use the butt ends for boiled hams. You can boil and slice them and sell them in your store. You must be careful to cut off all the tainted parts because any of the tainted meat which is left will taint all the rest of the meat when the butt is boiled. You, of course, understand that during the process of boiling, the good meat will absorb the taint from the bad meat. We regret that you did not write us for advice before you began curing the hams, as we would have advised you to cure in brine. We will send you by mail, free of charge, our book, entitled “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” which covers every point that its title indicates. The advice given in this book as to the handling of meats, you will find very valuable and covers the whole ground, from the condition of the animal before killing to the handling of the meat through the chill room and through the entire curing process. We call your special attention to the various articles for curing meats, which will give you the temperature for curing, how to overhaul the meat, how to pump the meat and how to make the brine for pumping. Full directions for curing the hams you will find carefully indexed. By following the advice given in these pages, you will have no loss from the souring of meats, but on the contrary, will be enabled to turn out meat of the highest quality possible.

BUILDING A COOLER.

_Query.--W. G. H. writes: I have about completed a cooler except the floor and am undecided whether to make it of plank or cement. I thought you could give me the desired advice. One room is 16 feet square inside; 7 feet to joist with 7 feet of solid ice above, or about 50 tons capacity. The walls are 2 feet thick; 8 inches sawdust, 4 inches dead air space, 8 inches sawdust, with four thicknesses of one-inch boards, thus making the 2 feet. The building has these walls on all sides and partitions. I expect to use the drip from the above to cool another room, 8 feet by 16 feet inside, and will have the water run around this room in gutters (sheet iron) fastened to the wall. I want this as dry and as free from mould and dampness as possible and, therefore, am not sure as to whether a cement floor will be what is needed, though it was my intention to use cement. There is a 2-foot stone wall under the cooler which sets on sand--this sand having been washed up at times past by the lake. There are now fifty tons of ice over the cooler and back of this is an ice house, 16 feet square, inside filled with ice 14 feet high. This makes the building 20 feet wide by 48 feet long, by 20 feet studding. For ventilation a four-inch square flue will run from the bottom in one corner and from the top in the opposite corner of the cooler to the top of the roof, and above it, acting as chimneys. I want to use these coolers for fresh meats, packing hams and bacon, storing eggs and most anything that there is any money in, which requires to be kept in good condition. Your advice will be appreciated._

Ans.--You are building your cooler on very good plans. However, we would advise the use of cement for the floors. It will be found much better than wood, much purer and cleaner, and withal much drier. You speak about putting two ventilators in your cooler, which is all right, but you should be sure to provide these ventilators with slides, so you can shut them off and regulate the ventilation according to your wishes. Of course, you understand that it is not well to have the ventilators open all the time, as it would result in quite a loss of ice. The ventilators should be open only when the room needs ventilation, which will be at well-defined periods, or varying according to the amount of material in storage. Your plan of using the drip water of the ice and running it in pans will work all right. We have seen this method applied, and it was always satisfactory. Be sure to use galvanized iron gutters for the pans, not sheet iron, as it will rust easily.

WHY BOLOGNA “TAKES WATER” IN COOKING.

_Query.--H. P. writes: “Sometimes I have bother with my bologna taking water when cooking them. Can you tell me what to do to prevent this trouble?”_

Ans.--The difficulty you mention is caused by the sausage not being properly boiled. Ordinary round or long Bologna should be boiled in water of 160 to 170 degrees Fahrenheit for about thirty to forty minutes, and thick, large Bologna should be boiled in water of 155 to 160 degrees for from three-quarters to one hour, according to the size. If the sausages are very large, it will take from one and one-quarter to one and one-half hours to cook them properly. After sausage of any kind have been cooked, they should be handled as follows: Pour boiling water over them to wash off all the surplus grease that adheres to the casings, and then pour cold water over them to shrink and close the pores of the casings. This is very important and should be closely observed by all packers and sausage makers who wish to have their sausage look nice and keep their fresh appearance. The shrinkage and quality of cooked Bologna depends considerably upon the temperature in which they have been boiled. It is very necessary for every man who cooks sausage to use a thermometer.

WHY BOLOGNA SHRIVELS.

_Query.--T. B.: Can you tell me the reason bologna shrivels when it is taken from the hot water? It looks fine until it gets cold._

Ans.--There are several reasons why your bologna might shrivel when taken out of the boiling water. First, it might be that you do not cure your meat right before the bologna is made, and second, you probably do not use the right kind of a binder, and third, you probably boil the bologna in too hot water. If when the meat is cured properly and you do use the right kind of a binder, the bologna shrivels when taken out of the boiling water, it is because you are boiling it at too high a temperature. Before making bologna you should sprinkle =Freeze-Em-Pickle= over the meat and leave it for a few days. We refer to our instructions for preparing bologna trimmings, which will be found in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making.”

ADVICE ON CURING HAMS AND BACON.

_Query.--E. A. S. & Co. write: I have taken a barrel of meat, hams and shoulders, which I cured in my ice box after your instructions, and I wish to say that it is as fine as was ever produced by anyone. My ice box holds well, standing at from 38 to 39 degrees, but it is small and only has room for one barrel in it. I have made arrangements to try packing in the house this winter. I have a closet made of brick on both sides and by proper ventilation in cold weather so as to keep it from 35 to 40 degrees, I think I can save hams all O. K. in tierces. I have about ten oak tierces for the purpose. (Is that all right?) I have an old ice box in the rear 8×8 feet with a good roof on it, walls filled with sawdust. I would like to know if I can fill this with hams and shoulders when the weather gets cold and just dry salt them. Can I save them by just letting them stay there all winter until next spring? I can put in a layer of hams and cover them with salt, then put in another layer and cover with salt, and so on until I fill it. I would like your opinion and advice as to these methods. I kept side meat this way last winter just leaving it in salt._

Ans.--If you keep the temperature of the small room which you mention at from 35 to 40 degrees it will answer the purpose for curing. The oak tierces for curing are all right provided they are new. We advise that you wash them out with scalding hot water, so as to get rid of the oak taste. If the tierces are not new, then you must make doubly sure that they are scalded out thoroughly and at the same time you should use our Ozo for cleansing them.

The old ice-box which you mention can be used for dry salting hams and shoulders when the weather gets cold, provided you do not let the meat freeze. You must not let the temperature get below 35 degrees, because at a lower temperature, meat will not take on salt. Hams can be dry salt cured just the same as side meats, but when hams are very thick, we would advise that you pump them. Our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” will give you full information as to the pumping process and a formula for making the pumping brine. Hams are very seldom dry salt cured; they are nearly always sweet-pickle cured. A sweet pickle or sugar cured ham has a much finer flavor than the dry salt cured ham.

If you pack side meat properly and overhaul it regularly until it is fully cured, and if you keep the temperature of the curing room at about 38 degrees, you will have no trouble in keeping dry salt meat in salt all winter. Of course if you keep it in salt too long, it will get very salty. Our book on curing meats will give you full directions for dry salt curing. Hams, after they are fully cured in brine, can be rubbed with salt and kept in a cooler for several months, and if desired, all winter, but the shrinkage will be great and they will take on salt and might become too salty for your trade.

WHY OIL SEPARATES FROM LARD.

_Query.--E. & W.: We are having trouble with our lard; the oil separates from the lard during the warm weather so part of the lard is really oil, and we cannot use it in that condition. Our business is too small to justify us in employing a practical man to take charge of our lard. We ask you for your advice._

Ans.--To keep the oil from separating from the lard, you should carry out the following directions: First, you should provide yourself with a lard cooler with an agitator attached, as the lard after it is rendered and when it begins to cool should be agitated until it becomes thick like cream, before it is run into the buckets. If lard is not agitated, when it is cooled the stearin crystallizes and the oil separates from the stearin, but by chilling the lard and by agitating it while it cools, the stearin does not get a chance to crystallize and the oil will not separate and the lard will keep better in this condition. Lard that is put up in winter for summer use is much improved by adding about ten per cent of tallow, but when this lard is sold, it should be sold as lard with ten per cent of tallow added. If you wish to treat the lard that you have on hand, we advise you to treat it as follows: For every 100 lbs. of lard, put 100 lbs. of water in your lard kettle; add to it four ounces of our Lard Purifier, and throw 100 lbs. of lard into this water. Start the fire and gradually heat it until the lard is melted and is as hot as it will stand without boiling over. Keep on stirring the lard until it begins to melt, so as to thoroughly wash it. After the lard is thoroughly washed, you will find a certain amount of scum will come to the top, skim this off and then allow the lard to settle for about two hours, so that all the water will separate from the lard and settle down at the bottom. Skim the lard off the top of the water and then let it cool, but keep on agitating it or stirring it while it is cooling, until it is thick like cream.

COATING BOLOGNA SAUSAGE NOT NECESSARY TO PREVENT MOULD.

_Query.--E. D. writes: I would like to ask you if you have anything to coat bologna with after making? I think it is called Gloss or Lustre; have seen it used, but have not been able to find out where to get it._

Ans.--What you refer to is Bologna Varnish. The use of such a preparation has been practically discontinued as it does not conform to pure food laws; it is not proper that a varnish should be put on the outside of food of any kind. Bologna Varnish is made from shellac, and shellac is used in all kinds of furniture varnish, so you can readily see that it is not the proper thing to use on Bologna. In former years, the use of varnish was quite general, but it was finally discontinued, and is now practically a thing of the past. If you want to prevent your Bologna from getting mouldy, you should make them as follows: First, cure the meat with =Freeze-Em-Pickle= as directed in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” and add Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder to the meat, as this absorbs the moisture. Bologna made by the =Freeze-Em-Pickle= Process keeps fine and will not mold for a reasonable length of time.

MAKING SOAP FROM TALLOW.

_Query.--F. B. writes: We have a little meat business and quite often have on hand a surplus of tallow. Now we have been thinking probably we could put this into a soap, something cheap that would not cost us too much to put on the market. Can you kindly give us any information in the matter, and if the idea is a practical one for a small shop like ours?_

Ans.--It would not pay you to undertake to make a hard soap in a small way, as it would be necessary for you to compete with other soaps on the market, and you are aware that laundry soap sells at a very low price and is put upon the market upon a very small margin of profit. You would also find it quite a task to make hard soap, and the time required would hardly justify you to undertake it on a small scale. If you can dispose of soft soap in your locality, we would advise you to use your surplus tallow in that way, but, of course, this suggestion from a financial point of view would depend entirely upon whether there is a sufficient demand for such an article in your vicinity. Possibly you could work up a trade among private families and sell it to them for scrubbing purposes, also to hotels, stores and restaurants, but as your town is small, you might have difficulty in disposing of a sufficient quantity to make it pay you. On the other hand, it would not cost you much to make the experiment. You are surrounded by a good hog-feeding country, and it is possible that you could dispose of quite a quantity of soft soap to the farmers, as it is a very fine thing for hogs, and the truth of the matter is, their hogs would be much better off if they would feed it frequently. You might be benefited more by this suggestion than by sales from other sources.

The following is a recipe for making soft soap with potash: 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 pails of cold water and stir for half an hour; continue this process until a barrel containing thirty-six gallons is filled up. In a week or even less, it will be ready for use. The borax can be turned into grease while boiling, and also 1 pound of rosin. Soap made in this manner always comes, and is a first-rate article, and will last twice as long as that bought at a soap factory. The grease must be tried out, free from scraps, ham rinds, bones, or any other debris; 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 fire from the kettle 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. If the soft soap is very thin, more salt should be added.

PLANS FOR SAUSAGE FACTORY.

_Query.--O. C. L. writes: I am now in business again on my own hook, so please send me your book on Meat Curing and Sausage Making. I will, in the near future, equip my market with an up-to-date sausage factory. I have the following machinery: 1 six-horse power gasoline engine, silent cutter, Enterprise machine, 1 bone cutter, 1 steam boiler for rendering lard, cooking sausage, etc. The room I intend to place this machinery in is 15×25 feet; would like to hear some of your suggestions, and plans in placing the machinery; would appreciate this very much. Has the freezing of pork sausage any detrimental effect on the flavor of the sausage? Accept my well wishes._

Ans.--The machinery you enumerate will give you a sausage plant that is quite complete. We think, however, that your room is a little bit small in which to place so much machinery. If you could put the boiler and rendering kettle in another room, away from the sausage factory, it would be better. You would probably be able to make such an addition as would answer your purpose at a very small cost. This arrangement would make it much more convenient because the boiler and the rendering tank in your sausage factory will make it very hot. The arrangement or disposal of the machinery will not make material difference in a room of the size mentioned. You can arrange it most any way to best suit your convenience.

The freezing of pork sausage certainly has a most detrimental effect on the flavor. Freezing meat always tends, to some extent, to spoil the flavor of the meat. When the albumen of the meat is frozen, and is afterwards thawed out, the albumen leaves the cells of the meat and in that way the flavor is lost and the meat becomes insipid.

PURIFYING TALLOW.

_Query.--T. W. C. writes: “I am tanking mutton and beef tallow together at 40 pounds pressure, and would like to know the best way to use your tallow purifier so I can use my tallow with cottonseed oil to make a lard compound.”_

Ans.--It would not be practicable to use our Lard and Tallow Purifier in the tank. It can be used to greatest advantage in an open jacket kettle. You can treat the tallow in the jacket kettle after it is rendered and comes from the steam tank.

HOW PACKERS BRAND THEIR HAMS

_Question.--W. Z. writes: How do packers brand their hams._

Answer.--Packers brand their hams with Ink made from the following formula:

Glucose 2¼ lbs.
Lampblack ¼ to ½ lb.
Water 1½ lbs.
Grain Alcohol ½ pint

Place the Glucose and water in a dish and heat on stove until it becomes thin. Now take the Lampblack, put it in a separate dish and add enough of the water and Glucose so as to make a thick paste; work this paste up until all of the lumps are dissolved. Then take the Lampblack paste and gradually mix it into the water and Glucose until the desired shade of color is secured. After mixing thoroughly remove from fire and set aside to cool. When cool add the ½ pint of Grain Alcohol, mixing thoroughly. Keep in a corked bottle or can.

Spread a small quantity of the Ink thus made over a pad which is easily made by taking 10 thicknesses of cheese cloth and tacking them on top of a flat board. The branding itself is done with an iron brand containing such letters or other marking as you wish to appear on the hams. The branding should be done before the hams are put into the smoke house.

STARTING A BUTCHER BUSINESS

_Query.--M. E. A. writes: Will you please forward me another copy of your desirable book, “How to Cure Meat and Make Sausage”? And if it is not too much trouble, I would like to have you advise how it is best to start in the butcher and pork packing business in a small way. I have about $700 capital and wish to ask how is the best way to fit up a retail store without too much expense and yet to have it look good, and also to fit up a sausage kitchen and have everything that a man needs to run the business successfully. I may as well state that I have had lots of experience, but after reading your book and the advice that it gives I am sure that even experienced men can learn a lot by reading it._

Ans.--With such a limited amount of capital, it would be advisable to buy second-handed fixtures. These can always be obtained much cheaper than new ones, and you can get good fixtures which will answer the purpose, but they must be neat, clean and in good repair. If you intend to do your own butchering, our advice is that you make arrangements with some butcher who has a slaughter house, and where you can do your butchering, and pay him a certain amount for each animal slaughtered. A very important point that we advise you to follow is to sell everything for cash only, as your capital is not sufficient to give credit to anyone. Were you to give credit and make a lot of book accounts, you would soon run out of money and would not be able to buy large stock and supplies for your market. We also advise that you induce your customers to take their meat home with them, and thus relieve yourself of the necessity of keeping a horse and wagon for delivery purposes. This would save quite an outlay in capital, and a great deal of expense and time. You can then announce with a small advertisement in the daily paper that you sell for cash only, and that you can afford to be more liberal with your customers than you could if you carried accounts, and because you do not incur the expense of delivery. Such an advertisement with placards in your store, no doubt, would result favorably. You must remember at all times that your capital is limited and that you must “trim your sails” accordingly. It is the over-reaching the limits of the possibilities of capital that make the most failures among tradesmen. We would not advise you to advertise meat at a cut price because you sell for cash; people do not want stuff that is cheap, for if you sell stuff at a low price, they imagine there is something wrong with it. Charge the same price that all the other butchers do, and in that way, keep their friendship. If a woman gets something that she doesn’t like and brings it back, tell her that you are very glad she brought it back, if it did not suit her, because you never want any of your customers to keep anything that does not please them.

A sausage room can be rigged up very cheap; all you need to start with is a small Enterprise grinder, so that you can grind up your trimmings and work them into sausage, and by working the meat trimmings up into the different formulas that we give in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” you will not have any loss, as all of your trimmings can be worked up to good advantage. You also should make a great display of your own cured corned beef and turn out fine corned beef, so that when your customers buy it, they are well pleased. The main thing in the success of running a retail market is that the butcher understands how to buy his live stock so that he gets the right quality of beef and gets it at the right price. If you have good meats to sell you will have no trouble in selling them, but if you have poor goods to sell, you may sell them to a customer once or twice, but the third time the customer will not come near you. The same thing holds good with you; if you were buying some of your supplies from the jobber and the jobber did not send you good goods, you may try him once more and if he again sends you poor goods, the third time you certainly will not buy from him, but you will go to some other jobber who will give you the best goods for your money. Your customers are just as smart and as sensitive as you are, and want the same kind of treatment that you like, so if you will always treat your customers as you would like to be treated yourself if you were buying meat at a market, you are bound to meet with success.

CUTTING UP MEATS--NECESSARY FOR EXPERIENCE.

_Query.--J. J. writes: I have decided to go into the meat business and would like to know if you can advise me of some booklet or pamphlet on cutting up meat; also let me know the price of your book, and if you know of a good firm handling butcher supplies and refrigerators._

Ans.--We judge from your inquiry that you are inexperienced in the meat business, and if such is the case, we would advise that you go to work for some good butcher for a while before going into the business for yourself. You could there learn the practical side of the business, and provided you do not now understand how to cut up meat to the greatest profit, you could acquire knowledge upon these points which would be of more value to you than volumes that could be written upon the subject. We most emphatically advise you to learn the business thoroughly before embarking into it on your own account. We take great pleasure in sending you our booklet, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” which you will find of great value to you in teaching you to cure meat and make sausage.

IMITATION FREEZE-EM PICKLE.

_Query.--L. M. writes: “M---- & ----, from whom I buy most of my butcher supplies, handle an imitation of your Freeze-Em Pickle which they claim is the same as your preparation. I do not want it and will not have it. They tried to convince me that what they had is what I want, but I have used Freeze-Em Pickle for years and, knowing from your advertisements that there are imitations of it, I want to steer clear of them. Will you please send me the name of a jobber handling Freeze-Em Pickle near me?”_

Ans.--This is a clear case of an attempt for a substitution of spurious goods for those of our manufacture. These dealers can not help knowing that our customers want =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, and nothing else, but for the sake of reaping an illegitimate profit, they misrepresent imitation goods as being the same as ours. We wish to state that there is only one =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, and all claims to the contrary are absolutely false. They are merely the tricks of illegitimate dealers to pirate the good reputation made by our preparations. In order to be convinced of the superiority of =Freeze-Em-Pickle=, it is only necessary to test it with any preparation purporting to be the same or similar to it and selling under similar names, which are calculated to deceive.

SOURING OF HAM IN SMOKE HOUSE.

_Query.--M. P. M. writes: “I am having trouble with my hams souring in the smokehouse. They seem to get too much smoke. What can you suggest that will help me to avoid this trouble and to keep my hams sweet?”_

Ans.--You are mistaken in supposing that your hams sour from getting too much smoke; that is not the trouble. Hams will not sour from such cause. Your trouble is owing entirely to the fact that the hams are not properly and fully cured before going into the smoke house. Smoke aids to preserve hams and will not cause them to sour. They sour because the portion that has not been thoroughly cured, which is generally close to the bone, has not been reached by the brine. In many cases souring comes from imperfect chilling of meat before putting it into the brine; then again you may not have overhauled the meat at the proper time and with the frequency which good curing requires. In the first place, the hog should not be killed when overheated or excited. Second, after they have been scalded and scraped, they must be dressed as quickly as possible, washed out thoroughly with clean water, then split and allowed to hang in a well ventilated room until partly cooled off. They should then be run into a cooler or chilling room as quickly as possible, where the temperature should be reduced to 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit. They should be allowed to thus chill for 24 hours for medium size hogs. When hogs are properly chilled, the temperature of the inside of the ham or shoulder will not be more than one to one and one-half degrees higher than the cooler. Those without ice machinery for curing, who are using common ice houses, can employ the crushed ice method for chilling the meat. By this is meant to put the meat on the floor and throw cracked ice over it, and thus allow it to remain over night. After being thoroughly chilled, the hams must undergo the various processes which you will find set forth in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” which we take pleasure in sending to you free of charge. If you will follow the directions contained in this book you will never have trouble with soured hams from imperfect curing or other causes.

CLEANING CASINGS.

_Query.--S. & H. write: “I would like to know if you have any preparations for cleaning casings. We clean all the casings we get and would like to get some chemicals to take the tallow and lard off of them.”_

Ans.--There is no preparation that will free the lard from casings. If you use something that is strong enough to take off the fat, it will eat up the casings as well. The only thing practicable that can be done is to wash the casings thoroughly and change the water a number of times. In the last washing water it would be advisable to put in some washing soda as that will soften the water and assist in cleaning the casings. The fat you will have to remove by hand. There are machines made for removing the fat from casings, but it will not pay you to go to the expense of making such a purchase unless you clean a very large amount of casings per day.

CAUSE OF “RUSTY” MEAT.

_Query.--R. J. B. writes: “We keep our meat in an ice box 35 degrees cold and the barrels we used in curing it were galvanized, and we have used them for five years. We use the regular pickling salt. Our meat comes out rusty. What can you suggest?”_