Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1879-03-21
Corn-Fed Pork.
IAmericnn Stncl,n,,n ]

The following we find float
ing about in the columns of the
newspapers, and republish it
because it seems to accountrea-
sonably for facts every farmer
must have observed:
The opinion is quite general,
if not universal, that corn-fed
pork is harder, contains more
nutriment, and shrinks less in
the spot and in the frylng-pans,
than pork fed on milk, Stops, or
partly on flesh. as happens
where swine are kept and fed
in slaughter-yards, and the food
of which is more or less the
ofal of slaughtered animals.
Nevertheless the opinion is al
most wholly an erroneous one,
as we shall try to show. Gran
ted that under a temperature SO
low that lard remains firm and
stiff, corn-fed pork is hrmer
than pork fed on milk, slops,
or flesh, but this firmness de-
ponds on the relatively larger
amount of stearine than of
oleine in the composition OF the
fatty matter of corn-fed pork;
but it is a frmness which is
wholly lost at high tempera-
ture, like that of summer heat,
or the average oftropical wealth
er, Where pork is made partly
on milk or Stops or SINH ar food,
the oleine of that fat exceeds in
quantity the stearine, and while
the meat SO made may at ordi-
nary temperature appear soft
and flabby it really contains
more nutriment-that is, more
albunlinous matter-and will
shrink less in cooking than corn
fed pork, the cell tissues which
envelop the fatty matter are
very thin and light, and conse-
queHtly tender, and when heat
is applied, either boiling or fry
ing, cells burst, the lard es-
capes, and the fleshy portion
shrinks to almost nothing. This
happens because corn isvery de-
ficient to the substance which
makes cell tissue, that is, in al
luminous matter. On the con- |
trary, milk and slops are very
rich in albuminous matter, and
flesh is almost wholly composed
Of it, and consequently swine
fed and fattened on these sub
stances have cell tissues largely
developed, and where the lard
in cooking there is
much largerportion ofsolidmeat
eft. In the old country, where
swine are raised and fattened on
peas and barley and the like, and |
where such a thing as an exclu-
live corn diet is almost unknown |
cooks make a great account of |
larding0-that is, cutting the
atty pork into long strips and
ewing them into certain meats
md game birds previous to
cooking, for the purpose of in
:reasing their favor and juices.
With the ordinary, Harding" in
he United States is much re-
tricted or gone out of fashion.
n the case of foreign pork, its
.bundance and strength of cell
issues make it suitable for the
'peration: in the other the del
racy and tenderness of the sub
lance renders if quite unfit for
hat purpose. As for illustra-
ion of how particular kinds of
bod affect adipose and cell It's
ues, it may be stated that the
neat of hogs fattened on beech
uts and mast" generally, as
ar as the fat is concerned, is
emi-transparent, and a slaugh-
cred hog hung up by the heels
ill drip lard-oil from the snout
t an ordinary temperature. In
andle burning days, the farm
rs and jewellers of the middle
tates learned that the tallow of
rass-fatted beeves would make
andes which would not run in
Midsummer, but the tallow of
orn-fatted cattle required to be
ardened by the addition of al
m, 'rosin, or some other sub
.ance: