Arizona weekly citizen., 1882-08-06
Tbe PreSeryation off Food,

! Prof. F. $. BariH explains m the June
 number of the Month" new antlsep- | tic compound for the preservation of l food which 1t Is certainly not impossible,
 may supercede drying and canning, and
 indeed all the other costly and more or
 less unsatisfactory processes. If this
 discovery, after more extensive trlal
 than 1t has yet had, prove satisfactory
 and us inexpensive as ln the experiments | that Prof. Barld has made, it will be [ one of the most valuable chemical dIs- t cOveries of recent years, and more valu- | able to American ralsers and packers Of meat than every other process hereto | fore discovered. In spite of refriCer- ator cars and steamships, and in spite of
 tue great improvements that have been
 made in canning meats, one of our ! greatest commercial problems still is: how can We transport our beef and pork
 and eventually our dairy products tO Europe perfectly preserved and at
 reasonable price: If this eau be done, it will enlarge almost indefinitely one of our already large industries and stimu-
 late the raising and exporting of other
 meats than beef and pork.
 The antiseptic. as Professor BariT ex-
 plains 1t, Is compound of glycerlne and
 boraic acid as follows: Glycerine, b0ralc
 acid, bOrO-glyceride and wateT-by
 weight, ninety-twO parts of glycerine and
 sixty-two parts of boraie- acid, the odd
 fifty -four parts being the weight of the
 water which Is lost as steam during the
 heating. "B rO-glyceride' IS the name
 he has given to the compound. Neither
 glycerine nor boTaic acid alone com
 pletely preserves meat, but the com
 pound is an almost tasteless, effectual and uninjurlOus preservatlve. It does not even change the color of the meat.
 The method of using is 10 steep the fresh meat into the solution, dry 1t in the sun and pack it in casks; or 1t can be left m the liquid during transportation. The cost of preserving and packing IS estimated, partly, of course, by guess, Inasmuch as no extensive experiment. has yet been made, at penny a pound. Among the experiments that Prof. Baritf has made, he mentions the following: A jar of ribs of mutton was sent last August from the Falkland islands, and the meat remained sweet and tender, and was eaten both roasted and boiled. Oysters kept for three months which could not be distinguished from fresh ones; others sent raw from Jamaica to England which retained a perfect flavor; Turtles and pigeons from the same place with the same satisfactory results: pigeons and beef kept seven months and made into a pie with eggs laid SIX months. Furthermore, when meat has been preserved with bOro-glyceride, 1t will keep sweet and will not turn sour for weeks after it has been cooked, even If exposed to the ar. If pan be kept containing the dilute solution, meat and poultry when brought fresh from the barnyard or market, by beng immersed m 1t could be kept sweet during the hottest weather. Experiments have been made with the compound in pre- serving cream and butter It does not give an unpleasant taste to mIk and has in all experiments thus far made proved perfectly harmless. Cream pre- served with it was sent from England l to Jamaica and could not be distinguish | ed from fresh cream; and a quantity of | clOtted cream was sent with the same l results to Zanzibar. But | ter after ten weeks of preservation, was | perfectly good, and nearly a hundred | persons who ate 1t did not detect any 1 peculiar taste and were unwilling Co be- iieve it was not fresh.