The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-08
MEAT-CURING IN THE CITY.
Urban Methods Not an Improvement on the
Backwoods Process.

Urban Methods Not an Improvement on the
New York sun.
In the second of the five stories of a Beach
street house a man picked hams out of a crate
and threw them into a cask of water, while a
clerk and another young man watched him.
When ! was a boy the clerk said, Il lived
in the wilds of Ohio. in the valley of the Maumee
river. That is a land which produces hogs and
hominy spontaneously, as it raises elm and
burr-oak, and soft-maple, and sycamore trees.
The hogs, the burI-Oak, the corn, and the syca-
more formed a natural sequence in the produc-
ton of ham in my day
Tho young man smiled, but without appear
ing to understand. The clerk continued: The
farmers there turn their hogs out to run loose
in the woods during the warm weather. The
burT-oak acorns along in the fall fatten up the
shoats nicely. When in good flesh they are
rounded up and penned for six weeks and fed on
corn. That improves the flavor of the pork.
Then they are ready for killing
Where did the sycamore cone inN
The sycamore grows in the form OF a hollow
shell i'll that country. have seen them five
feet in diameter on the inside, with a trunk
forty feet high The farmer cuts off a twenty
foot section of a large sycamore, rolls the big
end on a mud boat-nud boat! sled with run
ners six feet long and six inches wide. Then he
yokes the cattle to the sled and draws it home.
Stood on end and rooted with clap-boards split
from a d-oak log, the sycamore smoka-house Is
a landmark as frequent as alexandria fences.
The farmer hangs up a dozen hams and shout
dees properly sailed. builds up a fire of corn-cobs
morning and evening under them for three or
four or five days, and then let's them hang there
till wanted"
How much have the Wholesale pork men i'm
proved the old proccssl'
Not a cents worth. In the Eastern States
the farmers used frame or brick buildings six or
eight feet square and nine or ten feet high in
place Of the hollow log. The smoke house of the
wholesale smoker is an enlarged edition of the
farmers brick smoke house.
How do you prepare hams for smoking"
ITO begin at the beginning, the live hogs are
delivered by Western drovers to the slaughter
house men, who kill and dress the animals,
selling the whole c~arcasscs to the cutters. The
cutters are men who cut up the whole hogs. sell
ing parts to the retail meat market, making lard
of part. sailing part, and selling many hams,
shoulders ana bellies for bacon to the smokers.
We all run to specialties. The hams come to us
all trimmed and nice and fresh. We dump them
into a cask of pickle that is made of water, salt,
sugar and Stltpetre."
How much Of each!T
well, that depends. For the city trade a
weaker solution is required than when the meat
is to go South. A good average would be TWEEN
ty pounds of salt, thrce-fourths of a pound of
sa!tpeter, and five pounds Of white sugar to a
tierce holding 300 pounds Of meat. The water
fills the tierce. The hams cure in this solution,
say. sixty days for foreign trade, while the
bacon should not be cured longer than thirty
days for tho home trade. Bacon is thinner
and cures through quicker, you see. At the
end of that time the meat Is taken from the
tierce, a tarred string is put in each piece, and
then all are freshcnod for from two to four
teen hours in casks of fresh water. That man
there is dumping cured meat into the freshening
cask."
what is that for?7
Looks. If the salt was not soaked from the
outside of the ham it would fry out during the
smoking and stand thick in crystals all over
the surface. That would kill the sale. When
the fresheninC Is done there is an c%xcretiOn
ON the ham that will dry into an offensive
looking film if not removed by a bath of hot
water and sal soda. Then we are ready for the
smoke houses. Here are five. Youcan see them
for yourself"
The clerk pointed to a narrow slit Of a door
in Il brick wall not far away. Looking into it
his companion saw, after rubbing his eyes two
or three times, the shape of u black pit, crossed
and recrossed by lines Of wood. from which hung
tho irregular pieces Of meat, Away below. on a
bed of ashes, was the glow of a few red Goals,
fianked by charred pieces of wood. As far
above, working by the light of a single candle,
was a man, who was filing the top rows with
meat.
.'These skids." the clerk explained, pointing to
the sticks from which the meat hung. are two
and a half feet apart. up and down.. and as near
together sideways as they can be placed without
making the pieces of meas touch one another.
We begin to hang the meat on the level of the
mcnt. The inside measurement of the house is
s by 10 feet. 1t runs to the roof. 1t will hold
600 pieces.
What kind of a fire have you?"
'Hickory wood until the surface of the meat
is dried. and then we add black sawdust."
whats that!'
at is supposed to be pure black mahogany,
but the sawmill men will dilute it with a little
cedar and other woods. Some smokers use
only hickory. Different woods give different
fiavors.H
How long must the meat be cooked"
18th depends on the trade. A firm of re
tailers not far from here, who smoke for their
own trade. hang in a fresh lot every other day.
Twenty-four hours of smoke gives a delicate
color and a minimum shrinkage Of weight, say
, per cent. 1t pleases the aesthetic taste of the
customer, and adds shekels TO the retailers bank
account. Our trade demands three days. at
least. The shrinkage is from 8 to 10 per cent.
For the West Indies the meat is dried down still
further
My landlady always buys the hams that are
sewed M in yellow bags, with pretty labels on
the outside the young man remarked.
"Bless her soul!' the clerk exclaimed. with
enthusiasm. "May her tribe increase. We bag
the hams ostensibly to keep the flies from sting
ing them. First the ham is carefully wrapped
in thick, heavy, spongy paper. Then a cotton
cloth thicker than cheese cloth is sewed over.
Then it is thickly painted with a paste made of
paper do not cost so much as ham, but they sell
for just the same price. The purchase of bagged
ham should increase"
'Does it increase!'
mo. But then business is not bad. For the
past few weeks those who owned Jams have
grown rich by not selling them. Arising market
causes few complaints from dealers"
Noah and the Devil.