The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-01-03
KEPT COOL FOR COOKS.
;OOD THINGS STORED IN THE
GREAT BIG REFRlGERATORS.

How Meat. Game. Butter. Cheese and Eggs
Are Kept In Good Condition All the
Year ROund-Contents Of the Cold Stor-
age Houses I'm Chicago.
Below The ice bed of a gorge in the Altai
mountains some Siberian peasants once found
the huge body of mastodon The find was
by accident. The peasants were hungry. They
had not the faintest idea that this immense
carcass had been lying there, buried under
layer ON layer Of ice and rock, for many thou
sands of years-longer at any rate than the
memory of man runneth. So they cut off a
chunk Of this meat and boiled it over a fire.
And it tasted good and they all smacked
their lips over it. Subsequently big slices of
this same mastodon were eaten by other peas
ants, who came in sleighs to get family roasts
The remainder Of the mastodon was finally
shipped by the government to st. Petersburg,
where it forms today one Of the chief attrac-
tions in q museum.
GROWTH OF THE BUSINESS.
To make business of preserving large
quantities Of food for the market by means
Of cold is thing of rather recent date in
Chicago A reporter, who looked the matter
up, found the first modest attempt was made
fifteen years ago on State street by the Chi
cago fruit house. But that was only for
fruit. In 1878 the Western Refrigerating
company started on Michigan street. and
their business increased so rapidly that others
came in to share honors and emoluments
with them, and today there are five large re-
frigerating concerns in the city. The COM
bined money value of the articles Of food
they preserve and keep fit for human use
represents just now about 81, 600, OO0 This
comprises eggs. butter, cheese, dry and green
fruits, and in season many other perishable
things, like meat, poultry, game and venison.
The processes employed in preserving differ
greatly in different establishments. So do
prices charged As a rule, however, half a
cent per pound is exacted for butter or
cheese. 60 cents per case of eggs thirty DOZEN,
from 25 to 80 cents per barrel of apples and
X to "a cent per pound of dried fruit This
lis for keeping them from April to Jan. l, if
desired, but generally the season includes
,about six months, the heated term for but
tier, eggs, cheese, etc., the cold time for
poultry, game, apples, etc. AS to the meth
DDS of preservation, the Western Refrigerat-
ing company uses one which it keeps sec
ret, while the Union, at Sixteenth and State,
makes use Of the brine circulating system,
similar to the one in vogue in breweries.
The Chicago Refrigerating company has
adopted the direct expansion SYSTEM an in
genious method, by which ammonia expands
right in the pipes while in the cooling rooms,
absorbing ia its expansion the heat in the
surrounding air and changing into gas at the
same time The gas again turns into ique-
fled or anhydrOus ammonia and is thus made
to do continuous duty. At Keppler's cold
storage houses in st. Clair, Ills, and in this
city, the refrigerating is done in the simple
and old fashioned way, usually ice.
AS to the temperature to be maintained,
that is another point of difference The cold
storage men require from 80 to 40 dogs. to
keep their goods in proper trim. To subject
fruit, eggs, cheese, etc., to freezing would in
jure them. 1t is different with game and
meat. To best preserve that it is necessary
to freeze it, A Dearborn street dealer keeps
all the year round about $40, 600 worth OF
game, venison, etc., in a stiff and lifeless con-
dition in his huge freezing rooms below his
store. The temperature down there is so low
that it is hardly safe for an employee to ven
.ture into the rooms without having sheathed
.himsolf ii fur muller. About ten below
:zeSIG is the figure, winter and summer, and it
is amusing to see in those chambers of death
whole rows of black bears, stiff as a ramrod,
and deer, mountain sheep, antelope and elk,
which give forth genuine dull thud," if
thumped ever SO slightly. The owner main
tains that game and venison improves in
flavor and tenderness by this freezing treat
ment. This, of course, must remain a matter
of taste for each one to judge for himself.
MILLIONS OF EGGS.
The egg, however, small as it is, per Sc, is
the biggest item in the cold storage interest.
The Western Refrigerating company, for in
stance, which occupies four large buildings
on Michigan street, with 1900, 600 cubic feet
of cold storage space, frequently holds as
much as 100, 900 cases of eggs-or sc, 100000
of them-at one time.
In Chicago, it appears, the eggs kept in the
refrigerating houses for months and months
are trotted out during winter for fresh ones
THAT can't be helped" said E. P. Baker, a
cold storage man, because during winter
the supply Of fresh eggs snever large enough
to meet the demand. The commission men,
for whom we have kept these eggs all through
the spring and summer and fall, now get
them from us, and they sell these preserved
eggs to the retailers at a moderate price,
The retailers again have their customers ask
for fresh eggs. They must sell them these,
as being the next best thing. But it is fact
that when eggs are kept carefully in cold
storage they have really remained fresh, SC
fresh that even an expert could not tell the
difference by sight, smell or taste.
As far as the public at large is concerned,
there can be no doubt that the cold storage
business has achieved much good, and is con-
tinuing to do that every day. 1t equalizee
prices all the year around for a number Of
necessary articles of food. Were is not 6dk
cold storage, eggs would not bring more til
cents per dozen in May, instead of 10 tod
cents; and on the other hand eggs would cost
80 to 40 cents per dozen in winter, instead OF
l6 to 20 cents. Meats, too, have become
much more even in prices for the same reason,
and so has cheese and butter. Time was
and that was but fifteen to twenty years age
when butter ranged as high as so to 20 cents
per pound during the winter months, while
now butter, which was originally the best to
be had, and which has but slightly lost its
flavor and aroma by reason of its cold stor.
age. can be had at IS cents.-Chicago Herald
OF GENERAL INTEREST.
L.