Omaha daily bee., 1908-11-09
CURING MEAT BY ELECTRICITY
by Means of This Process Meat Has
Been Kept Four Months In
the Tropics.

Still another use has been found for
electricity-the curing of meat. A process
recently perfected will, the originators
predict, revolutionize the packing indus
try and drive the method of curing now
in general use out of existence.
For many years inventors rave been
puzzling their brains over how to apply
electricity to meat curing. The idea
was public property. 1t is only recently
that it has been applied In a practical
way.
1t has long been acknowledg ed that
electricity is the greatest purifier known.
Physicians use 1t to destroy germ life.
The purest water is that which has been
s%urcharged with electricity. Accordingly
meat has been similarly treated.
A lot of meat which had been cleo
trically cured was boxed and sent to the
United States consul at Vera Cruz, Mex
leo. 1t was protected only by a screen,
to keep out rats and mice, and a layer
of thin parchment paper.
TIL consul at Vera Cruz kept the meat
four months, then returned II to New
York. On it's arrival here It passed gov
eminent inspection. Another piece of meat
from the same lot has hung two years in
a room where the temperature has never
been below 20. 1t is sweet and wholesome
today. Other equally startling tests OF the
electric process have been mad sue
cessful.
J The process In it's fundamental princi-
pie is simplicity itself. The meat is
placed in tanks containing brine. The
brine is the same solution which is used
in curing establishment everywhere.
Electric currents are sent through the
tanks. They drive the salt Into and
through the meat much more quickly
and distribute ii much more thoroughly
than is possible under the old meth cd, in
which the meat is merely allowed to
soak in the brine.
The originators of the process claim
for II that ii is quicker, more thorough
and more sanitary than the old method.
Even the most up-to-date curing cell
lars have brine-covered floors and damp
walls. The process of curing takes so
long and the meat must be handled so
many times that perfect sanitation is Inn
possible. The meat must be changed fire.
quently from one hogshead to another,
from old brine to new, There is always
more or less seepage from leaking casks.
The cellars are in layers. underground,
and are Invariably dark and often poorly
ventilated.
With the electric method the meat is
handled but once-when IL goes into the
brine and when II comes out, cured.
Therefore there are fewer casks and less
seepage. The brine can be used over and
over again Indefinitely. as 1t. too, has been
purified by electricity, and circulating
through a cooler vat outside returns TO
the tank.
In the matter OF time consumed in cur
ing the originators make these compari-
sons:
Under the old method ham is cured in
from seventy-two to lO5 days. Electric
ally cured it need stay in the brine but
from twenty-five TO thirty-five days.
Under the old way bacon is cured In
twenty-five days. Electrically cured II
remains in the brine only four days.
Itemized, the claimed advantages OF the
new method over the old are: Takes one
fifth to one-third as long; does 1t better;
saves the packer from so 10 rs per cent
In labor in the curing room; eliminates
the cost OF eooperage: reduces the cost
Of brine three-fourths; saves the packer
loss from "skippered" meat. Meat which
has been electrically cured will not spoil,
for there are no impurities left in It
New York World