AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF PACKING AND PRESERVING HANS, BACON, AND OTHER CURED MEATS
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Bennett at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th March 1873.-A communication from abroad by John Kyte
Collett, of the City of London, in the County of Middlesex,
Province of Ontario, Dominion of Canada.
I, WILLIAM HENRY BENNETT, of 42, Parliament Street, in the City of
Westminster, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS OF PACKING AND PRESERVING HANS,
BACON, AND OTHER CURED MEATS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the packing and preservation of hams, bacon,
and other cured meats, in such a manner that they may be exported and
preserved in good condition without keeping them in dry salt or brine,
for a longer time than is necessary for the proper curing thereof.
It is well known that after salt or brine has performed its function
in curing meat, its prolonged use thereafter can but be injurious thereto
by making it over salted and hardening the fibres, thus deteriorating its
quality, and depreciating its value as an article of food.

page_text: And in the case of dried or smoked hams, or bacon great caro nas to
be exercised, and money spent in packing hams in canvas or other bags
to prevent the fly getting to them, and causing the small worms or
"hoppers" as they are called in the trade, and which are often found
in the hams.
To the best of my knowledge no successful mode has been devised
whereby dried or smoked bacon is well preserved and packed for export,
as it requires not only to be kept from the fly, but also to be protected
against the effect of the changes of the atmosphere, and especially
against dampness.
Now my Invention consists in the employment of meal or flour for
such packing of hams, bacon, and other cured meats, in the manner
herein-after described.
According to my process, the hams, bacon, or meats to be packed are
laid in layers into barrels, casks, or boxes of any kind, provided they
are tight enough to retain the meal, or flour, and the interstices
between each piece are filled with meal, or flour of any kind of grain so
as to prevent any part thereof being exposed to the influence of the
atmosphere. I prefer Indian corn or pea-meal for the purpose, and
although it is not absolutely necessary that the flour or meal employed
as packing for meat should be kiln dried, yet I prefer to use such meal
or flour, as they retain less moisture than when air dried.
If the bacon or other cured meats are green I use a light wood
lattice of withy-wicker to go between each layer of meat. Such packing
composes a sufficiently air-tight envelope or covering for the meat to
permit its transportation to any part of the world in good order and
condition either by land or sea, and will preserve it in the state it has
been packed in for sufficient length of time to allow it to be exported
and kept in store like salt packed meat. When so packed, the hams,
bacon, and other cured meats are not only in a better condition for
consumption than those packed in dry salt or in brine, but they may be
sold cheaper than these, as the flour, or meal employed as packing under
my process may be sold for animal feed at about the same price as other
flour or meal of the same kind, its quality for such purpose remaining
unimpaired, and being, on the contrary, in certain cases improved by the
salt, or saline taste which may have been imparted thereto by its contact

page_text: with the salted meats, whilst the salt or brine becomes, when once used
as packing, worthless as an article of commerco.
When wanted for consumption, the green and dried meats packed
according to my process have only to be taken out and washed or
brushed.