The modern packing house

Beef Miscellaneous.

—The rising value of all flesh foods makes it imperative to carefully conserve all kinds of products and this chapter is devoted to a description of the care and handling of these products.

Livers.

—There is no edible part of the animal which becomes stale as quickly as the liver. The large proportion of water in its makeup together with the presence of blood and the residual matter from its function in the body all contribute to this rapid decay, and only by the most careful attention will they keep a very great length of time unless they are frozen. The vital point in handling livers successfully is to promptly send them to a proper cooler.

As soon as they are taken from the animal they should be trimmed, care being taken that in cutting the gall bag from the liver they are not contaminated with gall, the trimming consisting of cutting around the lower lobe so as to permit the blood contained therein to drip out.

The cooler in which they are stored should be of the same character as a beef cooler with an overhead loft and a positive and good circulation. The livers should be separated so that warm ones will not come in contact with cold ones. The temperature of the cooler should be about 32° F. In hanging, the cooling racks are preferably metal, frequently cleansed by scalding and should be arranged so that livers do not drip on those below.

At certain times of the year it is profitable to freeze them for the winter trade. Where this is done it will be found that if they are first properly dried and chilled, they freeze in much better condition than if put into the freezer when they are full of moisture. They should be frozen at a temperature as near zero Fahr. as possible, for if frozen quickly they retain their natural color, whereas, if they are put into a higher temperature and the freezing is delayed, they will have a dark appearance when thawed.

Sweetbreads.

—This is a delicate piece of meat and practically the only one in the packing house that improves by being kept in water. The sweetbread should be cut out before the animal is stuck, thereby avoiding their becoming bloody and discolored. After washing and fat is trimmed off, they should be put in ice water in the coolers and held over night; the next day they are ready for shipment and should be packed in cracked ice.

If they are to be frozen they should be allowed to drain properly before placing them in the freezers. A low temperature is very essential for the preservation of sweetbreads, in order to obtain the best possible appearance. When frozen quickly they retain a bright appearance when thawed. If they are frozen slowly they turn slate color when thawed and have an undesirable and unwholesome look, which operates against their being disposed of to advantage.

Western or range cattle, yield a very small proportion of sweetbreads, they being undeveloped by the animal when living in their natural state. Cattle which have been fattened in feed lots, however, yield much larger sweetbreads.

Beef Hearts.

—This piece of meat is generally used in sausage and canning, largely in the former. The hearts after being taken from the animals are trimmed and washed and should be hung in a cooler where there is a temperature of from 33° to 36° F. After they are thoroughly chilled they are used for sausage purposes, either fresh or cured.

Tails.

—There is little to be said on the handling of tails, except that they should be kept clean, for if handled carelessly and allowed to become stained it is impossible ever to get them clean afterward, and it is always preferable not to wash them, as this has a tendency to discolor them when chilled. If they are to be frozen they should be put into the freezer under a low temperature in order to have them come out in desirable condition.

Weasand Meat.

—This is a meat taken off the weasands. It is a low grade of meat and is at times “tanked” rather than saved. When cured it should be packed in tierces, and to a tierce of 400 pounds sprinkle through thoroughly a mixture of twenty pounds of salt and one pound of saltpetre. The goods should be held in storage at from 36° to 38° F. during the process of curing.

Beef Tongues.

—The tongue should receive careful attention from the time it is taken out of the head, until it is cured. In taking the tongue out of the head it should be left smooth on the bottom, leaving on all fat. It should be cut close to the jaws, taking off with it all fat possible, as it is worth much more on the tongue than if left on the head.

Washing.

—The tongue should be thoroughly washed in warm water, say at 80° F., as soon as taken from the head. Mechanical washers like that shown in the accompanying illustration, Fig. 78, are frequently used to good advantage. Immediately upon washing they should be chilled in clean, cold water, when they are hung to drip and then sent to the cooler.

Hanging.

—In hanging, the tongue should be suspended from a hook at the point where the tongue was attached to the jaw bone and the tip also fastened upon the same hook. This gives the tongue a compact appearance, but if it is hung up by the point alone when warm, its own weight stretches it out of shape, and it never looks as well as when hung as described. Tongues should be hung in a temperature of from 32° to 34° F. for forty-eight hours.

Trimming.

—Tongues are selected for trimming into short and long cuts. In trimming, the side bones should be cut equally and the side meats cut with a long knife and a draw movement so as to make a smooth appearing tongue. “Long cut tongue” means that the gullet and about two joints of the windpipe are left on. In “short cut tongue” the gullet is entirely cut away. Long cut tongue should average not less than five pounds in weight. The trimmings are retrimmed, the lean parts being suitable for sausage and the fat for tank.

Curing.

—They should first be put into a plain pickle, eighty degrees strong, at a temperature of 38° to 40° F. for twenty-four hours. This is done to remove all the saliva from the tongue, which has the effect of making the pickle “strong,” if the tongues are put direct into the curing pickle.

After treatment with plain pickle they are put into a sweet pickle to be cured, the sweet pickle consisting of 280 pounds of salt, English salt being preferable, to which is added ten pounds of saltpetre and twenty-four pounds of sugar to each 160 gallons of water. This should be stirred well to insure thorough dissolving of the ingredients. The tongues are then put into barrels, hogsheads or vats, as the case may be, and sufficient pickle put on to submerge them. At the end of five days they should be shifted from one package to another, and at the end of fifteen days they should be rehandled, this being done to bring the pickle into thorough contact with the different pieces. Tongues should be fully cured at the end of thirty days, ready to smoke, or for shipment. When tongues are packed in barrels, after being fully cured, they should be packed, 202 pounds to the barrel, filling the package up with the same pickle in which they were cured. They are then ready for shipment. Tongues readily become excessively salty if allowed to remain in cure too long. It is desirable to have them “off cure” about as wanted.

Freezing.

—As there is an increased demand for tongues in the warm months over any other part of the year, it is advantageous to hold them frozen until the demand develops. In freezing it is necessary that they should be put in a very low temperature and frozen quickly, as if handled otherwise it has a tendency to give them an undesirable color when cured. They can be thawed, cured, and smoked as required.

Test on Freezing Beef Tongues.

—The following is a test on tongues thus handled, showing the percentage of shrinkage, freezing, curing and smoking:

TEST ON FREEZING BEEF TONGUES.

Surplus Beef Rounds.

—Where cattle are cut in large quantities it is almost impossible to sell the rounds fresh, there being comparatively small demand for round steak. It is necessary to use this particular part of the meat in some other product, which is done by making what is known as “beef hams.” The very light rounds, or rounds out of canning cattle, are generally used for canning purposes, they being too light to suit the trade for “beef hams.”

Stripping Beef Hams.

—In preparing “beef hams” the rounds are cut by what is known as the “packing house cut,” which leaves a piece of meat from the rump on the round, as compared to the ordinary cut. This piece is what is known as the “knuckle” piece of the set. Rounds cut this way are considered regular. When rounds, cut for market purposes, are stripped, they are known as short knuckled rounds and are not accepted as regular.

Before the round is stripped, the fell, or covering, is skinned off, and the seam of the knuckle followed around by the knife, cutting clear to the bone. The round is hung on a hook and an incision made just above the stifle joint and the knuckle piece peeled from the bone. The round is then turned on the hook and opened to the bone, making what is known as the “inside-and-outside piece” of the round.

In opening the round, what is known as the “kernel fat” should be equally divided. These three pieces are what is known as regular beef hams when packed in sets. When separated they are known as “insides,” “outsides” and “knuckles.” These hams are cured and smoked and are sold at retail as dried beef, the largest sale for this kind of meat being in warm weather. The piece that is left is the shank.

Curing.

—On the manner in which beef hams are cured depends, to a great extent, their sale. The object in curing is to have them not too salty, thoroughly cured through, and of a bright and attractive color when smoked.

The hams when cut from the cattle should be either spread out or hung up in a room held at a temperature of from 33° to 35° F., for twenty-four hours, thereby insuring proper chilling. They are then best cured in vats holding 1,000 pounds each; many, however, cure them in tierces or barrels.

Formulas for Curing Beef Hams.

—Two formulas for the pickle follow:

First Formula.

—To 1,500 gallons of 80-degree strength pickle, add 300 pounds granulated sugar, 105 pounds saltpetre. Where a smaller amount of pickle is wanted make it proportionately. As the meat is packed in vats, sprinkle in a little fine salt. The vat should then be filled with above pickle, and a rack and weight put on to keep the meat submerged. The hams should be overhauled three times, first in ten days, again twenty-five days later and again forty days after the second overhauling. Beef hams should be considered fully cured in from seventy-five to eighty-five days. If cured in tierces or barrels, they should be rolled at the same periods as in the case of overhauling in the vats, giving the pickle a chance to thoroughly reach all parts of the meat.

Second Formula.

—Another formula used extensively, where beef hams are packed and cured exclusively in barrels, is as follows: Dissolve 150 pounds of saltpetre in hot, 88-degree pickle, made from Ashton or dairy salt, a sufficient amount of pickle being used to make fifty-two gallons when dissolved. It is necessary to heat the pickle in order to dissolve this amount of salt. Add 450 pounds of granulated sugar and sufficient cold 88-degree pickle to make 200 gallons of the finished solution. This is then chilled to a temperature of 40° to 45° F. One gallon of this solution is put into each barrel before commencing to pack the meats.

When packing the meat in barrels, use twenty-three pounds of Ashton, or dairy salt, sprinkling between the layers as they are put in. When the barrel is needed, water at a temperature of 40° to 45° F., barrels to be rolled in ten, thirty and fifty days after being packed. They should be stored in a temperature of from 38° to 40° F. if they are to be used in ninety days. If they are to be held for five or six months they should be kept at a temperature of 35° to 39° F. for the first thirty days and thereafter at a temperature of from 28° to 29° F. until used. Meats cured with this formula will be found to have a very good color and flavor and at the same time will not be too salty. In putting the meat in packages, pack 215 pounds green weight per barrel.

Smoking.

—The smoking of beef hams is treated in the chapter on the Smoke House.

Tests.

—The following are three smoking tests on regular beef hams, given to illustrate yields in the finished product from a sample lot of each cut:

Glass Jar Beef.

—A great deal of dried beef is put up in glass jars under a vacuum, as well as in tin cans. Beef handled in this manner is cured by formulas given, but in smoking it is handled somewhat differently, being smoked less and dried more, it being necessary to have all the pickle and moisture evaporated from the meats to insure keeping.

After the meat has been handled as described it is generally put in smoke houses equipped with steam coils, the heat brought up to 110° to 120° F., and left to dry from three to four days. It then shows a shrinkage anywhere from 35 to 42 per cent. It is necessary to dry beef in this manner in order to make it keep satisfactorily when put in cans.

The following test will show the shrinkage of this product when smoked in the manner described above for canning purposes:

SHRINKAGE OF SMOKED DRIED BEEF HAMS.

Beef Trimmings.

—In the slaughtering of live stock in large numbers there is an accumulation of trimmings which has to be cured for the sausage room or canning department, as the case may be. The following formula will serve for the curing of beef, pork and sheep cheek meat and hearts, hanging tenderloins and other meats for sausage and canning purposes:

To 1,100 gallons of seventy-degree pickle dissolve seventy-nine pounds saltpetre. Use this pickle for the curing of beef cheek meat, pig snouts, pork cheek meat, sheep cheek meat, ox-lips, beef hearts, etc. This material is usually cured in vats and should be overhauled in five, fifteen and thirty days after being packed. If freezer space is available it is preferable to box it in convenient sizes and to freeze it, using it as a fresh product, when thawed.

Barreled Beef.

—Barreled beef, graded as described, in a previous chapter, is usually packed in barrels, using a plain pickle fully saturated. It is cured in the packages with a pickle of the following formula, for plate beef, rump butts, briskets, clods, and all trimmings of a similar character:

To 1,500 gallons of 100-degree strength pickle add ninety-eight pounds of saltpetre. It will be found necessary to dissolve the saltpetre before putting it into the pickle. Store in a cellar at 38° F. temperature. Repack with capping salt at time of shipment if for long exposure.

Tripe.

—Tripe is an article for which there is a large demand in the eastern states, comparatively little of it being consumed in other states, while there is not a very great foreign demand. It is made from the stomachs of cattle and is a very wholesome and nutritious dish. It is also being used extensively in sausage.

Cleaning Tripe.

—The stomach after being made empty is thoroughly washed in such a manner or with such devices as to permit of removing all manure from the inside surface. After it is thoroughly washed, put into a kettle, or vat, scalded, the temperature of the water being from 140° to 160° F. After a few minutes immersion the inside lining of the stomach may be easily removed. When sufficiently scalded it is scraped, leaving a clean, white surface. After scraping it is put into a vat and boiled for about three hours, or until it is tender. It is then put into cold water and chilled, the fat from the seams is removed and the “finishing process” begins, first scraping off all the loose fat with a sharp scraper and then removing a membrane on the outside of the stomach, which, when worked carefully, comes off, leaving the “tripe” perfectly clean and free of any fat, etc.,—the tripe being the muscular part of the stomach.

Pickling.

—It should first be put into a 45-grain vinegar pickle for ten to fifteen hours. After it has been submitted to the first pickling it is ready to be put into barrels and the vinegar in which it was first pickled should be strengthened with full-strength vinegar, making it again 45-grain, when it is packed in barrels and should be held in a temperature of from 45° to 50° F.

There is a remarkable gain in tripe if properly handled. A barrel of tripe packed at 135 pounds, at the end of three weeks, will weigh out 200 pounds and sometimes as high as 215 pounds. The tripe absorbs the vinegar, and it is essential in storing tripe that it be kept at a temperature so this absorption can take place, if it is kept in too cool a temperature it will not take up the vinegar as it should, consequently the gain will not be found when the package is opened.

The following test will show the gain in a barrel of honey-comb and a barrel of plain tripe, one barrel of each being packed in 45-degree vinegar and one barrel of each in 60-degree vinegar.

TEST PACKING TRIPE HOT DIRECT FROM FINISHING TABLE.

Cost of Production.

—The expense of saving tripe is shown in the following table illustrating the cost of 100 tripe, including packages and vinegar: