CHAPTER XXIV.SMOKE HOUSE
Smoking Meats — Nomenclature — Soaking — Smoking — Gas Smoking — Temperatures — Treatment After Smoking — Trolley System — Canvased Meats — Shrinkage — Wrapping — White Wash — Dried Beef — Packages — Skipper Fly.
Smoking Meats — Nomenclature — Soaking — Smoking — Gas Smoking — Temperatures — Treatment After Smoking — Trolley System — Canvased Meats — Shrinkage — Wrapping — White Wash — Dried Beef — Packages — Skipper Fly.
—The smoking of meats is an ancient method of preserving for future use. In the smoking process which drys the meat and to some extent impregnates it, a preservative result is brought about, and meats which are smoked can be carried for quite a long period of time without becoming unfit for food. Notably a Virginia ham. The old style developed in Virginia was to smoke the ham for a month or six weeks. The ham, dried to about 75 per cent of its original weight and in this form hung in a moderately dry place, would be edible at the end of twelve months.
—The naming of meats has grown up among the trade and it is understood that the prefix, “bacon,” as applied to meats indicated the same to be dry salted, when smoked. Whereas, when used as a suffix it indicates a sweet pickled cure. For example, “Bacon Bellies” means dry salted, smoked bellies; while “Breakfast Bacon” means sweet pickle cured, smoked meats.
—Before meats are placed in the smoke house, they are soaked in fresh water. This is done to remove the surplus salt, making the meat more palatable; and to give it a better appearance. If it is not properly soaked the salt forms a white crust on the surface. Meat over-soaked becomes “water-logged” and often becomes water-sour when exposedto the heat for smoking, also moulds quickly after smoking, hence it is essential that this part of the work receives careful attention.
The best results from soaking are obtained by using soaking water at a temperature of 65° F. A soaking schedule that will be found to give excellent results is as follows:
THE TIME REQUIRED TO SOAK MEATS.
If meats still show salt after smoking change water once, as the fresh water will take up salt rapidly. It will be found better to change water than to soak longer. Mildly cured bacon is washed to remove salt on surface, and not soaked. Thorough washing of all meats with a stiff brush is done before hanging. “Bacon” or dry salted meat is not soaked.
—After the meats are washed and hung in the smoke house, they should be allowed to dry about three hours, or until they stop dripping, for if the smoke is applied while the meats are still dripping, wherever one piece of meat is subjected to the dripping of another, the smoke fails to take effect, giving the meats a striped and discolored appearance. The meat, thoroughly dry, fire should be built in the smoke house with either hickory, maple or oak wood (partially green being preferred) and the temperature brought up from 112° to 118° F., and maintained until the surface of the meat has become thoroughly dried and has a partially glazed appearance. As soon as this effect is noticed, which will be in five to eight hours, hardwood sawdust should be added, which will form a dense, penetrating smoke. At the same time the temperature should be gradually increased in the smoke house, or brought up to from 115° to 120° F.
A pile of sawdust, quantity depending upon the size of the smoke house used, should be raised in the center of the house and a few burning brands of wood laid around it. These will cause the sawdust to ignite and a small fire, producing a great deal of smoke, will result therefrom. If the sawdust is put on a fire already burning much of the sawdustwill go up through the house in the form of a light ash, which is deposited upon the meat, injuring its appearance.
A house of sweet-pickle meats should be smoked for about twenty-four to thirty hours, to get good results, and be allowed to stand for twelve hours with the ventilators open, to give the meat a chance to thoroughly cool off before discharging.
—The growing scarcity and consequent increased cost of wood is forcing many packers to use gas and sawdust for smoking. With this system the use of sawdust and gas is made in combination, the gas being burned by slow delivery through a perforated pipe, and the sawdust banked nearby to burn with a creeping fire. The use of steam coils for heating the house is a valuable assistance particularly if exhaust steam is available for use.
—The following temperatures will be found to give very satisfactory results in smoking and while it will be found impossible to adhere to them absolutely, it is advisable to do so as closely as possible during the smoking period:
It should be the aim to have the house at a temperature of 118° F. after twelve hours, and it should be held at that if possible. Meats thus handled will be found to have a light amber color which indicates a light smoke, whereas a dark amber would indicate a heavy smoke. The color of the meats should be regulated by the requirements of the trade. Lighter meats, such as fancy bacon, should be hung on the upper floors with the hams nearer the fire.
—When meats are finished smoking the fire should be put out, the house opened up, giving it a free circulation of air, and the meats allowed to thoroughly dry and cool before being removed. Smoked meats should be handled as little as possible, for every time they are handled or piled on trucks, it detracts from their appearance. They become greasy and soon lose their bright, attractive appearance. After being cooled, the meat should not be handled until inspectedand packed for shipment, thereby preserving a very desirable appearance, as well as reducing the cost of labor in operation.
—Originally meats were hung from nails in beams or from cross sticks suspended from beams, the smoke house being an open shaft. Many devices have been originated for saving time in taking meats in and out of smoke, and various forms of racks operated on overhead rails have been devised. Some sort of arrangement of this kind is a necessity.
A trolley storage space is usually arranged near to the packing space and meats packed direct from the trolley. It is usual to make a complete inspection out of smoke and pass the hams to the storage trolley, graded, wiped and ready for packing.
—Canvased meats are usually sold on packed weight, cloth included. The gain in weight usually pays for all cost involved and somewhat better, as the test below indicates:
CANVASING 1,031 HAMS.
It will be noted from the previous test that there was a gain of 936 pounds in canvasing these hams, at a cost of $5.09 per 100 pounds. As hams always sell at a much higher price than this, the difference would represent the profit in this operation.
—Shrinkage of smoked meats is a matter tangible in dollars and cents. Meats for prompt consumption,such as those smoked and distributed from a branch house, can be smoked for less than meats smoked at the parent house for shipment via carload or local freight.
The aim is to smoke out the meat as near green weights as possible, the amount of shrinkage depending largely upon the requirements at points to which meats are to be shipped and the conditions to which they are to be subjected. For instance, hams and shoulders which are to be used for immediate consumption should smoke out 98¹⁄₂ to 100 per cent green weight, whereas meats which are to be held for some length of time after being smoked, or which are intended for a warmer climate, will smoke out from 95 to 97 per cent of the green weight.
Meats, which are to be consumed immediately and not shipped to a warm climate, may carry more moisture and hence show less shrinkage. At the same time they have a much finer and more attractive appearance. This is a matter to which an owner or manager of a smoke house must necessarily give minute and close attention in order to obtain the best results. Perhaps as important a point as any, is when the condition of the meats as to dryness is concerned. Meats should be shipped promptly when in condition and not allowed to remain in the smoke house awaiting disposition.
The following table shows the result of tests on 1,136 pounds of meat hung in smoke house for seven consecutive days, temperature of smoke house about 90° F.
—Fancy meats, now almost entirely distributed in wrappers of paper or cloth, should be well cooled before wrapping. A piece of cheese cloth is wrapped over the butt, and absorptive paper folded next, usually doubled at the butt, with an outer covering of parchment paper. Theneatness and appearance of the package must be considered and naturally the package should be kept clean.
For some trade, meats are sewn in burlap. Others are covered with whitewash solution, or yellow wash. Meats put out in such manner are usually intended for distant shipment and should be harder smoked. Canvassed or white-washed meats are paper wrapped, same as fancy meats, before covering with the outer bag.
—The following recipe can be used for making white-wash:
The glue should be cooked and strained through a piece of cloth before being added to the solution, as there is liable to be more or less sediment in the glue, which should be removed, after which mix with the flour; let stand about twelve hours, then add the barytes, using hot water in mixing. After it is mixed add the blueing.
This material should be put in a tub, held at a temperature of 90° to 100° F., into which the canvassed meats are to be immersed. After being dipped they are hung up over the tub while an attendant rubs his hand over them, taking off the surplus material which has adhered to the package, and at the same time forcing the wash into the openings of the cloth. They should next be brushed over with a heavy paint brush, smoothing off the surface, and then hung in a dry-room to dry. After being allowed to hang for eight to ten hours, until the wash is thoroughly dry and has hardened, they are ready for shipment.
—This is practically the same as white wash, except that a chrome yellow color is used, and the mixture will have a yellow instead of a white shade when finished. Handle same as white wash for meats. A formula for yellow wash is given as follows:
This is used at a temperature of from 90° to 100° F. As all meats canvassed are sold gross weight, the barytes is added to give an additional weight to the meats which are canvassed.
A dry room in which meats can be dried by forced draft from fan is a valuable adjunct for quick deliveries.
—Dried beef is an article which has to be smoked heavier, dried more, than pork hams, and unless the moisture is well evaporated the time it may be kept will be short. An approved method for handling dried beef is as follows:
Steam coils should be placed at the top and also at the bottom of the smoke house. The steam should be turned on until the temperature of house is between 130° and 140° F. After the meat has hung in this temperature about thirty hours, a light fire should be started, by using two or three sticks of wood, and plenty of hard wood sawdust scattered close to the fire, so as to form a dense smoke. It is very essential that dried beef should have a strong smoked flavor. Steam should be kept on the house all the time the beef is being smoked and it will require eighty to ninety hours under these conditions to bring the beef out in the best condition.
Beef can be smoked in a regular house, but it takes much longer and it cannot be handled as satisfactorily as with steam heat in connection with the smoking process.
After the meat is sufficiently smoked the house should be allowed to cool off, and the meat to hang for about twenty-four hours before being handled. It is then ready for packing and shipping. Dried beef thus handled will shrink about 38 to 33 per cent from the cured weight to the smoked weight.
The following test will show the shrinkage on 100 pieces of dried beef hams, also the shrinkage each twenty-four hours after:
SHRINKAGE ON DRIED BEEF.
—The packing of meats for shipment is best done in open type barrels or crates. Fancy meats should not be packed to exceed one hundred pounds per box so as not to injure the shape.
—The skipper, the larvae in the life cycle of a fly is the one pest needing close watching in a smoke house. This fly does not attack either green or salted meats, but will select a piece of pork ham in preference to a beef ham. The fly lays an egg which hatches to a larvae, and this is the disgusting form in which it is the enemy of sweet-smoked meats.
The preventive seems to be such as windows and doors finely screened, regular “gassing” with sulphur fumes and ample light. It is claimed by some that if smoke houses are well lighted, for instance as a show room, the skipper fly will not frequent them since it prefers darkness for the egg laying period.
There is no known chemical agent that can be used without conflicting with pure food laws that will destroy the egg once deposited. A fly lays upward of thirty eggs during the life cycle of about two weeks, consequently it multiplies rapidly.