Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1876 — Use of Salt in Packing Meats. [ARTICLE]

Use of Salt in Packing Meats.

The Mamachv.iet.te Ploughman publishes the fbllowing interesting and valuable facts about the uses of salt and the kinds t>f salt to use in packing meatot— - - The meat-packer does not aim at a mere preservation of his beef and pork—his main object will always be to secure the keeping of his meat in the most palatable condition and as much as passible of its natural color, Chloride of sodium, or what means here about the same, a good commercial salt, answers both ends satisfactorily if properly applied. It does not necessarily change the color of the meat, nor does it affect its tenderness beyond reasonablelimits. It is also a good antiseptic, for it prevents, if present in a sufficient quantity, the development of organisms of a lower order, which in their growth, as a natural consequence, will hasten the disintegration of the meat mass, and thus its final putrefaction.

Practice recommends the use of the coarse and hard qualities of salt for meat packing for the following reasons: They dissolve gradually and contract the meat by degrees to a desirable compactness; they keep the salt pickle within a certain moderate concentration; they cannot enter mechanically into the meat and thus overcharge it, and may therefore be applied in a sufficient excess so as to compensate for the loss of pickle by leakage, etc., without endangering the tenderness and the flavor too prematurely. The common fine salt answers for a short period of keeping very well, and is consequently used in the packing of meat for immediate family consumption. Fifty to fifty-six pounds of coarse salt are usually taken from the salting down of one barrel of meat; the bottom and top of the barrel are always carefully covered with a layer of coarse salt. The coarse qualities of salt which are used in our country are either manufactured from brines or from sea water. The purer the salt the nicer is the flavor of the meat. A salt which contains large quantities of foreign saline admixtures, particularly of chloride of calcium and of chloride of magnesium, imparts a pungent and disagreeable taste, ana injures also the color of the meat.