Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 June 1901 — THE CURING OE MEAT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE CURING OE MEAT.

Colossal Smokehouses at Chicago / Stockyards.

/ Chicago Letter. If China Is partitioned, the Boers conquered and the Filipinos pacified the smoke of battle may blow away, but the smoke that cures meats at the Union) stockyards will continue to wend/Its way out of the big ovens. The pig packing concerns send out to all pbints of the globe an Immense amoubt of this meat. One firm ships approximately 1,000,000 pounds a month. Every one who was born in the Country and every city boy who has/Visited a farm remembers the little ol<Hashloned smokehouse. A grim, suffocating place, where the juvenile adventurer with a-record for destruction found his Waterloo. A few chunks of meat within, attached by stout cord to the roof of the house, and enough holes in the top to allow the smoke to creep slowly out —these the boy remembers. And this was the prototype of “houses” that are used to prepare meat for the world. Smoked for Boron Days, When beef Is brought out of the pickling cellars it is taken to the “soakrooms.” In the one plant there

are 106 hogsheads ready for the meat. The meat is allowed to soak in fresh water until all the salt is out of It. The casks are then emptied, filled once more with fresh water and the meat given another soaking. From the same room Iron doors lead into the brick smokehouses, where the meat Is cured. There are sixteen of these houses. Each has a capacity of 125 barrels of meat There are from twen-ty-two to twenty-six pieces to the barrel. The temperature of the houses when the meat is hung up is 130 degrees. The smoke surges up In great smothering waves from the kilns below. It takes seven days to place a lot of meat in one of the houses, smoke It and get It out

There are three methods of putting up the smoked meat—canning, barreling and burlapping. Most of it is canned. The principal packing firms have large departments devoted to this. The meat Is sliced and packed by girls, seventy-five being employed In each room. An average of 30,000 cans are sent out a day by each firm. Recently the various plants have been experimenting with glass cans. They afford the customer a view of what he buys and In that way command a better price, but they have not as yet

been perfected so that the meat keep 3 as well as In the tin. Demand fur Barreled Meat. A considerable portion of the product Is shipped in barrels. There will always be a demand, for more or less meat put up In this way. The burlapping method of preparing the meat is fast going out of style. “It Is a fading industry,” said one of the superintendents Jto the writer. “The demand for canned goods is carrying everything before it Since I have been with this company the amount put up In this way has shrunk until

there is but a small fraction of the meat sewed up in cloth in comparison with the quanUty that was done up that way five years ago.” It was late in the day and most of the employes had gone. Over In a corner sat a comely young woman finishing her day's work. Her strong hands plied the needle with the practiced skill of many years’ acquirement It was admirable work, but to the trade there was something pathetic about it. Less and less of that skill required with every month—the canning process steadily decreasing the ranks —the stockyards Fenimore Cooper may see his chance and the public may soon be reading “The Last of the Burlappers.” Under the smokehouses are the furnaces, one for each house. The wood burned in them is hickory and maple. They are the same size as the smokerooms. “Twenty years from now,” said the foreman, “that wood will be worth 125 a cord.” Ton* of Bsa<*s* Daily. One concern handles from 20,000 to 30,000 pounds of sausage a day. When

the meat for this division arrives it is weighed and trimmed. Fat and sinews are cut off. It is then poured Into a hopper and ground to a fineness which appears to the visitor sufficient. But this is only beginning. The meat is next subjected to the "rocker” and there seasoned and mixed with the proper percentage of other varieties. These rockers are among the most Interesting machines in Packingtown The sausage stuff Is thoroughly mixed and cut by the time It emerges from the kneading of the long curved knives. After being chilled In a temperature of degrees the sausage comes back to the department and is taken care of by the hand stutters. Next it goes to the drying room. Here the temperature must be kept even. Huge fans help to drive away any dampness which might damage the stock. It Is kept here three or four days. Part of it is tied by strings for export trade. It then goes down to a smokehouse and Is subjected to the curing process for thirty-five hours. Big quantities of sage are used in curing the sausage. The aroma of this plant pervades the canning room. It Is another whiff of the country. It suggests the landscape about the oldfashioned smokehouse.

MEAT BEING CUT FOR SAUSAGES.

CASING MEAT IN BURLAP.