SMOKING HAMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1310, 9 August 1886, Page 2

SMOKING HAMS.

- ♦- The keeping qualities of smoked meat (says Professor Nessler) do not upon the amount of smoking, bat upon the nn’form and proper drying of the e meat. Smoke of high temperature, mola--1 tare, and the condensation of water upon a the meat are all Injurious to smoking i meat. With hot dry smoke the surface • is dried too rapidly; a crust filled with I cracks Is formed, the fat may partially I liquify, and the drying of the interior of i the meat 'may be hindered. Bacon Is often met with that is brown to the , depth of an Inch or more, simply because ■ it was too warm, or at times sweating

. either daring the smoking or the subsequent storing. It Is doubtless of cou- > siderable advantage to roll the meat on its removal from the salt, previous to smoking, in sawdust or brain, or to strew it with either of them, since the crust formed in stroking will not be so thick, and if moisture condenses upon the meat (sweating), it remains in the bran or sawdust, and the brown coloring matter of the smoke will not penetrate the meat. The bran, etc can easily be removed before using the meat Warmth of itself is not regarded as injurious to smoked meat if moisture is absent and the air la not too conGned. In some countries smoked meat ia kept in the shade of trees., in an airy place, rather thin in cellars, although the latter are much cooler, because at the same time they are much damper. If a cellar is'not dry, smoked meat will toon mould in It, even if povared with sawdust, ashes, charcoal, eta A warm room is also preferable for the preservation of amoked msat to such rp are liable to great variations if temperature, since ia the latter moisture Is . liable to condense upon It. By far the best place, in moat olases, for keeping smoked mast ia a suitable smoke honse; In which ilt remains dry without drying out entirely, as it does when hung in a chimney, which If often practised,