Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 1065, 11 July 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. TUESDAY, JULY 11, 1871.

THE PRESERVATION OF MEAT, &c, BY A NEW PROCESS. The Daily Southern Cross, of the sth inst., contains an article on the preservation of meat—a subject of great interest and importance to our settlers at the present time. After quoting Mr Wentworth Scott, who has shown that " to be well and rationally fed," Great Btitain would require "an addition to her meat supplies of fully 3 554,300,000 pounds [or nearly 1,582,277 tons] annually," the writer refers to former processes, and describes one which promises to be more successful than any yet tried. He savs : " The desideratum sought has been a cheap and sure way of preserving the raw meat in quarters sufficiently long to enable it to reach the British con aumer before it is tainted, and. the method of preservation ro be sure that no disagreeable flavor would be imparted to the meat. By this means the British cooks would be left at as much freedom to choose their own method of cooking the preserved food as they would be with a piece of lecently killed meat bought out of the shops at their ovn doors. Messrs. Medlock and Bailey, London, seem to have been highly successful in their experiments to produce such a desideratum. They have patented their process, but we do not think they have extended their patent rights to this colony. They employ chiefly two liquids, called "Solution No. 1" and " Solution No. 2." No. 1 is a so lution of bisulphite of lime (chemical formula 0a0,250 2 ), in water of sp. gr. 1 050, which is found to be better than sp. gr. 1-070. No. 2 solution is prepared by dissolving from one to two parts by weight of the ordinary com mercial gelatine in ten parts of boiling water, also by weight, and thereafter adding ten parts of solution No. 1. Meat or joints intended to be preserved are dipped in solution No. 2, or the meat may receive several coatings of it with a soft brush. Each dipping or coating has to be allowed to dry before the next is applied. The vessel in which the meat is then to be packed is saturated inside with solution No. 1, if the meat is to be preserved dry. Lately, meat preserved by this process has been sent to the London market from the Argentine Republic, South America. We have seen accounts of two consignments; and in both instances the meat, when cooked in London, was found excellent, 'perfectly fresh and sweet in taste, devoid of all chemical smell or flavour.' The first consignment was killed on the 20th May, at Bosario, and eaten in London on the 16th Oct, or 113 days after being killed; the second was killed at the same place on the 10th. August, and eaten in London on the 7th December, or after a lapse of 119 days. In both instances, the meat was equal to that lately killed, and both consignments were prepared in the same manner. The meat after being killed was immersed in solution No. 2 for twenty minutes, and then barrelled up in fat. An extract of meat has also been prepared horn it, and has been found to be free from the peculiar tang w}}i c h Webig's extract possesses. Tt is generally believed that the problem of bringing unlimited supplies of animal food to the British market from distant lands has been solved; our stockowners may, therefore, take courage, seeing that e\en far distant New Zealand meat could easily be landed in Britain in less than either 119 or 113 days. Messrs. Medlock and Bailey's specifications detail the process ot pre-

serving game, poultry, fish, &c, upon the same principle. Fish, after being deprived of the gills and viscera, and washed from all .offensive matter, are preserved for an Indefinite tjme by being packed in a solution of 'No;4,' made by mixing ten parts of cold water with one pai T t of salt and one part of solution No, 1. The casks are filled up with the solution, closed up, and are then ready for exportation. .-.Solution No. 2 has. always to be used warm to make it liquid. Hides are also preserved in the same manner. Should the meat become whitened by any of the solutions being used too strong, no harm is done; it has simply.to be immersed a short time in water mixed vith a little vinegar or lemon juice, when the proper color will be at once restored. It is hard to say to what extent this process may now be employed when such a large market has to be provided with animal food.