Thawing Meat.

Manawatu Herald, 27 February 1897, Page 2

Thawing Meat.

Last Friday a trial of Furlong's patent meat thawing process was! made at Waitara. The process may be briefly described as thawing produce in vacuum. A circular iron case 6ft high and 4ft across is exhausted of air by a steam pump, the theory being that in extracting the air all moisture is also extracted, thus preventing any dew settling upon the meat during thawing and avoiding the objectionable " weep ing " or running. After a partial vacuum has been obtained heat is applied unlit the temperature inside the case is raised to 75 degrees. Quarters of beef take 48 hours to thaw by this process, and mutton ta'ces about 12 hours. A hindquarter^ of beef which had been removed from the cold chamber and put in the thawing case on the Wednesday preceding was taken out on Friday in the presence of a number of those interested in the frozen meat trade, and though it required six more hours in the case before the thawing would be complete, those parts which were thawed (according to an account given in the Hawera Star) looked perfect, and were generally admitted to bear the natural colour of freahly-killed meat. When the meat wa9 out up, the undercut of sirloin, which ia usually the first part of frozen meat to " weep " and to lose its succulence, was in a perfect state. One of the advantages claimed for the process is that it can be used almost anywhere— on board ship and on railway trains. Mr 3. S. Young, ot Manaia, who was in the meat trade in Glasgow for some time, is reported by the Star to have said that to some degree he was disappointed with the process, for there was a certain amount of " weeping," though so far as defrosting went the result had been excellent, Mr Macrae said the process, as far as they had been able to test it, promised to be successful ; and Mr Lambie was quite satisfied with the appearance of the meat, so far as. it had been properly thawed. It is proposed to form a company to work the prooeso, and also to teat the process in England.