THE MEAT-FREEZING TRADE.

Patea Mail, 5 July 1881, Page 4

THE MEAT-FREEZING TRADE.

An Australian contemporary says if Australian meat is to compete in England with beef and mutton of home production, it must not only be good in substance and flavour, but it must present an appetising appearance, whether raw or cooked. That it does not do so now seems clear enough. The problem is how to preserve the meat without spoiling its appearance when it comes under the hands of the cook. It may be that under the processes now employed freezing takes place too rapidly. When meat becomes frozen in consequence of the action of the weather, it appears to undergo no destructive change. In many parts of the United States and Canada, the Daily Telegraph observes, “joints of meat and fish are hung up or kept for months in the arctic temperature of winter, and made use of when necessity demands. But it is asserted that meat frozen to this .extent by nature, and meat similarly frozen by art, differ in their appearance when thawed. In the latter case the flesh, being very dark-coloured, has a very uninviting appearance, which renders it objectionable to the cooks who have to dress it. Such is not the case with the meat frozen naturally by the North American climate in winter, as can be testified by thousands of Englishmen who have partaken of it.” These facts may perhaps suggest modifications of the freezing process by which the detect complained of may be avoided. It is pointed out that if meat could be conveyed to England at a temperature slightly above freezing point it wonld arrive in perfect condition, but on the other hand there seems to be much greater difficulty in keeping up a moderately low temperature in the refrigerating chamber than in establishing a degree of cold under which meat is frozen hard. The freezing process, at all events, is safe and sure, and it cannot be given up in favour of any untried plan. Whatever, therefore, may be done in the future, meat exporters should direct their attention now to the preliminary stages of the freezing process, and endeavour to ascertain by practical experiment whether it is possible by any variation in the mode of treatment to bring about a more satisfactory result.