Some Causes for Sour Hams. — (Copyrighted; Reprint Forbidden.)
Sour Hams are sometimes caused by hanging warm meat in the same room in which the meat is cured. This should never be done. The warm carcasses raise the temperature of the curing room, thus causing the brine to get too warm. Under such conditions the meat is liable to sour in the brine. Furthermore, the brine is liable to absorb the odors from the warm carcasses, which of course is very objectionable.
Many suppose that Hams sour from getting too much smoke, but such is never the cause, as Hams will not sour from over-smoke. Smoke aids to preserve Hams and cannot cause them to sour. When Hams sour in the Smoke House the cause must be traced to the fact that they are not properly and fully cured before going into the Smoke House, and the portion that has not been thoroughly cured, which is generally close to the bone, has not been reached by the brine. In many cases, souring comes from imperfect chilling of meat before putting it into the brine; then again, the meat may not have been overhauled at the proper time and with the frequency which good curing requires.
In order to prevent souring of Hams the various stages of curing must be carried out with the utmost care. In the first place, hogs should not be killed when overheated or excited, and after they have been scalded and scraped, they must be dressed as quickly as possible, washed out thoroughly with clean water and then split and allowed to hang in a well ventilated room until partly cooled off. They should then be run into a cooler or chill room as quickly as possible and the temperature should be reduced to 32 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit. They should be allowed to thus chill for 48 hours. When hogs are properly chilled after curing, the temperature of the inside of the Ham or Shoulder will not be more than several degrees higher than the cooler. After being thoroughly chilled, the Hams must undergo the various processes which will be found in other pages of this book which give directions for the curing of Hams and Shoulders. When these directions are closely followed, there will never be trouble from sour Hams.
There seems to exist some doubt in the minds of butchers as to whether one Ham can be cured to better advantage than another, basing their opinion upon the fact that all packers have two grades of Hams, one of which is called of superior quality. Doubt has been expressed as to whether one piece of meat taken from the hog will make any better pork than that taken from another. This doubt should not obtain and could hardly exist in the minds of anyone who has carefully investigated the modern methods of packing. If such a person were to stand by the side of a Ham trimmer in a packing house and examine each Ham as it comes from the trimmer, he would be at once convinced as to the error of his opinion. There would be noticed a vast difference in the quality of Hams, even in their fresh state. Many Hams are of very coarse grain, especially those that come from boars, stags and old sows, while many other Hams are large and too fat. Those that come from poor, scrawny hogs are too small and thin, and this differentiation exists regardless of the grade or the experience in buying different lots of hogs. Perhaps there is no animal which varies so much in quality and condition of meat as the hog, and he fully represents or reflects the quality of the food from which he is made, or the results of wise or unwise feeding. Furthermore, Hams will vary in quality even after they have been graded; some medium size Hams, which is the size usually picked for the finest cure, are of much better quality than others. This will be readily admitted when it is remembered that a Ham may be of proper weight, but it can also be too fat for its weight, it can be too lean, it can have a coarse thick skin, the meat can be coarse in grain or it may be properly graded as to size, but come from an old, worn-out sow. Under such circumstances, it is not only necessary to cull the Hams, but to recull them, until the different grades are divided as to quality.
A fourteen to sixteen pound Ham from a young barrow with a fine, thin, white skin which is not too fat or not too lean, and possessing a nice, fine grained meat is fully up to grade and is taken for the superior quality of Hams. Therefore, a Ham of this description is superior in quality even before it goes into the brine for curing, and it is very easy to understand that when such a quality of Ham is carefully cured, for just the proper length of time, it will be far better than the ordinary run of Hams. Furthermore, the quality of the Hams may be deteriorated in many ways. For instance, the fourteen to sixteen pound Ham is fully cured in from sixty to seventy days, but if a packer has put up a large quantity of better grade Hams which gives him a surplus, he will hold them in the brine from ten to twenty days longer after they have been fully cured, and if they are thus kept in the brine for this additional period, they may become too salty and their fine flavor is lost. Under such circumstances the Hams must be taken out of the brine and smoked, or must be stored in a low temperature for ten or twenty days longer, but the moment they are kept beyond the full curing time they are not as good as when taken out of the cure at the moment they are fully cured. Furthermore, if a large quantity of the superior quality of Hams have been smoked and they are not disposed of rapidly enough, they begin to lose in appearance, and must again be culled and sold with the cheaper grade of Hams. If they are kept in brine longer than is necessary, they must also go into the cheaper quality.
It is, therefore, plain to be seen that what is known as the superior quality is the best Ham that the packer can turn out. As stated, the Hams are superior before they are cured. They are properly kept all through the process of curing, and the moment they are fully cured they are taken out, smoked and sold. It is only by handling Hams in this manner that it is possible to maintain a grade of superior quality. All Hams cannot be handled in this way, owing to the fluctuation of supply and demand, but the packer aims to keep them fully up to superior grade by a frequent and discriminating culling. This should convince anyone in doubt upon this question that they are erroneous in supposing that all hams are alike, and that all hog meat is high grade pork, when, in fact, it has various grades of quality.
It sometimes happens that butchers leave their Hams in brine too long and they become pickle-soaked. Once in this pickle-soaked condition, it is well known that it is a very difficult matter to smoke the Hams, because, even though they are sweet when they go into the Smoke House, they will come out sour. Hams should not be left in brine over ninety days, and at the very outside not more than one hundred days, unless they are put into a freezer and kept at a temperature of 28 degrees, at which they can be kept as long as desired. But it is frequently the case that they are left in pickle five or six months in an ordinary cooler. Hams thus over-pickled cannot fail to cause trouble in the Smoke House, and we would advise that all Hams that have been left in the brine for such a long time should be washed off in warm water after first letting them soak in cold water 2 to 4 hours. They should then be hung up to dry and kept in a well ventilated room where the temperature is not too high. A room in which the circulation of air is good and which can be well ventilated by opening the windows and doors, and which does not rise in temperature above 60 to 70 degrees, would answer the purpose for drying out. It will do no harm to let the Hams hang two or three weeks before smoking. They can then be put in the Smoke House and smoked gently, using as little heat as possible. For the purpose of this light smoking, it is best to use sawdust instead of wood, or mostly sawdust, and a small amount of wood, in order to reduce the heat. The Smoke House should also be constructed in such a way that it can be sufficiently ventilated to let cool air into it and thus make sure of a cool smoke. If Hams are smoked under such conditions, they should come out of the Smoke House without souring.
The souring of pickle-soaked Hams is due to the brine fermenting in the Hams when they are placed in the warm Smoke House. Hence the advisability of drying out the Hams well before placing them in the Smoke House, and of smoking them in a cool smoke. When Meat has been in brine a very long time and has become pickle-soaked, and is afterward soaked in cold water, the greatest of care must be taken not to keep it in cold fresh water too long, otherwise the meat will absorb more moisture. It is also a good plan to soak Meat that has been in brine 60, 70 or 80 days in cold water. When Hams are fully cured, the strength of the brine may be reduced somewhat, after which the Hams may be permitted to remain in the brine about 30 days longer. Hams are fully cured in 70 days, and may be allowed to remain in a weaker brine 30 days longer, but no longer. After 30 days they must be taken out of this reduced brine, and, if it is so desired, they may be kept in a low temperature two or three weeks longer before smoking, but at the end of that time they must be smoked.
As is well known, Butchers experience a great deal of trouble when they use second-hand lard tierces for curing meats, owing to the fact that the lard soaks into the pores of the wood, where it becomes tainted and rancid. No amount of washing or scalding will thoroughly cleanse such tierces or make them as good as new. The lard is run into the tierces while it is hot and the fat naturally soaks very deeply into the wood. After these tierces are emptied and are used for curing purposes, the old lard remains in the pores and becomes rancid and contaminates the brine and also the meat.
It is a fact that many Butchers use old lard tierces for curing purposes and neglect to thoroughly clean them; and even if they have been well cleaned, it is well known that, notwithstanding every precaution taken, there is still left in the tierces a taint which affects the flavor of the meat.
We strongly recommend our friends to use only Pure Spices for three very good and sufficient reasons. First, for flavor; second, for uniformity, which will insure your sausage always being the same in flavor; third, for economy, as pure spices are cheapest in the final analysis.
Then again, the Pure Food Laws should not be over-looked. In States where the use of cereal in sausage is forbidden, the one safe-guard against prosecution is to use absolutely Pure Spices and avoid so-called sausage seasonings which contain cereals as an adulterant. In our laboratory we have repeatedly found cases where as much as 50% bread crumbs were mixed into spice to cheapen it. The bread crumbs mixed with the seasoning into the sausage meat would be detected by the chemists and microscopists of the various State Pure Food Departments, making the butcher who used such seasonings liable to prosecution for adding adulterants to his sausage.
If you will bear in mind that spices are of value only to the extent that they contain the flavoring principle of the particular Spice, you will readily understand that buying adulterated Spices is just throwing so much money away. For instance, in the case of White Pepper, there is an Oil of Pepper and certain resins. Presuming that you do pay the legitimate wholesale price for the sausage seasoning which contains only the best Singapore White Pepper and do have to pay a few cents a pound more than for one which is diluted down with 50% bread crumbs, the pure and unadulterated Spice is by far the cheapest in the end. You are also assured of always obtaining a uniform flavor in the finished sausage meat.
There is probably no other material in use by the butcher that is as liable to adulteration as Spice. To the average user the adulteration is very difficult to detect, because the aroma of the Spice is there and the adulterant is so cunningly ground and mixed in with the Pure Spice that, to the naked eye, it looks like the genuine article. But once the chemist or the microscopist secures a sample of these adulterated goods one glance through the microscope and a simple test for starch, which comes from the added cereal present, is sufficient. These adulterations not only occur in the largest used Spice like Pepper, but many of the other higher priced Spices like Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Mace, Allspice, Ginger, etc., are equally the subject of adulteration at the hands of unscrupulous manufacturers and jobbers whose only object is to undersell the legitimate importer and grinder of real 100% Spice.
This illustration will give some idea of how a temporary smoke house can be rigged up with very little trouble, which will answer the purpose nicely.
Very often it becomes necessary for a butcher to re-smoke some bologna that has been shipped to him from a packer, and it is sometimes necessary to re-smoke Hams and Bacon. Also, a butcher will often want to cure a small quantity of meat and would like to smoke it.
When butchers who are not equipped with a smoke house have to do this, they may be at a loss to know what to do.
Take a clean sugar barrel and knock out the bottom; then set the barrel on top of a box about four feet long, one or two feet high and as wide as the barrel. If a box of this shape cannot be obtained, a large dry goods box will answer. Bore auger holes through the box under the barrel, to let the smoke through. Get a large piece of tin, galvanized iron or sheet iron, about one foot wide and 2 feet long and bend it into the shape of a pan, or take an old roasting pan. Dig a hole in the ground at the front end of the box, so fire can be put onto this piece of tin, sheet iron or pan and then placed under the box with the fire on it. After the fire is placed under the box, place a board over the hole. All crevices must be banked with dirt around the box, to keep the smoke in.
The meats to be smoked should be hung on sticks with long strings on them, so as to let them down to about the middle of the barrel. Cover the barrel up with a gunny sack, so as to let a draft pass through and still retain the smoke in the barrel.
This makes a first class temporary smoke house with very little trouble and expense.
All kinds of pickled meat after it is fully cured, if stored in a cooler in which the temperature is kept down to 28 degrees can be kept in this cooler for a year, or even longer, and when removed will come out similar to fresh cured meat. During the time when Hams and other meats are low in price, they can be stored in a freezer, and kept there until such a time as they are in greatest demand and will sell at the highest price. This enables the packer to reap a larger profit. At a temperature of 28 degrees, the meat will not freeze after it is cured, and the brine of course does not freeze, as salt water will not freeze, at that temperature. When meat is taken out of such cold storage to be smoked, it should first be soaked for three to five hours in fresh water, then washed in boiling hot water and smoked the same as regular fresh cured meat.
Hams, Shoulders, Bacon and all cured meats whether dry salted or cured in brine, should be washed in hot water and scrubbed with a brush before being put into the smoke house. This is very important, as the meat thus scrubbed will come out of the smoke looking much better. The water should be as hot as the men can work with. The hotter the water, the better the meat will look after being smoked.