lo March, 19^2.] 



T he Pig / ii(ii(str i 



165 



senting a very black and shrivelled appearance. Th's Imrning is a great 

 advantage to Wiltshire bacon, giving the bacon a peculiar piquant flavour. 

 The fat under the skin becomes momentarily melted, and subsequently 

 t>ecomes firmer than it would be otherwise. 



After leaving the singeing furnace, the carcases are thrown into a 

 •cold water bath, cooled, and the sinews of the hind feet exposed, whilst 

 a gambrel is inserted to spread the hind feet apart. By the gambrel 

 the carcases are hoisted to the track bar, where they are scraped quite 

 clean and washed. The intestinal and general offal are removed and 

 taken to a separate apartment to be sorted for various u.ses. The flake 



lard is always left 

 with carcases and is 

 weighed in together 

 with head and feet. 

 This forms the dead 

 jveigJit, which is 

 sometimes taken 



while the carcase is 

 v/arm, and some- 

 times when cold. 

 The difference al- 

 lowed between 

 warm and cool 

 weight is 4 lbs. 

 ( 'ooling in the open 

 air usually occupies 

 about 6 hours. 

 After weighing, the 

 carcase is split up 

 into sides, the head 

 and fore feet 

 severed, and the 

 lard removed. The 

 head and feet are 

 chilled and put into 

 pickle to be cured. 



Curing. — The 

 sides are pushed 

 into the hanging 

 house, in case they 

 have not alreadv 

 been allowed to 

 hang, after which 

 they are pushed 

 along the track bar into the chill room, where they are kept at a temperature 

 of 38 deg. F. until, on inserting a meat thermometer into the gammon 

 end, it registers 40 deg. F. On the average, it takes t^G hours to reach 

 this degree of coolness. When it has been attained, the sides are taken 

 into the curing cellar, where finally they are trimmed and at once pumped 

 with a recognised pickle in fourteen different places. They are then 

 laid on the cellar floor and stacked in tiers ten sides deep. The cellaf 

 is kept at a temperature of about 42 deg. F. Each side is covered over, 

 first of all, with, an equal mixture of curing antiseptic and saltpetre, in 



DISEMBOWELLING DEPARTMENT. 



