LARD 



AND TALLOW 



CALCUTTA TRADE IN LARD 



Two Kinds 

 of Pigs. 



Kendering 

 House. 



Preparation. 



Durability. 



Best Quality 

 (Cooking). 

 Second (Oil). 

 Third (Soap). 



Oil. 

 Ointments. 



Tallow. 



Eendering. 



Soap. 



Candles. 



is communicated by Mr. I. H. Burkill, from information derived from 

 Mr. S. Francis, superintendent of the pig slaughterhouse, Calcutta. 

 Formerly lard was made by three large firms and several small houses, 

 but lard-rendering is now carried on by a few small Native concerns only, 

 and these are situated round the municipal pig slaughterhouse. With the 

 disappearance of large and responsible firms, the quality of the lard has 

 degenerated. The manufacture goes on all the year, but the beginning of the 

 hot weather is the busiest season, because then most pigs are brought in. 

 Two kinds of pig are slaughtered ; one, bred in Calcutta, is called the 

 " China-pig " ; the other, driven in from the villages of Bengal, is called the 

 " country pig." The former is white, the latter black. The animals are 

 slaughtered in the early hours of the morning and lard-rendering begins in 

 the forenoon. The rendering house consists of a small room and a larger 

 godown, where the lard is cooled and stored. The rendering is done in an iron 

 pan about two feet across and eight inches deep, placed over a slow fire. 

 Scraps of fat of all shapes, but none weighing more than three or four ounces, 

 are washed in water for about two hours and then heaped up in the pan to 

 above the level of the rim. When the lard is thoroughly melted it is 

 poured out of the pan through a double thickness of cotton-muslin into 

 an earthenware vessel, where it stands to set. Several times a day during 

 setting it is stirred gently for about half an hour. The time taken in 

 setting varies with the nature of the animal from which the fat has been 

 obtained. Lard from the " China pig " takes about two days to set, that 

 from the " country pig " a much less time, and the lard is of better quality. 

 Lard thus manufactured will keep for about two months only, but formerly 

 for a much longer time a circumstance due apparently to the fact that 

 fat of the freshest and best quality is not always used. 



The best quality of lard is much used in cooking and in preparing 

 ointments, etc., the second in the manufacture of lard oil, the third as a 

 low-grade oil in soap-making. The oil is manufactured by exposing the 

 lard in woollen bags between wickerwork to a pressure of about ten cwt. a 

 square inch in the cold for about eighteen hours. The oleine thus obtained 

 is pure, colourless and limpid. It is employed as an adulterant for olive 

 oil in France, and for sperm oil in the Eastern States of America. It is 

 also esteemed as a lubricant and is used for illuminating. In MEDICINE, 

 lard has long held the principal place as a medium for the exhibition 

 of other substances, as ointments, etc. As an external application it 

 possesses emollient properties, and is extensively employed in external 

 inflammations, bruises, sprains, and in various skin eruptions. 



Tallow, as already stated, is prepared from beef or mutton and goat 

 fat, or a mixture of these. It is a harder and less fusible fat than lard. 

 The rendered tallow is refined by boiling with water ; is often bleached by 

 means of nitric acid, and employed as a lubricant and for soap and candle 

 making. When intended to make moulded tallow-candles, the finest 

 mutton suet can alone be used, but for " dips " the refuse from the moulded 

 candles or the cheapest tallow (a mixture of all animal fats) may be em- 

 ployed. Hoey (Monog. Trade and Manuf. N. Ind., 174) speaks of the candle- 

 makers of Lucknow using charbi (fat), but though he deals most minutely 

 with the industries of that city, he makes no reference to the lard and 

 tallow manufactures. So again, speaking of soap manufactures, he states 

 that charbi (bullock and buffalo fat and lei, either castor or linseed) is 

 employed. 



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