672 PUTREFACTION 



dissipate the soluble animal-matters, very little of it should be used, just enough for 

 the meat to be immersed by portions in succession, whereby it will speedily become 

 a rich soup, fresh water being added only as evaporation takes place. It is advan- 

 tageous to add a little salt, and some spices, especially coriander-seed, to the water. 

 After the parboiling of the flesh has been completed, the soup should be evaporated 

 to a gelatinous consistence, in order to fit it for forming a varnish to the meat after it 

 is dried, which may be completely effected within two days in the oven. By this 

 process two-thirds of the weight is lost. The perfectly dry flesh must be plunged, 

 piece by piece, in the fatty gelatinous matter liquefied by a gentle heat ; then placed 

 once more in the stove, to dry the layer of varnish. This operation may be repeated 

 two or three times, in order to render the coat sufficiently uniform and thick. Butchers' 

 meat dried in this way keeps for a year, affords, when cooked, a dish similar to that 

 of fresh meat, and is therefore much preferable to salted provisions. The drying 

 may be facilitated, so that larger lumps of flesh may be used, if they be imbued with 

 some common salt immediately after the parboiling process, by stratifying them with 

 salt, and leaving them in a proper pickling tub for 12 hours before they are trans- 

 ferred to the stove. The first method, however, affords the more agreeable article. 



Baron Cha. Wetterstedt enclosed meat in corn- or potato-flour, then dried it on shelves 

 at 120 F. Graefer, in 1780, parboiled and then dried. Some have proposed to hang 

 the substances up and to allow no air to approach without passing it first through 

 chloride of calcium to dry it. Milk was formerly preserved by drying to a powder. 



Smoking. This process consists in exposing meat previously salted, or merely 

 rubbed over with salt, to wood-smoke in an apartment so distant from the firo as not 

 to be unduly heated by it, and into which the smoke is admitted by flues at the bottom 

 of the side walls. Here the meat combines with the empyreumatic acid of the smoke, 

 and gets dried at the same time. The quality of the wood has an influence upon the 

 smell and taste of the smoke-dried meat ; smoke from beech wood and oak being 

 preferable to that from fir and larch. Smoke from the twigs and berries of juniper, 

 from rosemary, peppermint, &c., imparts somewhat of the aromatic flavour of these 

 plants. A slow smoking with a slender fire is preferable to a rapid and powerful 

 one, as it allows the empyreumatic principles time to penetrate into the interior sub- 

 stance, without drying the outside too much. To prevent soot from attaching itself 

 to the provisions, they may be wrapped in cloth, or rubbed over with bran, which 

 may be easily removed at the end of the operation. 



The process of smoking depends upon the action of the wood-acid, or the 

 creasote volatilised with it, which operates upon the flesh. The same change may be 

 produced in a much shorter time by immersing the meat for a few hours in pyrolig- 

 neous acid, then hanging it out in a dry air, which, though moderately warm, makes 

 it fit for keeping, without any taint of putrescence. After a few days' exposure, it 

 loses the empyreumatic smell, and then resembles thoroughly-smoked provisions. 

 The meat dried in this way is in general somewhat harder than by the application of 

 smoke, and therefore softens less when cooked, a difference to be ascribed to the more 

 sudden and concentrated operation of the wood vinegar, which effects in a few hours 

 what would require smoking for several weeks. 



Salting. The meat should be rubbed well with common salt, containing about one- 

 sixteenth of saltpetre, and one thirty-secondth of sugar, till every crevice has been 

 impregnated with it ; then sprinkled over with salt, laid down for 24 or 48 hours, and, 

 lastly, subjected to pressure. It must next be sprinkled anew with salt, packed into 

 proper vessels, and covered with the brine obtained in the act of pressing, rendered 

 stronger by boiling down. For household purposes it is sufficient to rub the meat 

 well with good salt, to put it into vessels, and load it with heavy weights, in order to 

 squeeze out as much pickle as will cover its surface. If this cannot be had, a pickle 

 must be poured on it, composed of 4 pounds of salt, 1 pound of sugar, and 2 ozs. of 

 saltpetre dissolved in 2 gallons of water. 



Mr. Fitch patented the use of a liquid containing 2 cwts. of common salt to the pro- 

 duct of distillation of 2 cwts. of wood, adding sugar, treacle, and saltpetre. Some 

 people drive the salt in by force of pressure, some by centrifugal motion. 



Milk has been preserved by the use of carbonate of soda, preventing acidity. Alum 

 has been patented, for shellfish especially. See MILK, CONDENSED. 



. Masson injects the veins and arteries of carcases with a solution containing 10} 

 oz. of common salt and 3J of nitre in 2J pints of water. D. E. Long injects anti- 

 putrescent and flavouring substances, such as salt, saltpetre, spices, and vinegar. J. 

 Murdoch injected chloride of aluminium, a very powerful agent, common salt, and nitre. 

 Brooman communicated a proposal to use, first, sulphurous gas, and then coat thick 

 with a substance keeping out the air. Chloride of lime has also been used in 

 chambers holding meat, and sulphur has been burnt and nitrous gas has been evolved 

 in similar places. 



