SUBSTITUTES FOR SUCROSE IN CURING MEATS. 23 



The officials of establishment C conducted a cooking test on the 

 three lots of bacon and reported that the samples were ranked as 

 follows, according to the kind of sugar used in curing : First choice, 

 granulated sugar; second choice, dextrose; third choice, cerelose. 

 The bacon cured with corn sugar had a tendency to char on fry- 

 ing, while that cured with granulated sugar turned yellow. There 

 seemed to be but little difference in flavor. It was considered that 

 the use of corn sugar in place of cane sugar in curing this class of 

 bacon would not yield a satisfactory bacon on account of the ten- 

 dency of the product to turn brown or char on frying. 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF BOX-CURED BACON EXPERIMENTS. 



1. Nine boxes of bacon were cured in three establishments. 



2. The average sugar content of the bacon cured with each of the 

 three sugars was as follows: Granulated sugar, 1.20 per cent; dex- 

 trose, 0.92 per cent ; cerelose, 0.88 per cent. This indicates a slightly 

 greater absorption of granulated sugar than of corn sugar. 



3. No unsound bacon was found in any of the tests. 



4. The evidence as to the relative quality of the bacon cured with 

 granulated sugar, dextrose, and cerelose is conflicting. A summary 

 of the three tests conducted in the laboratory shows that the total 

 number of points scored by each lot of bacon was as follows : Dextrose, 

 64 ; granulated sugar, 55 ; and cerelose, 49. All lots of bacon were 

 considered to be of high quality. On the other hand, the tests con- 

 ducted by officials of establishments A and C indicated a marked 

 preference for the bacon cured with granulated sugar, that cured with 

 dextrose ranking second, and with cerelose third. Objection was 

 made to the bacon cured with corn sugar chiefly because the product 

 browned too readily on frying and charred if cooked too rapidly or 

 too crisp. It was considered that bacon cured with corn sugar by the 

 box method would not be so desirable a product as that cured with 

 granulated sugar. 



The writer is of the opinion, notwithstanding these conflicting 

 views, that the possibility that corn sugars can be used successfully 

 in curing bacon by the box-cure method is not excluded, but that 

 further experiments should be carried on in order to settle the 

 question. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH BEEF HAMS. 



Beef hams are groups of muscles cut from the rounds of cattle. 

 The hams are classed as insides, outsides, and knuckles, according to 

 the part of the round from which they are cut. Beef hams are 

 usually cut from the rounds of poorly finished medium or light- 

 weight cattle. The hams are packed in tierces and cured in a pickle 

 containing salt, sugar, and sodium nitrate. When cured the hams 

 are soaked in water to remove excess salt and are then smoked and 

 dried for several days. The dried-beef hams are finally cut into very 

 thin slices, either at the packing house or in the retail meat shop, 



