Apparatus to Facilitate Preservation of Food. 



29 



monly been subjected, /. e., 5° C. and room temperature, nor have 

 the lower temperatures made the glass brittle. 



The covered trays hold about 5 50 grams of hashed, expressed, 

 lean meat, or 325 grams of cracker meal.' The freezing of a closed 

 trayful of lean meat is devoid of any appreciable expansive effects. 



This method of food preservation, where the necessary refrigera- 

 tion facilities are at hand, offers the following special advantages : 



The trays are in effect bottles that rest on one side and open on 

 the opposite side. The paraffined muslin cover and the glass lid 

 may be removed together as easily as a stopper may be taken from 

 a bottle. The trays can be filled or emptied easily and quickly. 

 The thick side of the tray furnishes a very stout fulcrum for 

 strong leverage with a heavy knife through frozen food, such as 

 hashed meat. Consequently, frozen food in such a tray may easily 

 be sectioned with a knife into blocks without any risk of breaking 

 the tray. 



The trays are comparatively shallow. Therefore, percolation 

 of liquid in fresh food (such as the juice in hashed meat) before 

 freezing sets in must be very slight, if it occurs at all.^ The influ- 

 ence of such possible percolation on the uniformity of composition 

 of portions removed daily is negligible, especially if the food is used 

 in sections cut from top to bottom. 



The uniformity of the dimensions of the tray makes it easy to 

 mark off very accurately given quantities of any relatively homo- 

 geneous product. Upright partitions, of paraffined card-board 

 for example, may be used between weighed quantities of food, 

 placed side by side, without any danger of admixture or difficulty 

 of removal. 



Since the trays can easily be marked for identification, many dif- 

 ferent dietary mixtures can be systematically preserved at the same 

 time in the apparatus described, and may be used separately with- 

 out confusion. After fresh food has been frozen, trays containing 

 it may safely be kept in an ordinary refrigerator for a day or more, 

 thus increasing the convenience of handling material preserved in 

 this way. 



' The covered trays hold about 575 c.c. of water. 



^ Thus far no visible percolation has occurred, in such trays, in meat previously ex- 

 pressed in an ordinary " tincture press." 



