Page:Foods and their adulteration; origin, manufacture, and composition of food products; description of common adulterations, food standards, and national food laws and regulations (IA foodstheiradulte02wile).pdf/69

 especially beef, improves for a certain length of time in cold storage. It is probable that the fresh beef which is served to the people of the United States is on an average a month old, and is said to be improved by keeping this length of time. This is a question, however, which is still undetermined, and it deserves a further investigation. Under present conditions it is well to know the truth respecting these matters and to realize that the fresh meat we get, such as beef and mutton, is not direct from the shambles but has been kept for at least four weeks in cold storage.

Effect of Long Cold Storage.—It has been stated in semi-scientific publications that the flesh of a mammoth incrusted in polar ice and presumably thousands of years old has been found to be intact and edible. This story, lacking corroboration, is hardly in harmony with known facts. The author had the opportunity of examining a quarter of beef which had been kept frozen in a warehouse for more than eleven years. This meat was found to be wholly inedible. It had an unpleasant and mummy-like odor, was light in fiber and color, having evidently lost a large part of its weight, and was of a character wholly unsuitable for consumption. This fact appears to show that eleven years is too long a time in which to keep meat frozen. In fact, it is scarcely worth while, from a practical point of view, to discuss so long a limit. Only the necessary time for the preparation and transportation of the meat is to be considered, and the sanitary laws of the nation, states, and municipalities should undoubtedly regulate the time of cold storage and see that all packages of meat exposed for sale are plainly tagged as to the date of slaughter, in order that the consumer may know.

In the consideration of the subject of preserved meats there are excluded all meats delivered in the fresh state for consumption and meats kept in cold storage in a fresh state during the necessary time of preparation and transportation say, on the whole, from four to eight weeks. Meats kept longer than this may generally be considered as preserved meats, even when cold is the only factor active in their preservation.

Method of Preserving Meats.—Aside from cold storage there are four methods in vogue for preserving meats. These may be classified as follows: (1) Curing with the aid of condimental substances; (2) treatment with chemical and non-condimental preservatives; (3) sterilization with heat; (4) drying. these all except the second may be regarded as legitimate means of preserving meats.

Curing with Condimental Substances.—This method of preserving meat has been practiced from the remotest antiquity. The chief condimental substances employed are salt, sugar, vinegar, and wood smoke. With the proper technical skill and knowledge of the process, meats can be preserved in this way, and at the same time aromas and flavors developed which are considered most agreeable by the consumer and which give an additional value to the