TAINT IN HAMS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XX, Issue 19, 6 January 1930, Page 5

TAINT IN HAMS

TROUBLE SCIENTIFICALLY INVESTIGATED. OLD-FASHIONED METHODS GOOD. There have been numerous complaints that New Zealand cured ham and bacon has neither the flavour nor the keeping quality of the English article. Mr. C. R. Barnicoat, of the Dominion Laboratory, in an interesting article in “The New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology” gives details of the result of ‘ a scientific investigation into the matter. Standard cuts were obtained from various hams and analysed. “The New Zealand article,” he says, “tends to display unevenness in its cure. Concentration of'salt is apparent in the outer layers, whereas the inner layers are usually insufficiently salted. It is, cf course, in the region round the bone that taint frequently appears. “The New Zealand product is similar to the Danish mild cure, and contains a high percentage of moisture with a comparative low quantity of salt.” Investigation, however, it is explained in fairness to the New Zealand article, also shows that unevenness of curing also obtains in the Danish hams examined. “It is well to remember,” he states in this connection, “that the manufacturers guarantee this article for only fourteen days.” In comparing the various methods of curing hams, Mr. Barnicoat says that “the American dry-salt cure, in which the goods are cured in the oldfashioned way—by packing in boxes with salt for a lengthy period (even up to three months) —produces an article with the salt practically evenly distributed. Moreover, the American article is smoked and dried under strict control, the whole aim being to smoke gradually, thus drying out the meat without warping. The practice of giving a quick, fierce drying and smoking (as is often the case locally) tends to dry the outside, but leaving the inside still charged with excess moisture. It is believed that this surplus moisture often charged with undersalted and. possibly incipiently putrefying, meatjuices. seeps through Vie article to the outside, and there forms an attractive medium for flies.” “It is. of course, only fair to state.” he concluded, “that the Americans receive a higher price for their carefully controlled cured products.”