THE MEAT-PRESERVING QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2594, 29 April 1869, Page 3

THE MEAT-PRESERVING QUESTION.

{From the Mark Lane Express, Feb. 15.) Our meat-supply is just now occupying, we think, an undue share of attention—at least in the direction from which the arguments come—because the agitation and discussion is principally got up by large stockholders in Australia and the River Piste States, who are anxious to find a market for their redundant and unsaleable sheep arid cattle. No one can object to this laudable desire, if it be but carried into practice judiciously and satisfactorily ; but as far as we have yet seen, the efforts to lay down animal food in this country from long distances that can compete with good home-grawn beef and mutton, are not successful, whether in the dried or preserved state. Large consumers of meat, as our hand and brain-workers are in Great Britain, the last statistics taken tell us that we are tolerably well provided, with nine millions of cattle and thirty-five millions of sheep (to say nothing of pigs and poultry) to draw upon, besides the available supplies of live-stock to be obtained from the continent, and the cured provisions and fish we import. On the average of years we import one million head of animals, of which one-fourth are cattle and the otherthree-fourths principally sheep. To this has to be added about one million cwt. of salted and cured beef and pork. A few days since Mr P. L. Siramonds went somewhat largely into the question of utilizing the animal food that is wasted abroad, in one of these exhaustive papers on waste substances at the Society of Arts which have made him an authority on such natters ; and on Monday last there was a well-served dinner of preserved Australian neat, supplied to two or three hundred invited guests, at the Cannon street Hotel, at tie expense of the Australian Meat Companies No doubt thousands of tons of meat available for food in the distant pistoral regions are lost to us, because of the difficulties of preserving it. In South America at least millions of beasts are annually slaughtered for the fat, skins, and bones, the flesh of which could be supplied here at less than 2Jd per pound. But then in what shape does it now reach us ? Cry, sinewy, unsavoury, or so salt that it cannot be eaten. Of this recent public dinners have givtn evidence, insomuch that our dainty workpeople refuse it in disdain. At the Paris Exhibition in 1867, the animal products shown by the Argentine Confederation were extract of meat on Liebig’s process, joints of beef and mutton prepired by injection, dried and salted beef and tmgues, beef and mutton salted and smoke-drud, and eharqui or sun-dried beef. These aresold on the average in the market of Bueno Ayres at 40 francs the metrical quintal, fqf ship’s use and for export. A sale has coqmenced in England for this meat. At Paris, deluding the 15 centimes (1 Jd) octroi, it can b aold at 6’d the kilogramme, or two pounts. The several modes of preparation are sinple and efficacious enough if the meat is no kept in a damp locality. The meat, which i| without bone, makes a good ragout with potltoes and other vegetables, and ihight be foumU useful aliment for the badly fed agricuUiral and working-classes of Europe. A Jan is on foot to bring home live cattle from he River Plate in screw vessels. Whether this will succeed profitably remains to b proved. Again, the Buenos Ayres Government offers within the next five month* a prizidf £ 1600 to an inventor of the system of >rcserving fresh meat beat adapted for wor in* on a large scale.

Tbat the sqpßrabundaacd of Australia cannot contribute to the market of Great Britain has frequently been a matter lor regret. Mr Philpott stated lately before the Pood Committee of the Society of Arts that he was in the habit of melting down from 1000 to 1500 sheep for four months together; and that in the vast districts of rich pasture land from Victoria to Brisbane (or one end of the great island continent to the other), there was an unlimited supply of the very finest meat —all of which was at present wasted, because of the difficulty of disposing of the flesh ; and, therefore the carcases were melted down for fat. A bullock in Australia he said costs only from £3 to £4, and legs of mutton of the very best quality were, when salted, sold for 3s the dozen. If some simple and practical means could be devised for preserving such meat, it might be supplied to our markets at less than Sd per pound. But unfortunately this has not been discovered, and the parboiled tinned meat served up at the Australian banquet on Monday does not meet the requirements either as to nourishment or price. It is insipid and tasteless, and it cannot be sold under 6d or 7d a pound. In Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, and, Queensland meat-preserving factories have been established for making meat extracts and potted meats. The preserving process, however, admits of greater rapidity in the preservation of the meat, and there is still much room for improvement, Mr Simmonds in his paper says : “ Horned stock have increased of late in Australia in a more rapid ratio than the population, and the consequence is that the supply of beef being greater than the demand, a market has to be found for the surplus in other parts of the world. The price of cattle is already commonly quoted * at boiling rate,’ in other words, fat cattle will fetch no more from the butchers than can be realised from their hides, horns, hoofs, tallow, &c., for exportation. Under the old and slovenly system of sending cattle to the melting-pot, it is certain that from one-fourth to one-half of what ought to have been profitably turned to account was wasted. The value of cattle and sheep must in future be measured in the colonies not by the local demand for butchers’ meat, but by the price which can be obtained for the various const'tuents of the carcase in the markets of the world. The utilisation of this waste has received a large share of attention in the past two years from various Australian companies established to prepare animal food in different forms, whether as extract of meat, tinned provisions, or dried and smoked meat.”

There are other countries of Europe besides Great Britain that would be ready to relieve Australia of its surplus meat. The French, although they are not generally supposed to be a beef-eating people, will yet consume much more than can be supplied. They are, moreover, fully aware of the value of such a diet (which suits their mode of cooking), not only for home consumption but for the purpose of provisioning the army or navy, should either be required on foreign service. The French Government have, it is said, ordered some 150,000 pounds of this tinned meat in Melbourne.

There are now in Australia some four millions of cattle and forty millions of sheep, while there are not a million consumers, and the live stock, with abundant pasturage at command, increase enormously. Until recently the only process employed for preserving meat was the rude method of salting; but the deterioration was so obvious, and the distaste of it so general, that it was only practised to a limited extent and for occasions when fresh meat could not be obtained. The salt-junk of the navy in olden time was a good example of the wretchedly unwholesome and indigestible meat prepared, for it could hardly be called preserved, by this pr-cess. We are therefore surprised to find in these days a naval officer advocating a return it. In the discussion on Mr Simmond’s paper at the Society of Arts, Capt. Selwyn, R.N., enunciated, as his opinion, that the simplest and best process of preserving meat was that by which seamen had been fed for many years—salting. The only difficulty was, that in warm climates the salting could not be satisfactorily conducted; but this was obviated by the use of saccharine matter instead of salt, particularly in countries were sugar was a natural product. In this way be believed the meat could be imported in a perfect condition for the use of English labourers, if only a certain amount of prejudice on their part could be overcome, But this prejudice on the part of the English mechanic and labourer, as Captain Selwyn ought to know, is not so easily overcome. They prefer, and wisely, fresh meat to salt meat, and home-fed butcher’s meat before cooked Australian meat.

Invention has not been prolific of new processes for preserving meat; for out of about one hundred or more processes patented daring the present century, twenty-six are for the preservation of food t>y drying, thirty-one by excluding atmospheric air, nine by covering it with an impervious substance, as fat, gelatine, paraffin, or collodion; and seven by injecting meat with various salts. Lately the subject of preserving food by cold has been revived. A resident in Sydney is said to have invented a process for freezing meat, by which 300 tons might be despatched at once. If the statements advanced be true, that the cost of freezing and freight will amount to no more than a penny a pound, the price of beef and mutton in Sydney may be expected to rise in course of time, until it is little more than a penny a pound under that in England, We admit that we are yet sceptical as to the success of these efforts and speculations to throw increased supplies of meat on the European markets; as, no doubt, something more practical and really useful must be accomplished by importers and preservers.