FROM PIG TO BACON.

Northern Advocate, 27 January 1922, Page 6

FROM PIG TO BACON.

THE PROCESS DESCRIBED,

INGLEWOOD FACTORY VISITED

The pig ranks next to the cow in Taranaki. The farmer is coming more and more to see the profit of including pig-raising in the list of his activities, and the townsman is very fond of the pig after its death and treatment, though he may have a prejudice against the animal in its live state. How a pig is transformed into bacon and hams may be illustratyjd by describing a visit to the factory of the Jnglewood Bacon Company, which is owned by and operated in the interests of producers.

As pigs arrive they are run into the weighing shed, where the weight of each is recorded and its identity established by means of a numbered ring placed in the car. The origin of any pig which is found, after killing, to be diseased, can thus be ascertained. A good many pigs are put through the factory on behalf of the ownertt, who

pay the" company for curing, and in. their case the identity number is stamped on the carcase.

The pigs remain in the holiday yards until required for slaughtering, when they are run into the slaughter-house in batches and arc given a prompt dispatch by means of a stunning blow from a heavy hammer, followed by bleeding. The carcases arc naxt immersed in a vat of hot water, the temperature of which is kept at the required level by means of steam pipes. Scraping is combined with the scalding, and is followed by an immersion in cold water. INTO A BLAZING •FURNACE. The next process is somewhat startling to the uninitiated onlooker. Each

carcase, now with a smooth and white pxterior instead of a black and bristly one, is suspended by the four legs from an overhead rail. An iron door is opened, disclosing an interior of seething flame, and the carcase is shot along the rail into the furna,ce and the door is closed behind. This process is intended to seal the pores of the skin. In a minute or two the door is re-opened and the carcase is pulled forth, not partly incinerated as the fierce appearance of the fire might lead one to expcet. After being disembowelled—the intestines are cleand 'to be made into sausage skins, and the remaining offal goes to a digester to be made into manure—the carcase, now suspended by the hind legs, is run along another rail and left for examination by a Government inspector, whose business it is to mark out for destruction any carcases which are unfit for human consumption by reason of tuberculosis or other disease. Each left hind foot in the row of carcases is decorated with the flare, the fat in which the kidneys are embedded, which is subsequently rendered down for lard. The heads and the backbones are removed at this stage. The day's killing may total 120 or more at this time of the year, and at the close of the operations described above the carcases are run further along the rails into the cooling chamber. Next morning they aro removed from the cooling chamber and cut into sides and preparatory to curing. Should it be necessary to keep the meat

longer before curing can be proceeded with, it is placed in the freezing chain-* ber, which adjoins tho cooling chamber, and is kept at a much lower temperature (16deg Fahr. below freezing point). Curing is the most lengthy process, it being four weeks after entering the curing-room that the meat is ready to be removed. The curing may be otherwise expressed as salting. The floor is covered with salt, the meat is rubbed in this and stacked, remaining thus for the four weeks at a fairly low temperature (3Sdeg. Fahrenheit). At the present time a second curing room is being constructed with a view to preventing blockages at the killing end, which are liable to occur at the periods when, pigs are coming forward most freely. The cured bacon and ham undergoes a washing process to remove the superfluous salt before being smoked. In damp weather it may then be necessary; to place it in a drying corridor, through which a current of heated air passes. The smoke-house is a brick structure in which the meat is hung above a slowburning fire, the fuel being white pine sawdust obtained from the factory at Eltham, which makes butter boxes and chcese crates. The smoking is not a long process, taking 24 hours or less. Finally the sides and rolls of bacon and the hams are clothed in Cotton bags and are ready to be packed and distributed to the consumers.

When the company commenced operations 22 years ago the Waumgona River was tapped by means of a race •ibout i-mile in length and a turbine was installed to drive the refrigerating machine. This machine is still in use vinti driven in the same manner, but another and larger refrigerator has been added to the plant, and it is electrically driven.'

LESS BACON THAN PORK. Perk loses weight while being made into bacon. \y^ en weighing-in the live weight is taken, less a tare allowance (to cover offal) of 27i per cent. Thus, should a pig when alive weigh, 1401b., it would be paid for as 101§lb, which should be approximately the actual weight of pork after killing and "dressing. The curing process results in a further reduction of weight, the amount of which largely depends on the quality of the meat. A well-fed and — well-matured pig may show as little shrinkage as 10 per cent., whilst one that has been ill-fed and is not Jn the best of condition may show shrinkage as great as 18 per ;cent. This accounts to a considerable extent for the differ-* ence between the price per lb at which bacon can be sold, because the of pork mentioned above will make only from 831b to 911b of bacon. In addition \there are f the costs of handling the pigs and of manufacturing the bacon, and the overhead expenses of the factory. In a purely co-operative concern, such as the Inglewood Bacon Company, the supplying shareholder may; rest assured that, whatever profit there may be in the pig, he will get it eventually, as the profits are divided strictly in accordance with" the weight of porlc received from each shareholder. The Tnp 1 -vood bacon finds its market in the Taranaki and Auckland districts. Regular shipments are made \to Onehunga by thes.s. rawa.