IMPORTATION OF PRESERVED MEATS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 818, 20 November 1872, Page 3

IMPORTATION OF PRESERVED MEATS.

[From the London Daily Telegraph] If, as many of pur profoundest thinkers believe, the lower orders of our great towns are undergoing a slow but sure physical deterioration, mainly m consequence of lack of proper nourishment, : the philanthropist and the statesman must alike re-

joice at any movement likely to place •vithin the reach of the toiling masses of the community wholesome animal food, which, at .the present famine price of British-bred beef and mutton, is altogether oat of their reach. ' It is not long since she able master of St. Marylebone Workhouse made n special report to liia guardians of the actual weight of cooked butchers' meat obtainable from a given weight of raw meat as supplied, bringing out the result as 27f per cent, loss on beef and 36.} per cent, loss on mutton; while more recent experiments have shown that raw meat costing lOJd a pound came out by the loss m cooking, and by the weight of bone, exactly Is 5d a pound. With this price philanthropists who desire So conduce to the well-being of their >oorer fellow-countrymen havj compared ;he cost of the admirable Australian cooked meat, preserved m tins, which is now suld, five from bone, at 6d or 7d a pound, mil it is satisfactory to know that their jfforts have been so far successful that the stock of Australian meat now m the market, which a short time since hung heavily on hand, is now unequal to the demand ; that a shipload recently arrived was disposed of before the vessel reached the docks ; and that there is now a fair prospect of the immense supplies waiting tor utilisation m our Australian colonies and m the great cattle and sheep producing countries of the River Plate being brought here as rapidly as the people can be educated to take advantage of the boon offered for their acceptance. The only valid objection ever offered to Australian preserved meat by those who have been induced so far to overcome the common English prejudice against' novel food as to try it, is that it is over-cooked, and sometimes it has also just a soupgon of the flavour of the tin. A public company i 3 now m process of formation for working, on an extensive scale, a process of preservation which lias been practically tested on a commercial scale m Aberdeen, by which both these objections are obviated. Last week a gathering of merchants and gentlemen, principally connected with our Australian and New Zealand colonie3 and with the River Plate, took place at the Cannon-street Hotel, to hear an explanation of the system, and to submit fish, flesh,andfowl thus treated to thegastronomical experimcntum crucis. A bill of fare,consist:ng of cod, haddock, fowl, grouse, partridge, roant sirloin of beef, round of beef, and bt-i'.ed leg of mutton, was discussed with evident gusto by gentlemen not likely to be. satistied with inferior food, and a general opinion was expressed that the consistency of fibre and the flavour of the various substances were retained m a much higher degree than by any o L >her system of preservation m use. All the tins of food opened for the luncheon had undergone the test of voyages to and from the tropics; but, so far as any flavour was concerned, it could not have been distinguished, from similar articles from the larder of the hotel cooked twelve hours before. W. D. Christie, Esq. C. B.) late Minister to the Argentine Republic and Brazil, the chairman of the new Food Preserving Company, presided, and explained that the object was to work Mr. Richard Jones's vacuum S3'stem of meat preservation, and to acquire, first, a going concern at Aberdeen, now worked by Messrs. Forbes ; then to start a factory at the Hunter River, New South Wales ; and finally to carry out the {.rocoss m South America. Mr. Forbes explained that the old process of preserving was to put the meat into the tins raw ; then to place the tins m a chloride of calcium bath, by which a temperature of 225 deg. could be attained. As soon as the meat attained a heat of 212 deg. m l ,he centre, the small aperture m the .top of the tins by which the steam escaped was soldered, and the operation was completed by submitting the tins to a heat of 265 deg.for half an hour, by which the meat, was completely preserved, but at the expanse of liver-conking and some 1033 of flavour, m the Jones' proems* the tins are connected by means of a little tin spout on the tup am\ nn india-rubber tube, with a vacuum chamber, which abstracts the air from the meat and the tin immediately, and allows the heat to penetrate much more rapidly ; so that m effect the contents of the tin are roasted rather than stewed, the flavour and consistency of fibre being as well preserved as m a joint cooked at the kitchen range. Some fine joints of 'beef, preserved with the bone m them, were on the table, showing the principle to be applicable to joints, where appearances are considered, as well as to the masses of solid meat, which, as matter of economy, is always tinned m Australia. Unequivocal testimony was borne to the success of the process by ship owners, who have used meats so prepared for their passengers and the usual startling statistics! were given of the mass of animal food waiting for consumption at the Antipodes. One gentleman connected with Australia declared that 1 5,000,000 sheep and 1,250,000 cattle could be spared annually from the different colonies as surplus stock, and the representatives of the River Plate claimed for those regions at least an equal capacity for food supply. . Being descended from our own choicest stocks, there seems good reason for the claim set up for equality between Australian and English meat ; though one may venture to doubt the strict accuracy of the South American enthusiasts, who insisted on the food value of River Plate flocks and herds being equal to any m the world. An interesting discussion took place as to the best means of introducing preserved- meat more effectually to the poorer classes of the country, and a general opinion was expressed that food prepared by the new process would much facilitate that most desirable consummation. .