WILTSHIRE BACON.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1921, 1 March 1875, Page 4

WILTSHIRE BACON.

€(from the wiL.s gazette)

We recently had occasion to visit a ■small Wiltshire town which has*been for many years, and still is, the principal seat of bacon manufacture. There is nothing in the cleanly, quiet appearance of the town itself to indicate either the nature or" the magnitude of the- trade there carried on. Though our hotel was within a stone's throw of the principal slaughterhouse we w ere greeted with no shrill dissbnant cries of pigs in destress, protesting in their own way against hairing their throats cut. There were no open sewers flowing with blood and garbage, nor blackened slums reeking with the smoke of burnt straw and hair, all was clean and orderly; as if there was not such a thing as a pig witbin 50 miles. The only thing which struck us as unusual; was the passage of several waggons laden with huge blocks of Norwegian ice, the summer supply of 1,500 tons being then about to be laid in. A uniform ternIperaturet is thus secured for the curing vaults, under a system patented by the proprietors, who are thus secured against heavy losses by unfavourable weather, and also enabled, to meet the constant demand for their bacon, and send it out in a comparatively fresh condition all the year round. It stands by reason that if sufficient bacon was cured during the cold, weather to last all the summer months, which was the old-fashioned plan, the present system of curing would not answer, as the bacon would not keep. An immense slock must also be necessarilly accumulated in the spring to meet tie supply, and the consumption of the ofial, instead of being, equalised, as now, throughout the year, would in some seasons be far in excess, and in others far inadequate to demand. Fifty thousand pigs per annum are slaughtered in this establishment, giving an average of about 1,000 a week. Through the kindness of the proprietor I was enabled to see and make a note of the arrangements, notwithstanding the notice which met my eyes at the enterance, there is "no ad:mittance except on business." I use the word proprietor advisedly, for this is no joint-stock affair, but is conducted:by the skill and capital of one man, or rather one family, alone. The business has been in existence for more than half a century, and tad comparatively a very small beginning, but has grown to the present magnitude through the indefatigable efforts of managers to meet the tastes and requirements of the times At first I was conducted to the shed in which the live stock, ?re temporaly: housed to await operations. " There they were comfortably nes'ling in clean straw, and with but little of the odour of the stye, a number of fine, plump, medium-sized pigs, gruntiDg snuffing, or groaning contentedly, and happily unconscious . of the fate which awaited th^m on the morrow. I had neither tlie opportunity nor desire to see them brought to the knife, but the modus operandi was lucidly explained to me by one of the operators. A chain is attached by means of a noose; to one of the hind legs, and the animal is suddenly drawn up, head downwards, by means of a windlass. AbJ incision is skilfully made in the throat. There is a muffled shriek, a . copious discharge of blood from, the orifice, a few convulsive kicks, and the sanguinary deed is completed. The carcase is then removed to the singeing furnace, for Wiltshire bacon must not have its hair entirely "removed by scalding, after the Yankee method, or it would lose one of - its chracteristic marks and consequently much of its value in the market. The old-fashioned plan was to lay the carcase on the ground in the open air, cover it up with straw, which was then set fire to, and the process \ cpntined as long as necessary ; perhaps, ten minutes or a quarter of an nqur ; to- a pig. This consumption of time ,and- straw would never do on an extensive scale. A furnace is therefore contrived with a fiery aperture into which the carcase of the pig is lifted by an ingeniously contrived lever, is there denuded of hair, and removed in about half a minute. It is then washed and scraped clean, a gambrel inserted under the tendons of the hind legs* and the carcase is suspended by an iron hook to a horizontal /bar, which traverses the whole length of tke slaughter-house, serving as a sort of tramway, having sidings and crossings, along which the carcase is easily slid from one operator to another, until- it is finally cut asunder and taken down. The. disembowelling process comes next; the viscera, being the butcher's perquisites if the animal be bought by weight, are entirely removed; the liver, heart, &c, forming a cheap and savoury dish for a poor man's table, find a -ready sale to meat pedlars, who hawk them, about the country, the overplus being sentt© London or the neighbouring towns. The^eriMils'are passed down a kind of funnel WW& faults below, where they are denuded-of fat, and passed on to women, who wash and cleanse them for sausage skins and " chittlings." The oldfashioned dog's pudding, composed of the blood and fat of the animal, mixed with prepared oats and savoury herbs, stuffed into the entrails, a revolting looking mass, but when boiled and afterwards toasted a dish fit for an epicure, is not in so much favor now as formerly; the blood is conseqently sold and highly prized for manure. The pig may now be said to be killed and dressed by a series of operations which are performed, when " in full swing/, at the rate of about 90 per hour. It is next weighed, and then slit down the middle, the Lazarus or backbone, flake fat, head, and legs are removed, the sides neatly trimmed to shape, and they are then ready for salting. There is but little fresh meat taken from the pigs in this establishment; the spare rib is " spare" injdeed, and seldom weighs more than two pounds. The griskin is a mere attenuated itrip. composed mostly

of short transverse pieces of bone. The whole side, consequently, from the abundance of lean meat in its constitution, partakes more or less of the character of delicately flavored ham, whilst the difficulty of disposing of the enormous quantity of fresh meat which would accrue were the sides trimmed in the ordinary manner is done away with. In favorable weather the meat is cut into sausages and sent to London and other large towns, where they are readily disposed of in fresh and prime condition. At other times the meat is sold to the hawkers, or salted down to be consumed at leasure. I was next conducted to the curing department, which is vaulted over, and surmounted by the large quantity of fresh ice as before mentioned. Were it not for this contrivance, the system pursued here could not be properly carried out. Each side receives its just proportion of salt, and neither more nor less, the conditions being equalised throughout the year by an equalisation of temperature. As may be supposed, everything here is scrupulously clean. The flooring, which would otherwise be inevitably sloppy, is composed of a patent pavement, which forms a complete series of grooves and channels, and is so laid as to drain itself. Here were huge piles of ham?, cheeks, and sides of bacon undergoing the curing process, which is performed with salt and finely-pul-verised Bengal saltpetre alone, the use of sugar, which is only necessary to | counteract excessive saltness, being | here unnecessary. The different sized sides are all arranged in separate piles, as the heavy ones require 3 somewhat longer time than the light ones. From the curing vaults to the dryinghouse, where they are either white or smoke-dried, to suit the tastes of the purchaser, and then to the consumer, , averages about a month from the time the pig is taken alive into the estab- ! lishment. About 10 million pounds of first-class bacon are sent out yearly, most of it finding its way to London and other large towns, where good things will always command a good price. Our sister countries, Scotland and Ireland, notwithstanding their pride in native produce, are not insensible to the charm of Wiltshire bacon, and figure largely as customers. The proprietor is thus enabled to obtain the highest price of any other curer in the world, though he has no advantage such as a monoply of the ra^ material or a secret in the mode of treatment would give him. The method is open to any one who chooses to exercise it with the same care and discretion as are here observed. We must not forget the lard, which is ru/i into bladders and shallow tin pans, and sold by the ton to large consumers. " This is our reading room," said my guide, opening a door and ushering me into a spacious and well-lighted apartment, well furnished with books, newspapers, and periodicals. Here the men who reside at a distance take their meals, and spend, if they are so minded, the intervals of labor. The literary character given to the apartment looks well, and shows that those who kill fat swine need not necessarily be swine themselves. The proprietor is, we i hear, a disciple of John Bright, and conducts his establishment as far as possible on teetotal principles. There was, however, an unmistakeable odour in the room of the weed which soothes and not inebriates, which showed some amount of the toleration of the weaknesses of our fellow-men, inasmu3h as smoking was not strictly prohibited.