Читать книгу Foods and Their Adulteration - Harvey Washington Wiley - Страница 96

—Sterilization is such a certain method of preventing the decay of meats that it has now come into use to a large extent in the final preservation of shipments of cured meats. The object of curing, as has already been stated, is not merely to prevent the meat from decaying, nor is it intended to inhibit entirely enzymic action. On the contrary, if the method of curing were such as to entirely stop fermentative action, the flavors and aromas of preserved meats, upon which their value so much depends, would be eliminated, and we would simply have a mass of tasteless meat, preserved from decay by the application of chemical preservatives of a character to impart neither flavor nor aroma to the meat and at the same time prevent the activity of the various ferments above described. Such methods of preparation, naturally, should never be of general use, because in cured meats the consumer demands the flavor which naturally proceeds from the ordinary method of curing. After curing and when subjected to transportation the meats may undergo decomposition and reach their destination in a spoiled state. To avoid this it has been a customary practice to pack the meat in a chemical preservative, such as borax. This is, however, a very objectionable practice because even in the cured state the meat is still absorptive, and the borax, which is packed externally upon it, as a precaution during transit, must necessarily penetrate to a certain extent to the interior of the meat. By packing cured meat in tins and subjecting these tins to sterilization complete immunity from decay may be secured and there is no damage done to the aroma or flavor. We, therefore, find upon the market at the present time in tinned, canned, or potted form almost every variety of meat that is used either in a fresh state or after the usual method of curing.