OP: Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making (fourth edition)
B. Heller & Co., 1918. Hardcover. Good. Fourth edition.
Chemical manufacturer B. Heller & Co., founded in 1894, initially focused on meat additives for curing and preservation; they later expanded their wares to offer food flavorings, insecticides, and cleaning agents. Coming from a family of Bavarian butchers and sausage makers, founder Benjamin Heller’s credentials in the meat industry were well-founded.
In 1908, B. Heller & Co. first published their Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making as a guide for standardizing the handling and preserving of meat products. The book responds directly to the enactment of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which prohibited chemicals that had once been the industry standard.
Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making offers impressive insight into the meat industry at the beginning of the twentieth century, with detailed descriptions and illustrations of a variety of meat processing techniques, including:
- Killing, scalding, skinning, and gutting cows, hogs, mutton, etc.
- Building a temporary smoke house with a recycled wooden sugar barrel and box
- Rendering and purifying lard
- Hide storage and tanning
- Disinfecting and deodorizing slaughterhouses
There are recipes for fresh meat usage as well. Plenty of advertisements for B. Heller & Co. products are included.
Ours is a a 1918 fourth edition in Good condition, lightly rubbed boards. One leaf is cleanly sliced diagonally in half, but both halves are present.
