Bacon Tech Journal 1/30/08 12:00 PM Page A-1 EXCLUSIVE 2008 TECH JOURNAL SERIES BACONBACON 101101 A supplement to The National Provisioner BACON TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL Bacon Tech Journal 1/30/08 10:29 AM Page BTJ-1 THE AUTHORITY ON THE BUSINESS OF MEAT AND POULTRY PROCESSING 2008 TECH JOURNAL SERIES BACON TECHNOLOGY 101 Creating bacon from pork bellies is an old story that has evolved into a modern rendition, thanks to the evolution of food science and equipment automation. A NATIONAL PROVISIONER RESEARCH PROJECT BY BARBARA YOUNG, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF LISA WHITE, RESEARCH ASSISTANT PART ONE: OVERVIEW acon has given birth to the development of with the invaluable tools that have evolved over the sophisticated technology featuring such years. As a source guide, the bacon technology B innovations as high-speed, high-volume journal is designed to assist bacon processors slicing equipment, curing and injection systems, maximize their production potential, especially with smokehouses, chilling and packaging improvements. tips concerning best practices from their industry Current capabilities concerning slicing equipment, counterparts. for example, include advanced computer and vision technology enabling the bacon industry to view and Bacon primer measure a cross section of a slab of bacon to produce Human consumption of pork including cured a more accurate and efficient slice. An additional meat, meaning primarily a salted product, reportedly benefit is the machine’s ability to produce greater began centuries ago in England, France and Germany volumes of more accurate slices to a closer tolerance with bacon as the favorite, especially among the with consistent thicknesses. Such systems also ensure working classes of those early days. Bacon’s a reduction in front-end trim waste, less butt-end historical connection as a staple food is waste and the elimination of poorly produced thick understandable since pigs were cheap and easy to and thin slices. breed, given that their diets included virtually To be sure, technology is a key driver behind anything. efficiency and growth in the food-production realm. Broadly defined, bacon refers to a category of The National Provisioner is producing a series of cured and processed pork bellies that end up in strips technology journals covering various aspects of the or else formed into circular patterns. Bacon varieties processing side of the industry. These in-depth include middle bacon or rashers in the familiar shape reports delve into the science and technology that of a thin strip of belly pork with a lean round piece of support the business foundation of meat- and loin at one end. Streaky bacon is the same cut, minus poultry-processing programs. the round loin end. Pork pressed into a pseudo-bacon This Bacon Journal is the first in the series. It is a shape is known as picnic or café bacon. Gammon is a study of the science behind bacon production along specialty of the United Kingdom that is a joint of Continued on page BTJ-2 FEBRUARY 2008 | BACON TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL BTJ-1 BACON TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL Bacon Tech Journal 1/30/08 10:29 AM Page BTJ-2 BACON TECHNOLOGY 101 pork, not the belly, and is cured and NATURAL BACON necessary to destroy pathogenic prepared in the same manner as FORMULATION bacteria. regular bacon. Bacon grease, the fat Water 66.38% Bacon weight and yields are also rendered from cooked bacon, is a Sea salt 22.00 governed by federal regulations. Cane sugar 10.40 useful byproduct as a cooking oil, Weight of cured pork bellies labeled Celery power 1.20 particularly in the southern United as “uncooked” must not exceed the Starter culture 0.02 States. Cracklings, also popular in weight of uncured pork bellies. For Source: The American Meat Science Association (AMSA the South, is produced from diced White Paper Series, Number 1, March, 2007, p. 10) labeling purposes, cooked or and fried bits of bacon rind. Canned precooked bacon produced from bacon is precooked, needs no cured pork bellies must show a yield NATURAL BACON refrigeration and is popular with PROCESS factor of not more than 40 percent campers. Bacon bits are crisp pieces 1. Trim pork bellies. the weight of uncured pork bellies. of bacon that are preserved and 2. Prepare pickle prior to use. Translated this means a requirement dried, and must be refrigerated. 3. Dissolve the following in water: of 60-percent shrinkage from the sea salt, cane sugar, celery powder Vegetable-based imitation green weight or the initial pork belly and starter culture. “bacon-flavored” bits, may be stored 4. Pump pork bellies to 115% of weight. at room temperature. green weight. Ed Woods, owner and operator of Roger Mandigo, professor of 5. Place the pumped pork bellies Woods’ Smoked Meats Inc., Bowling on bacon hooks and smokehouse meat science at the University of Green, Mo., discusses the uses of process. Nebraska in Lincoln, identifies two 6. Chill and slice. lightweight and heavyweight bacon kinds of systems for producing Source: The American Meat Science Association (AMSA in the following dialogue. bacon in the United States — dry White Paper Series, Number 1, March, 2007, p. 10) During 55 years as a smoked cure or pickle cure. A mixture of cur- meats processor, Woods’ company ing ingredients is rubbed on all sur- BACON has won numerous national and faces of the green bellies to produce PROCESS international awards for its branded the dry-cure effect. Most commercial- 1. Grade and sort - some grade Sweet Betsy from Pike products ly processed bacon is pickle-cured, manually and sort automatically by including its line of smoked cured which involves injected bellies with a weight bacon. Before owning his business, 2. Dump and convey bellies to brine solution made up of salt and injector Woods headed the bacon water. 3. Some companies trim bellies department of the defunct Oklahoma “These two systems go back 4. Mix pickle City, Okla.-based Wilson Foods hundreds of years,” Mandigo 5. Inject bellies Corp. In those days lightweight 6. Check pump percentage confirms. 7. Hang on bacon combs important bacon slabs were used for lean, USDA generally defines bacon as 8. Smoke premium-grade bacon, and cheaper the cured belly of a swine carcass. 9. Chill grades were produced from heavier Certain cuts and characteristics are 10. Slice slabs, he reports. Pork processors 11. Package more narrowly defined, however, Source: Robert J. Delmore Jr., Ph.D., Associate operated with three grades of bacon such as smoked pork loin bacon. Professor, Animal Science Department, California in 1970: 10-14 pound-slabs Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Calif. USDA-certified bacon means that it comprised the top grade, 14-20 has been treated for Trichinella pounds represented the middle spiralis, a zoonotic agent. Zoonosis is a disease grade and 20 pounds and above indicated the cheap passed from animals to humans. Trichinella spiralis grade. is an intestinal worm producing larvae that migrate “Hogs have changed over the years and are leaner to and encyst in muscles of a number of animals, than in the past, so standards have changed,” says particularly swine. Humans sicken from consuming Woods, noting that slabs can now be purchased infected pork that is undercooked. The culprit cysts derinded or with skins attached (see “Breeding then live in the muscles of the human hosts. quality pigs”). Tapeworms and roundworms generally are readily destroyed at cooking temperature and time Bacon history combinations less rigorous than the combinations The 17th century gave birth to the American pork BTJ-2 BACON TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL | FEBRUARY 2008 BACON TECHNOLOGY JOURNAL Bacon Tech Journal 1/30/08 10:29 AM Page BTJ-3 2008 TECH JOURNAL SERIES industry thanks to Hernando Cortez’ TROUBLE-SHOOTING meaning ham. The modern French introduction of hogs to New Mexico GUIDE word for bacon means any cut of coupled with sows Sir Walter Smoking: Not usually a problem for pork, usually salted. The French took companies with established Raleigh brought to Jamestown their bacon seriously, to be sure. processes but over- or under-smok- Colony in 1607. As the 17th century ing related to color can be an Consider that Repas Baconique was closed, the typical farmer owned issue. a French festival at which pork was four or five pigs, supplying salt pork Dirty smoke house: Smokehouse the exclusive menu item. must be cleaned regularly (depend- and bacon for his table with Notably, the English perfected the ing on the plant and the system surpluses sold as barreled pork. several times a week to weekly). technique of salt curing and smoking Frank Preston Johnson of Kewanee, This is important to avoid soot on belly pork. In 12th century England, Ill., in Henry County and a state the bacon. bacon was used as a synonym for the Hanging: Bacon must be hung prop- representative in his day, succeeded native term flitch, meaning side of erly to maximize the slice yield. in winning approval for his Chilling: Bacon can be under- cured pig meat. By the 14th century, hometown’s designation as “Hog chilled and therefore very hard to however, it applied to cured meat. Capital of the World” in 1948. His slice and can be over-chilled and To be sure, preserved pork, then shatter when sliced. argument included the fact that including sides salted to make bacon, Leakers: Bacon can be a challenge babies were weaned on bacon rind in to package due to leakers. was an important source of food in a neighboring county and the daily Metal from broken bacon combs: the diets of early British citizens. breakfast of athletes in his hometown Part of the bacon comb can break British pigs for both fresh and salted off and, if not found manually or included “Henry County bacon.” meat improved significantly in the with metal detection, can cause In 1924, Oscar Mayer introduced serious problems with slicing.