Patented Dec. 13, 1938 2,140,163 UNITED STATES PATENT oFFICE 2,140,163 MEAT COONG Harry E. McKee, Chicago, Il, assignor to n dustrial Patents Corporation, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware No Drawing... Original application May 6, 1933, Serial No. 669,675. Divided and this appli cation April 12, 1935, Serial No. 15,988 3 Claims. (CL. 99-107) This invention relates to a method of treating making the total smoking and cooking time meat products and to the product of such method. approximately sixteen hours. At the end of the This application is a division of my application sixteen hours the approximate inside tempera entitled "Method of cooking meats,' fled May 6, ture of the ham is from 156° to 164° F. 1933, Serial No. 669,675. A boneless ham may be treated to the same One of the objects of the present invention is process after pressing. Boneless hams are pref to provide a method for treating meat products. erably treated to the process of the present in Another object is to provide a method for treate vention by being placed in the smokehouse while ing hams whereby a cooked, Smoked ham is pro contained in the usual type of cooking container O duced which is exceptionally tender, having un designed for cooking boneless hams in water. O usual flavor. Another object of the invention is After the boneless hams in such containers have to provide a method whereby hams may be simul been in the heated Smokehouse for a few hours taneously cooked and smoked producing thereby the natural juices of the meat begin to cook out a product unlike the product of separate cook and come up above the cover. These juices are s and Smoke. w necessarily subjected to the action of the smoke 15 Other objects of the invention will be apparent Smudge and absorb the smoke flavor which is from the description and claims which follow. carried down into the meat during the smoking It will be understood that the practice of the and COoking process. It is desirable to chill the invention as applied to hams is herein described ham in the container with the ham submerged 20 by Way of illustration and not by way of limita in its Own natural juice, when much of the cooked 20 tion, the invention being applicable to all types of out natural juice is reabsorbed by the meat. meat productS. Thus, it will be seen that the present invention The present invention is concerned with a involves simultaneous cooking and smoking and Specific procedure for securing a “thorough cook' offers an extremely satisfactory method of pro of the nature described and claimed in my said: ducing a smoked boneless cooked ham. 25 application, Serial No. 669,675, and a complete It is desirable to filter the Smoke with any suit understanding of the present invention requires able filtering material to remove dirt and other a discussion of the process therein disclosed. undesirable elements. I will discuss as an example, treatinent of Sweet After the hams have been thus simultaneously 3) pickle hams. I first soak the hams coming from Smoked and cooked, they may be removed from 30 pickle for from eight to twelve hours depending the Smokehouse and after being chilled for ap upon the average temperature. In case of bone proximately two hours, rubbed with sugar and in hams after removal from soaking vats, the in browned to the desired degree with a hot flame. dividual hams are hung in the smoke house or Hams so treated are then chilled in a temperature Oven on standard meat trolleys. The hams may from 34 to 38° F. for about twenty-four hours 35 be encased in a stockinette and hung in accord before shipping. ance with conventional practice or in any other The present invention presents many advan desired manner. - tages in the cooking of hams since it contemplates When the smokehouse is filled with hams, the simultaneously smoking and cooking and permits 40 air temperature is raised to 190 to 95° F. and the cooking for longer periods of time, that is, from 40 humidity is raised to the saturation point by the fifteen to eighteen hours with temperatures from , use of an open steam line in the over, Smoke is 165 to 195 F. with less resulting shrink in the applied simultaneously. The temperature of from case of bone-in hams than would result from . 190° to 195° is maintained with the saturated air cooking in water from three and one-half to four 43 condition and a good Smudge of Smoke until the hours at a temperature of from 155 to 160. 45 inside temperature of the hams has been raised The new combination of high temperature, to about 125, which usually occurs between three humid air and Smoke results in increased tender to six hours from the beginning of the treat ness and improvement in flavor. ment. The air temperature is then reduced to It should be noted that during the first three or . 50 160° to 165° F. and the humidity is lowered, cor four hours of the treatment very high tempera- so responding to the reduction in air temperature, tures are used. During this time, due to the high the humidity being maintained, however, at the temperature and high humidity, gelatine is re saturation point for the new temperature. The leased from the skin and surfaces of the ham and temperature of from 160 to 165° is then main forms a coating thereover which acts as a sea tained for an additional ten to thirteen hours, preventing the escape of moisture and natural iss 2 8,140,168 flavors, thus bringing about the result of low produced by other methods of cooking these shrink and improved flavor. products. The remaining cooking period at the lower As used in the claims the term "thoroughly temperatures thoroughly cooks the meat encased cooked' indicates a condition secured by sub in its natural gelatine coating, bringing about jecting the meat to the method of cooking de a more thorough cook than that which has pre scribed in the foregoing specification and in viously been thought possible. The total time volves a time element relatively longer than usual of cooking varies, of course, with the size of the for cooking the products in question; that is, at ham varying from approximately fourteen hours ... least twice as long as Would be considered proper O for a ten pound ham to approximately twenty in ordinary cookery. 0 two hours for a twenty pound ham. In all cases I claim: the cook is carried on until the entirely new 1. The method of cooking meat which com flavor, characteristic of the product of the pres prises placing the meat in a container under ent application, is brought about. This condi pressure, the cover of said container being posi tion, for want of a better term, I call "thorough tioned below the top of the sides thereof and pro 5 cook'. However, it must be distinguished from vided with a space between the cover and sides mere long subjecting of the ham to the action whereby juices may rise above said cover, sub of heat, since by ordinary methods, hams so long jecting the meat while in said container to the subjected to heat would be overcooked. If cooked action of heat, Smoke and steam whereby natural in air, it would be dried, if in water, it would be juices of the meat cook out and come up above 20 disintegrated, at least in part. the cover, absorb Smoke flavor to be carried Among the many products which may be ad down into the meat during the Smoking and vantageously treated in accordance with this in cooking process, cooking until the meat is thor vention are bone-in hams, boneless hams, Spiced oughly cooked and thereafter chilling and per 25 hams, lunch meat, liver cheese, bologna, minced mitting reabsorption of juice by the meat. 25 ham, pork tongue, beef tongue, beef brisket, pic 2. As a new article of manufacture, a product nics and the like. prepared in accordance with the method of In all cases the process would be the same as claim 1. has been described for hams in the foregoing 3. The method of cooking meat which com 30 specification. The cooking time of the various prises thoroughly cooking the meat in its own products would vary from eight to eighteen hours, juice without added moisture by Subjecting the depending upon the size of the container in which meat in a suitable container to the action of heat the product is cooked. In every case the cooking and smoke in a saturated atmosphere, the atmost time would be from two to three times longer phere being maintained at from 190 to 195° F. and at temperatures from 10 to 35 higher than . until the inside temperature of the meat reaches any cooking schedule that has been used on approximately 125 F., the temperature being these products in the past. then reduced to from 160 to 165 F. and being ... I have found that any of these products when maintained at this temperature until the meat is processed at these high temperatures in the pres thoroughly cooked, during which cooking oper ence of smoke and saturated air for the long pe ation the natural juices of the meat rise above riod of time in which I keep them in the com the meat and thereafter permitting reabsorption bined cooking and smoking process, develop a of the juice by the meat.