USE ONLY PURE SUGAR (Copyrighted by B. Heller & Co.; Reprint Forbidden.)

It will be noted that, in all of our directions for the sweet pickling of meat, we lay great stress upon the importance of using only pure sugar, free from adulterations. The very best and purest of granulated sugar should always be used, if the best results are expected. Sugar, as is well known is a great nutrient and, as a food, possesses practically the same value as starch; it is however, much more readily digested. Therefore the use of pure sugar assists in making meat food products more digestible. In preparing a sweet brine, the one great object sought to be attained is that the brine shall have the highest possible penetrative quality. Any adulterant in the sugar tends to prevent the penetration of the sweet pickled brine and lessens its efficiency in proportion as adulterants are contained in the sugar. It is only by the use of pure granulated sugar that a well-keeping brine can be produced. Many adulterants, even though they are natural adulterants, resulting from lack of proper refining of the sugar, tend to create fermentation in the brine producing a slimy and ropy condition. As is well known to those best experienced in the sweet pickling of meat, ropy and slimy brine is almost always sure to cause meat to sour.

Impurities in sugar used for producing sweet pickle will prevent the proper coagulation of the albumen in the meat juices. Coagulation does and should take place in all well cured meat. The impurities and adulterants, in other words, positively counteract the effect of the curing agents in the brine. Therefore use only the best pure granulated sugar in making all sweet pickle. The general conditions for obtaining pure granulated sugar at the present day are very much improved over those of a number of years ago, prior to the passage of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906. For instance, you can form a good idea of the purity of your sugar by dissolving a quantity in water to make a fairly thick syrup, but not using more than the water will take up. Cork this tightly and place in a dark room over night. We have seen tests made in this way, which in twenty-four hours would show a deposit of blue coloring at the bottom of the bottle, and also a considerable quantity of insoluble salts. This comes from what is known as “bluing” the sugar, but where you purchase one of the well known manufacturers products marked, “pure granulated sugar”, these difficulties are seldom met with at the present time. There was a time also when sugar was frequently adulterated with crystallized glucose or as is commonly known “grape sugar.” This was a very serious adulterant from the view point of the sweet pickle curing of meat, as glucose tends to ferment in brine very quickly and consequently the brine would become ropy and slimy within a very short time. This resulted in sour and soggy hams, bacon, etc., so that the purchase of cheap sugar containing impurities was never a saving, but proved very costly to the manufacturer who was persuaded to purchase low grade sugar.

It has been a common practice with some butchers in preparing sweet pickle to use molasses or syrup. This method we strongly urge our friends not to adopt. The saving will be many times lost by meat which will have to be thrown away because of ropy, fermented and sour pickle. We cannot urge upon our friends too strongly that they use only pure granulated sugar. Not only from the standpoint of keeping sweet pickle brine in good, clean condition, but from the view point of flavor and thorough cure, the use of pure granulated sugar is absolutely necessary for producing the proper kind of finished meat food products.

Sugar is considered as a natural preservative, but it must be borne in mind that sugar is used in the sweet pickle method of curing meat, not only as a preservative, but also as a flavor. Pure sugar has the property of combining with the other curing agents and by its penetrative property carries the other curing agents into the cells of the meat tissue more thoroughly. This results in the uniform action of the curing agent, producing even flavored meat as a result of the cure. Another peculiar property of pure sugar is that by its combination with the salt used in the brine it has a great tendency to prevent fermentation, thus keeping a clean, clear, sweet, penetrative brine, which will do the largest amount of work with the smallest amount of material, in producing evenly cured meat. To sum up, we will state that pure granulated sugar should take the place of molasses, syrup or any other form of sweetener because it imparts a better flavor and assists in making the brine more penetrative, thus producing best results.