Experimental cookery

Cured meats. Some of the common cuts of cured pork are regular hams, skinned hams, shoulders, shoulder butts, and bacon. The loin, cured, is COVERED AND UNCOVERED PANS 229 sometimes called Canadian bacon. Cured lean meats, because of the action of the salt during curing, are already fairly dry so they should always be cooked to prevent as little moisture loss as possible. This is usually accom- plished most easily by slow cooking at low temperatures. Hams. Hams may be cured with a light or a heavy salt cure. The mild- cured ones do not need soaking over night or parboiling before baking. Hams with a heavy salt cure are improved in flavor by soaking over night or for 24 hours. Hams are roasted in open pans on a rack, fat side up, at 125°C. (about 250°F.) to an interior temperature of 70° to 75°C. If the oven will not maintain as low a temperature as this, 300°F. may be used. For cooking hams in water, a simmering temperature, 83°C., produces a tender, juicy ham. Water temperatures as low as 75°C. may be used. Hams cooked in water have the cooking losses decreased by cooling over night in the liquor in which they were cooked, but the cooking losses are influenced by the temperature of the liquor. Child found that the cooking losses gradually decreased as the temperature of the liquor decreased. The smallest losses, hence the greatest hydration of the ham, occurred at 1.6°C. (35°F.). In fact the hams averaged a slight gain in weight when put in the refrigerator and the liquor cooled to this temperature. With lowering the temperature below 1.6°C. the losses increased. The time necessary for baking or cooking ham in water will vary with the size of the ham and the cooking temperature used. For the tempera- tures given, hams weighing about 12 to 13 pounds require about 23 to 25 minutes; those weighing 18 to 20 pounds require about 18 to 20 minutes per pound. Bacon. Bacon should be cooked at a temperature below the smoking temperature of the bacon fat. Slow cooking at low temperatures is best. For large quantities of bacon an excellent method is to spread the slices on a wire rack, place in a pan, and bake in the oven at 160°C. for about 18 minutes. The bacon needs no turning. Covered and uncovered pans for roasting meat. Grindley and Mojoinner state regarding the losses occurring in roasting beef in covered and uncovered pans: ''The total losses were greater when the meats were roasted in a covered pan than when they were cooked m open pans, owing chiefly to the increased amount of water removed. In the same time and at the. same temperature the meat was more thoroughly cooked in the cov- ered than in the open pans, possibly because the temperature of the meat was higher in the closed pan." However, they based their conclusions on results of experiments with 1 covered and 15 open pans. The Cooking Committee of the Cooperative Meat Investigations uses uncovered pans for cooking all experimental roasts and advises the use of uncovered pans in the home. In general the cooking losses are less and the meat more palatable in the uncovered pan, although with such very small 230 MEAT roasts as half of a chicken opposite results may occur. The cooking time is shorter when covered pans are used.