lecture 13

Combo bins

Large containers used to ship fresh pork bellies and hams to processors.

Townsend skinner

Equipment used to remove skin from pork bellies and hams.

Bettcher Whizard knives

Tools used to trim ragged edges from pork bellies.

Townsend injector

Equipment usually used to pump pork bellies.

Bacon combs

Devices used to hang bellies on trees or trucks before thermal processing.

Pressing

Bacon processing step between chilling and slicing.

Anco slicer

Equipment used to slice bacon.

Premium slices

Highest-quality bacon slice category.

Secondary slices

Bacon slice category below premium slices.

Ends and pieces

Bacon slicing category consisting of end portions and pieces.

Bone-in ham

Traditional cured and smoked ham that retains its bone.

Premium ham

Boneless ham made from completely defatted and deseamed premium muscles.

Formed ham

Boneless ham made with smaller sectioned or chopped muscle pieces bound together.

Collar fat

Fat partly trimmed from traditional bone-in hams before pumping.

Netting

Step immediately after pumping in traditional bone-in ham processing.

Paper wrapping

Step after chilling and before boxing traditional bone-in hams.

Semimembranosus–adductor

Muscle group usually used to make premium hams such as Hormel’s Cure line.

Biceps femoris–semitendinosus

Additional premium muscle group used in boneless hams and chopped for formed hams.

Shank and knuckle

Additional muscle sources used in sectioned or chopped and formed hams.

Tumbling and massaging

Treatments used to make muscle pieces stick together in formed ham.

Ham molds

Devices placed on ham before thermal processing to give it shape.

Bacon sodium nitrite

In-going curing level listed in the lecture: 120 ppm for bacon other than dry cured bacon.

Bacon potassium nitrite

In-going curing level listed in the lecture: 148 ppm for bacon other than dry cured bacon.

Dry-cured sodium nitrite

In-going curing limit listed for dry cured bacon: 200 ppm.

Dry-cured potassium nitrite

In-going curing limit listed for dry cured bacon: 246 ppm.

Ascorbates or erythorbates

Curing level listed for bacon and hams: 550 ppm.

Bacon weight limit

Final bacon weight cannot exceed green weight: 100 percent.

Ham nitrite

In-going curing limit listed for hams: 200 ppm.

PFF regulations

Rules that determine maximum final ham weight.

Bacon processing temperature

Lecture target for thermal processing: 124–126°F.

Appendix A

FSIS guidance referenced for ham thermal processing times and temperatures.

Heat-coagulable proteins

Proteins that allow thermal processing to set premium and formed hams.

Completely cooked hams

Lecture temperature range: 158–162°F.

Moist hardwood sawdust

Material combusted to produce smoke for meat processing.

Liquid smoke

Alternative to smoke produced by combusting moist hardwood sawdust.

Flavor and color

Two sensory properties provided by smoking meat.

Bacteriostatic or bactericidal

Two antimicrobial properties of smoking listed in the lecture.

Higher nitrite allowance

Dry cured bacon allows more in-going nitrite than other bacon, using the same nitrite salt.

Potassium nitrite

Nitrite salt with the higher listed ppm allowance than sodium nitrite for the same bacon curing method.

Higher ham temperature

Ham requires a higher thermal processing temperature than bacon in the lecture.