EARL H. HoSTETLER
N o r t h Carolina S t a t e College
Cooperative Meat Investigations were begun with pork in
1919 under the name of Soft Pork Investigations. At that
time soft pork was a problem only to the southern states.
Later, station workers in other sections of the country joined
with those in the south to work cooperatively with the United
States Bureau of Animal Industry on a problem which had
become of national concern.
Early Experiments
The plan of the earlier experiments placed the m a j o r emphasis on efforts to "harden" carcasses of pigs t h a t had been
fed softening feeds. However, as other states became interested and the work progressed, it was found that there were
factors others than feed that caused soft pork, such as the
rate of gain, i m m a t u r i t y or degree of finish, thrift, weight
when changed from softening to hardening feeds, and ratio
of gain on softening feed to gain on hardening feed; although
feeds containing high percentages of oil continued to be primarily responsible for soft and oily pork.
Peanuts
It was found t h a t pigs with initial weights of 100 pounds
or more fed appreciable amounts of peanuts, then finished on
a ration of corn supplemented with tankage or fish meal would
not produce carcasses that compared favorably in firmness
with those from pigs that had been fed t h r o u g h o u t on a corntankage or corn-fish meal ration. On the other hand, pork of
satisfactory quality was produced when pigs were fed peanuts until t h e y reached average weights of approximately 100
pounds and were then changed to a ration in which brewers
rice had been substituted for corn or in which 13';,~, or more of
cottonseed meal had been added to the corn-tankage ration.
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Soybeans
The carcasses of pigs fed soybeans have varied in firmness
when the soybeans were self fed, free choice, with corn in dry
lot or when corn and soybeans were grown t o g e t h e r and
"hogged off", but when it is realized t h a t soybeans are more
palatable to and are consumed in greater quantities by some
pigs t h a n others, it is n a t u r a l to expect t h a t these carcasses
would vary in firmness. When a m i x t u r e of either nine or
twelve parts of corn and one part of soybeans was fed with
minerals to.pigs having initial weights of 100 pounds or more
t h a t made average daily gains of not less than one and onethird pounds, the carcasses were usually firm, but pigs with
initial weights of 100 pounds or less t h a t gained a m a x i m u m
of 1 pound daily on either of these feed combinations t h r o u g h
a period of f i f t e e n weeks or less, have produced soft carcasses
in a m a j o r i t y of cases.
Effect of Initial Weight
F i r m carcasses have been produced in approximately 70%
of the cases when pigs with initial weights of 125 pounds or
m o r e were used to hog d o w n corn and soybeans t h r o u g h a period of eight weeks, provided these pigs made an average daily
gain of a t least 1.5 pounds. When the rate of gain was 1.4
pounds or less, only approximately 50% of the carcasses were
firm. Even lighter pigs (111 to 124 pounds) t h a t made an
average gain of 1.5 pounds or more daily for approximately
eight weeks, produced f i r m carcasses in approximately 70%
of the cases, whereas only about 30% of the carcasses were of
satisfactory firmness from these pigs when the average daily
gains were 1.4 pounds or less.
The importance of initial weight and rate of gain is f u r t h e r
demonstrated in results from the Indiana Station in which
shelled corn and soybeans were self fed free choice to pigs on
legume pasture. Under this s y s t e m of feeding, with or without minerals, carcasses f r o m pigs with initial weights of 75
pounds or more t h a t made average daily gains of 1.65 pounds
or more t h r o u g h a period of 13 weeks, were of s a t i s f a c t o r y
f i r m n e s s ; while those carcasses from pigs with initial weights
of 50 pounds or less t h a t made average daily gains of 1.4
pounds or less t h r o u g h a period of 15 weeks, lacked firmness.
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Cooked Soybeans
The cooking of soybeans had no appreciable effect on the
the firmness of the carcasses, since pigs with initial weights
from 40 to 70 pounds that were fed corn, cooked soybeans and
mineral have produced carcasses of approximately the same
degree of firmness at comparable finished weights as similar
pigs that were fed an identical ration except that raw soybeans
were used.
The data from these results show the importance of minerals in a ration containing soybeans, since the addition of a
mineral mixture to a corn-soybean ration was responsible for
more rapid and greater gains, and firmer carcasses were produced from soybean fed hogs when a mineral supplement was
added to the ration.
The more definite laboratory, cooking and palatability
studies that have been made in recent years of the cuts from
carcasses of pigs that have been fed in carefully controlled
experiments, have brought to light some interesting results.
For example, it is quite generally recognized t h a t soft pork
is objectionable to the packer, retailer, and consumer because
of its physical condition, b u t when fresh hams from peanut
and corn-fed pigs were cooked in an identical manner these
differences disappear. In fact, the much talked-of superior
flavor of the peanut ham was indistinguishable in the judgment of the committee who tasted the representative samples
of cooked meat.
Fish Meal
Fish meal has come to be regarded with a great deal of favor
by swine feeders in the coast states, and experiments have
shown it to be equal or slightly superior to 60~; tankage as
a supplement to corn. Palatability tests of the cooked meat
have also shown that as much as 10~/~ of a pig's ration up to
100 pounds in weight and 7.5~i~; from t h a t stage to approximately 225 pounds finished weight m a y consist of Menhaden
fish meal and still impart no objectionable odor or flavor to
t h e carcass.
The recently undertaken retarded-growth work has opened
up one of the most promising lines of pork research. The re-
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suits to date indicate t h a t there is a relation between rate of
growth, as controlled by level of feeding and palatability of
the cooked meat.
COOPERATIVE MEAT INVESTIGATIONS
SUMMARY OF RESULTS OF COOKING MEATS
LUCY M. ALEXANDER
U. S. Department o/ Agriculture
Seven years ago a report was presented to this society on
the newly organized national project "A Study of Factors
Which Influence the Quality and Palatability of Meat" (later
"Cooperative Meat Investigations"). In t h a t report cooking
was named as a phase of the project. This marked a new era
in the study of m e a t production. Through years and years
of experimentation prior to the organization of the national
meat project livestock studies had ended with the slaughter
of the animal. Now production practices are being put to the
"table t e s t " and it is possible to measure results in t e r m s of
probable consumer satisfaction. The added value t h a t this
test contributes to production studies is undoubtedly worth
m a n y times w h a t it costs. At the same time the new project
on meat has opened to home economists a field of far-reaching
possibilities in experimental cookery. That some progress
has been made in this field is shown by your president's request for a s u m m a r y of our accomplishments to be presented
to you at this time.
Standard Methods Necessary
When called upon to cook cuts from animals of known history, the first task was to work out a standard method of preparation. For beef ribs the foundation had already been laid
by the Illinois station where experiments carried out about the
year 1900 had shown the advantages of roasting this cut in an
open pan without water. They found t h a t uniform cooking
with small shrinkage resulted from the use of a high oven
t e m p e r a t u r e (250~ and above) to sear the meat, and a sharp