All Packers who have a properly built cooler for chilling hogs and who are property equipped with an ice machine will find the following rules will give the best results. Those who are not properly equipped should try to follow these rules as closely as they can with their equipment.

A hog chill room should be down to from 28 to 32 degrees Fahrenheit when the hogs are run into it. As the cooler is filled, the temperature will be raised to as high as 45 or 46 degrees F., but enough refrigeration must be kept on so the temperature is brought down to 36 degrees by the end of 12 hours after the cooler is filled, and then the temperature must be gradually reduced down as low as 32 degrees by the time the carcasses have been in the cooler 48 hours. In other words, at the end of 48 hours the cooler must be down to 32 degrees.

All large hog coolers should be partitioned off between each section of timbers, into long alleys, so that each alley can be kept at its own temperature.

In the improper chilling of the carcasses lies the greatest danger of spoiling the meat. The greatest care must be given to the proper chilling, for if the carcasses are not properly chilled, it will be very difficult to cure the meat, and it will be liable to sour in the curing. Meat from improperly chilled carcasses, even with the greatest care afterwards, will not cure properly. Therefore, one of the first places to look for trouble when Hams are turning out sour is to look to the chilling of the meat, as it is nine chances out of ten that this is where the trouble started from. We have found by experience that by deviating only a few degrees from these set rules, the percentage of sour meat is surprisingly increased.

It has always been considered an absolute necessity to have an open air hanging room to allow the hogs to cool off in the open air before they are run into the cooler. It has always been considered that this saves considerable money in the refrigeration of the hogs. However, by the experiments made in some of the large Packing Houses, it has been demonstrated that this economy is very much over-estimated. There are certain conditions which must be closely adhered to for the safe handling and curing of pork products, and the most important of these is the proper temperature. In the outside atmosphere the proper temperature rarely prevails. Hogs that are left in the open air on the hanging floor over night are generally either insufficiently chilled or are over-chilled the next morning, depending upon the outside temperature of the air. We feel that it is of advantage, however, to run the hogs into an outside hanging room and to allow them to dry for one or two hours before putting them into the chilling room.

Packers who cure large quantities of hogs must see to it that their chill rooms are properly constructed and have sufficient refrigeration, so the temperature can be kept under perfect control at all times. The cooler should be partitioned off lengthwise, between each line of posts, making long alleys to run the hogs into, each one of which can be regulated as to its temperature separately from the others. The hogs can be run into one of these alleys as fast as they are killed and should the temperature get up above 50 degrees F., the hogs can be run out of this into another. The cooler in which hogs are chilled should never go above 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and a properly constructed cooler can be kept below this temperature.

While the cooler is being filled, the temperature should be held at between 45 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and should be kept at this temperature for about two hours after filling. At the end of two hours, all of the vapor will have passed away, being taken up by and frozen onto the refrigerator pipes, and the hogs will begin to dry. When the hogs begin to show signs of drying, or in about two hours after the refrigerator is filled, more refrigeration should be turned on, and the temperature should be gradually brought down, so that in twelve hours from the time the cooler is filled, the temperature should be brought down to 36 or 37 degrees temperature Fahrenheit. If the temperature is not brought down to 36 or 37 degrees F. in 12 hours it means a delay in removing the animal heat, and a tendency for decomposition to set in. If the temperature is brought down lower than 32 degrees Fahrenheit during the first 12 hours, the outside surface of the carcasses are too rapidly chilled, which tends to retard the escape of the animal heat. It is known, from practical experience, that where the meat is chilled through rather slowly, the animal heat leaves the meat more uniformly. Too rapid chilling on the outside seems to clog up the outside of the meat so that the heat in the thick portions does not readily escape.

The first 12 hours of the chilling of all kinds of meat and the removal of the animal heat during this period is the most important part of the chilling. After that period, the proper temperature is of much less vital importance.

Hogs that are to be cut up for curing should never be cut up sooner than 48 hours after being killed, and the temperature of the cooler should be gradually brought down to 28 degrees Fahrenheit by the time the hogs are taken out of the chill room to be cut up. After the hogs have been in the cooler 12 hours the temperature should gradually be brought down from 36 degrees at the end of the first 12 hours, to 28 degrees at the end of 48 hours; that is, if the hogs are to be cut up 48 hours after they are killed. If they are to be cut up 72 hours after being killed, the temperature should be brought down gradually from 36 degrees at the end of the first 12 hours, to 30 degrees F. at the end of 72 hours. This would mean that the temperature should be brought down from 36 degrees to 30 degrees F., if the hogs are to be cut up at the end of 72 hours, or a lowering of six degrees in practically 58 hours; or a lowering of eight degrees, from 36 to 28 Fahrenheit, if the hogs are to be cut up in 48 hours after being killed. This means a reduction in temperature of about one degree for every eight hours. This does not mean that the six or eight degrees should be reduced in two hours’ time, for if that were done the meat would be frozen.

In a large Packing House, where the cooler is properly equipped, and one has a good attendant, these instructions can be carried out in detail. When the foregoing instructions are carefully followed, the safe curing of the product will be assured.

While the curing of course requires careful attention, yet, if the chilling is not done properly, the curing will never be perfect.

The floors of coolers should always be kept sprinkled with clean sawdust, as this will absorb drippings and assist in keeping the cooler clean and sweet. If the drippings from hogs are allowed to fall on the bare floor, the cooler will soon become sour and this will affect the meat that hangs over it.