AU5361400A - Method of treating nonpoultry meats - Google Patents

Description

P/00/011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION a a a.

FOR A STANDARD PATENT

ORIGINAL

TO BE COMPLETED BY APPLICANT Name of Applicant: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: WOLF-TEC INC.

Wolfgang Ludwig CALLINAN LAWRIE, 711 High Street, Kew, Victoria 3101, Australia METHOD OF TREATING NONPOULTRY MEATS The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me:- 24/08/00,tdl 1523.cs.doc,l 21208 METHOD OF TREATING NONPOULTRY MEATS

SPECIFICATION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method of treating nonpoultry meats and, particularly, slab-type meat products "i having relatively hard and relatively soft tissue portions and especially such meat products like bacon which can suffer from separation of the fat layers from the muscle tissue.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION It has been recognized in connection with poultry that it can be advantageous to differentially inject solutions S improving the taste, the ability to cook the product and capable of improving the storage-life of the poultry so that, for example, the breast tissue will receive greater amounts of the injected solution while the drumsticks or other portions can receive lesser amounts of the injectable solution (see United States Patents 5,449,524 of 12 September 1995 and 5,505,972 of 9 April 1996). By and large, however injection techniques have not been used with full satisfaction for slab-type nonpoultry !0 meat products like, for example, Canadian bacon, English bacon, Australian bacon and New Zealand bacon.

la- 21208 Such meat products are characterized by an elongated body of loin or eye meat which is relatively tough or firm, adjacent the somewhat softer belly portion which is thinner, is layered with fat, and is prone, upon being injected with a brine solution to separation of the fat layer from the meat and to cause brine pockets.

It is desirable, of course, to introduce brine Ssolutions into such bacon and into other meat products such as hams and the loin portion or back of pork and into other nonpoultry meats such as lamb, veal or beef in conjunction with curing.

The present invention is concerned primarily with such nonpoultry meat products as the bacons mentioned previously and other meat products which are in the form of slabs such as the pork back or loin, hams which have been split for boning and have been spread to form the slab, and, in general, where the meat product has an elongated firmer body of tissue adjacent a body of softer tissue which contains fat which is less able to receive injected brine.

It has now been found that it is possible to inject such slabs of meat by properly orienting the slabs along a path through a pair of zones with which different rates of injection of a brine solution can be effected.

2 21208 OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved method of treating nonpoultry meat products and especially the bacons, hams, loins, beef, veal and lamb products which have been mentioned previously so that drawbacks previously encountered with injection of such meat products can be avoided.

ooooo More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method of treating such meat products whereby the slicing characteristics, flavor and uniformity are all improved and disadvantages such as separation of fat layers or formation of brine pockets are prevented or minimized.

S-SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained in accordance with the invention in a S: method of treating a nonpoultry meat product consisting of a slab of meat having an elongated lower-fat, firmer body of tissue alongside a higher-fat, softer body of tissue, which comprises the steps of: ?0 providing along a path of the slabs at least two injection zones with respective arrays of hollow needles pressurized with an injection brine to deliver different quantities of the brine per unit area of the zones; 3 21208 feeding a succession of the slabs through the zones while orienting the slabs so that the lower fat firmer body of tissue is exposed to the array of needles of the zone delivering a greater quantity of brine per unit area and the higher fat softer body of tissue is exposed to the array of needles of the zone delivering a lesser quantity of brine per unit area; and injecting the brine into the slab with the arrays of needles in respective quantities per unit area until each slab has received a predetermined total quantity of the brine.

:0 According to a feature of the invention the arrays have hollow needles of the same diameter and spacing and the brine is supplied to the needles of the arrays at different pressures.

S Alternatively the hollow needles can be of different diameters and the brine can be supplied at the same pressure to both arrays.

The invention is preferably applicable to slabs of bacon, usually referred to as back bacon, in which the loin portion is firmer and has a lower fat bacon than the belly portion with its higher fat content and softer tissue. The invention is also applicable to other pieces of meat, including pork, beef, lamb and other nonpoultry meats which are of generally slab shape and, in the case of hams, the slab shape can be formed by splitting and boning the ham.

Generally the meat which is treated according to the invention can be further cured, e.g. by smoking and in the case 4 21208 of hams, can be placed into a net bag and tied to restore the general shape of the original ham, i.e. the ham prior to boning.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The above and other objects, features, and advantages will become more readily apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which: *FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view diagrammatically illustrating a slab of back bacon to which the method of the invention is applicable; 0 FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic illustration of one embodiment of the invention; and 00 FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 2 of a second embodiment; FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic illustration of a ham with the bone in; 1 FIG. 5 spread to form a FIG. 6 VI-VI of FIG. !0 FIG. 7 injection of the is a diagrammatic illustration of the bone ham, slab; is a cross sectional view taken along the line is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing the slab of FIGS. 5 and 6; and FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 2 showing the injection of a Canadian bacon or boneless pork loin according to the invention.

5 21208 SPECIFIC DESCRIPTION In the drawing we have shown in FIG. 1 a slab of bacon in cross section and in which the belly portion of the slab adjoins the loin portion 12 or eye of the slab. The whole unit is also referred to as a middle. The belly portion 11 generally has fat layers 13 interspersed therein and, when injected with a brine at the same rate as the loin portion, is subject to iseparation of the fat layers from the muscle tissue, formation of *ooo brine pockets and has a saltier flavor due to the fat not o. absorbing the brine.

In the case of Australian bacon, the slabs may weigh 9 kilograms or more and have a length of 600 to 800 mm and width of 400 to 500 mm. The thickness of the loin portion may be up to 100 mm and the width of the loin portion may be 75 mm or more.

In the case of New Zealand bacon the middles are somewhat smaller ooo* and weigh about 7 kilograms.

The meat can be injected with up to 40% brine solution S. and it has been found to be advantageous to inject the meat with needles having an internal diameter of 3 or 4 mm at injection 0 pressures of 2 to 4 bar.

As shown in FIG. 2, for this purpose, the injection machine may have its needle head 20 subdivided into two zones 21 and 22 with hollow needles 23 and 24, respectively. In this case, the zone 22 can have a width of around 75 mm and the zone 21 can have a width of approximately 350 mm.

6 21208 In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the hollow needles 23 have inner diameters of 3 mm while the needles 24 have inner diameters of 4 mm and both sets of needles are supplied at the same pressure 2 bar) by the brine pump 25 from the brine tank 26.

The needles can be provided in four or more transverse rows and with a spacing between the needles of say 1.2 mm.

e*ee 9ego The slabs 10 are carried past the needling machine on a 999999 belt 30 and the belt 30 can be provided with a stop 31 in the form of a wall extending along the belt and serving to position the slab so that the loin portion 12 will pass beneath the zone 22 while the belly portion 11 passes beneath the zone 21 for injection of a smaller amount per unit area of brine in the belly region than in the loin region.

-In the embodiment of FIG. 3, the brine is fed to the zones 21 and 22 which have hollow needles 23 of the same internal diameter and spacing by different pumps 25 and 25' or the same S: pump connected in a system creating a pressure differential so that a higher pressure can be supplied to zone 22 than to zone 21. For example, the brine may be fed to zone 21 at a pressure of 2 bar whereas the brine is supplied to zone 22 with a pressure of 4 bar.

The method of the invention precludes or greatly reduces fat layer separation at the belly portion, and yields a more uniform salt distribution and a better slicing yield than could have been obtained heretofore.

7 21208 Of course the method of the invention is also applicable to meat which may not be smoked and utilizes the injected liquid as a marinade.

A typical brine formula for bacon or ham, injected overall in an amount of 27% with a cooking yield of 16% can be composed of (in parts by weight): water 100 salt (sodium chloride) 8.96 flavor 4.98 sodium pyrophosphate 1.49 sodium nitrite 0.06 sodium erythorbate 0.35 *e brown sugar 2.55 An injectable marinate formula for pork loin, beef and ham which can be used as a 20% marination inject, comprises in parts by weight: water 100 salt (sodium chloride) 5.66 soluble celery 0.17 sodium pyrophosphate 1.70 sodium citrate (IONAL® WTI) 5.66 From FIG. 4, it will be apparent that a ham 50 can have its bone 51 removed and can be opened up into a slab 52 which is referred to as a boneless ham and comprises the knuckle 52a, the bottom round 52b and the top round 52c as can be seen in FIGS. and 6. The bottom round 52b is a tough firm tissue while the 8 21208 knuckle 52a and the top round are softer tissue. As a consequence, when the slab 52 on the belt 53 is passed through the injecting machine and is placed against the positioning fence 54, the knuckle 52a and the top round 52c are aligned with the zones 55a and 55c having the smaller needles or the zones having the needles at lower pressure for reduced injection in these regions. The bottom round portion 52b, however, is aligned with the zone 55b with the larger diameter needles for greater brine i injection in accordance with the principles described.

The method of the invention is also applicable to Canadian bacon or boneless pork loin as represented at 60 and having a region 60a of soft tissue and a region 60b of firmer tissue. The pork loin is placed on the belt 61 and against the fence 62 of the injection machine on a bias or diagonal so that the parts 60a and 60b will be injected in the zones 63a and 63b of lesser and greater marinate injection capacity, respectively, as the pork loin passes through the injection head 63 of the machine.

Where the terms "comprise", "comprises", "comprised" or "comprising" are used in this specification, they are to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps or components referred to, but not to preclude the presence or addition of geone or more other feature, integer, step, component or group thereof.

9

Claims (2)

1. 6. The method defined in claim 1 wherein said slabs are hams formed by splitting and boning a respective ham.
2. 7. The method defined in claim 1, further comprising 0S 2 the step of smoking the meat of the respective slab. ge- Dated this 25 h day of August, 2000. WOLF-TEC INC. By their Patent Attorneys: 16 A"L- CALLINAN LAWRIE 11