Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of illness at Mansfield caused by eating potted meat / [G.S. Buchanan].

  • George Seaton Buchanan
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. G.S. Buchanan's report to the Local Government Board on an outbreak of illness at Mansfield caused by eating potted meat / [G.S. Buchanan]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    scraps of meat had been added from elsewhere. Only meat, pepper and salt, and occasionally red colouring matter, were ever employed on his premises in the manufacture of potted meat. Neither the beef used nor the potted meat made on this occasion had been weighed, hut Mr. X. estimated that about 1 cwt. of potted meat had been manufactured. And, judging from the amount of potted meat recorded in Mr. X.’s hooks as having been supplied to retail dealers, and from the quantity which Dr. Wills and I ascertained to have been bought at Mr. X.’s shop, it seemed that at least 1 cwt. had been sold. Now this quantity represented, of course, still more than 1 cwt. of uncooked meat with bone. The hocks of the pigs already referred to would, at Mr. X.’s maximum computation, have weighed 40 lbs. Taking the uncooked meat as 1 cwt. only, there remain, therefore, at least 72 lbs. which, according to Mr. X., consisted of beef from his shop. Mr. X. sold the potted meat to retail tradesmen at 5cl. a lb. He makes potted meat nearly every week in considerable quantity, and finds its manufacture profitable. Y. confirmed Mr. X.’s statements. The beef and pork were, he said, taken by him into the preparing room. There he put them into a large iron boiler, poured in water (obtained from the public supply), lit the fire beneath, and left the compound to stew from between eleven and twelve in the fore¬ noon to five o’clock in the afternoon. Whether the water actually boiled or not he was unable to say.*' At the end of that time Y. removed the meat from the boiler to a large tin bucket. At the same time he ladled some of the gravy from the boiler into a jug, and took it to Mrs. X. to be added to pork pies. He next turned the meat in the bucket out on to a chopping board, freed it from bone with his hands and knife, and then put it, portion by portion, through a revolving mincing machine, adding pepper, salt, and some “ Indian red ” at the same time. As the meat was minced, it was replaced in the bucket. When the mincing was finished the contents of the bucket were divided among several shallow open tins, a little gravy being ladled from the boiler into each tin, in order to give consistency to the potted meat and make it set. The tins, as prepared, were placed on the dresser in the preparing room, and later in the evening were all put on a shelf in the salting room adjoining. It was from this shelf that Mr. X.’s traveller took the meat on the next and subsequent mornings, turning out the contents of each tin as required, and wrapping them in paper. Certain points in connexion with the manufacture thus described require to be noticed. The preparing room is habitually used as the pig slaughter-house of the establishment. On February ]0th, the day before the potted meat was made, four pigs had been slaughtered here—two of the four furnished the hocks added to the preparation. Various pieces of meat from these pigs were used to make brawn on February 11th. The brawn was made in a boiler standing by the side of that used for making potted meat, and both boilers were heated at the same time. On the same day certain other portions of these pigs were made into sausages. Other parts, again, were put into brine tubs for saltinsr. v_/ When I first visited Mr. X., I found that two pigs had just been slaughtered in the preparing room. The carcase of one was suspended with its head in one of the boilers, and was there being scraped. Among other utensils then being used in dressing these carcases was the bowl subsequently pointed out to me as having been employed to ladle the gravy of the potted meat. Indeed, it seemed that the wrorkers in this room bad no exact rule for the employment of particular utensils for particular purposes ; tliose^ in which raw meat and sausage meat were kept and made up, for instance, appeared to be used at other times for cooked brawn and potted meat, and vice versa. The flat tins into which potted meat is placed wdien made were shown to me. Some of these tins had been very indifferently cleaned. The preparing room is distinct from Mr. X.’s shop and dwelling-house. It is a long brick shed, lighted at the top and on one of its sides. The paving, * At my request the boiler was filled with water, and a fire lighted, W&ter was boiling briskly. In less than an hour the