COATING BOLOGNA SAUSAGE NOT NECESSARY TO PREVENT MOULD.
_Query.--E. D. writes: I would like to ask you if you have anything to coat bologna with after making? I think it is called Gloss or Lustre; have seen it used, but have not been able to find out where to get it._
Ans.--What you refer to is Bologna Varnish. The use of such a preparation has been practically discontinued as it does not conform to pure food laws; it is not proper that a varnish should be put on the outside of food of any kind. Bologna Varnish is made from shellac, and shellac is used in all kinds of furniture varnish, so you can readily see that it is not the proper thing to use on Bologna. In former years, the use of varnish was quite general, but it was finally discontinued, and is now practically a thing of the past. If you want to prevent your Bologna from getting mouldy, you should make them as follows: First, cure the meat with =Freeze-Em-Pickle= as directed in our book, “Secrets of Meat Curing and Sausage Making,” and add Bull-Meat-Brand Sausage Binder to the meat, as this absorbs the moisture. Bologna made by the =Freeze-Em-Pickle= Process keeps fine and will not mold for a reasonable length of time.
_Query.--F. B. writes: We have a little meat business and quite often have on hand a surplus of tallow. Now we have been thinking probably we could put this into a soap, something cheap that would not cost us too much to put on the market. Can you kindly give us any information in the matter, and if the idea is a practical one for a small shop like ours?_
Ans.--It would not pay you to undertake to make a hard soap in a small way, as it would be necessary for you to compete with other soaps on the market, and you are aware that laundry soap sells at a very low price and is put upon the market upon a very small margin of profit. You would also find it quite a task to make hard soap, and the time required would hardly justify you to undertake it on a small scale. If you can dispose of soft soap in your locality, we would advise you to use your surplus tallow in that way, but, of course, this suggestion from a financial point of view would depend entirely upon whether there is a sufficient demand for such an article in your vicinity. Possibly you could work up a trade among private families and sell it to them for scrubbing purposes, also to hotels, stores and restaurants, but as your town is small, you might have difficulty in disposing of a sufficient quantity to make it pay you. On the other hand, it would not cost you much to make the experiment. You are surrounded by a good hog-feeding country, and it is possible that you could dispose of quite a quantity of soft soap to the farmers, as it is a very fine thing for hogs, and the truth of the matter is, their hogs would be much better off if they would feed it frequently. You might be benefited more by this suggestion than by sales from other sources.