The use of nitrites and nitrates in meat curing has been one of the most researched matters in food science for many years. Over the years I have dedicated an enormous amount of time to understand not just its chemistry, but also the history of its use. Here I want to list all the work I have done on the subject The one document where I try and pull everything together is Bacon Curing – a Historical Review. I deal with its chemistry in an elementary manner in Bacon & the Art of Living, my book on the history of meat curing in Chapter two, The Curing Molecule.
The quest has been for years to try and find a way to cure meat without using nitrites and nitrates directly. It has recently been discovered that nitrate and nitrite are of huge physiological importance to humans. As such, the value of a quest to eliminate it from food must be reconsidered. This leads me to as the question:
It has been discovered in recent years that bacterial fermentation of meat yields nitric oxide which cures meat. A fundamental question follows namely if it is possible to have cured meat without any nitrites and nitrite present. I am not talking about using nitrite and nitrite but the newly developed meat fermentation systems. It is possible to effect curing without the use of nitrates and nitrites directly or indirectly. However, from a consideration of the various reactive nitrogen species, the question comes up if nitrite and nitrate will not eventually form in meat where nitric oxide is present.
Still, understanding the curing reaction should be the starting point for the serious meat curer. This led me to investigate the various reactions relevant to our trade.
Not just are the reactions beautiful and fascinating, but the history of its use and the development of the art of curing meat is without a question one of the most exciting stories never told!
In the history of our art, one man stands tall as one of the most influential in the development of nitrite curing. I dedicate an entire section to the history of this remarkable man.
Nitrite curing was commercialized in 1918 and the impetus for its global spread following WW2 was the work of the Griffith Laboratories on the back of the work of Nachtmüllner. The German and American affinity for the direct use of sodium nitrite was however not shared internationally and in England in particular they have accessed nitrite for a very long time using bacterial fermentation of the brine itself. In the next section, I explore the development of curing systems pre-1918. In the next section, I review the major curing systems that have been used around the world since before nitrite curing became commonplace.
The Life and Times of George Samworth Sen. - Foundation of Greatness!
Eben van Tonder
3 September 2021
Introduction
One of the iconic food producers in England is without question, the legendary Samworth Brothers. As an amateur food historian, my interest in the company is obvious. They owe their existence to the visionary work of several generations, beginning with George Samworth Sen, father of George Samworth born in 1868 who was the father of the Samworth Brothers George and Frank. Much has been written about George Samworth (born in 1868), but what do we know about his dad who was himself a pig buyer in Birmingham? As will be seen in this article, the legacy of this extraordinary family started with whom I will refer to for sake of clarity as George Samworth (I) and his son, born in 1868, George Samworth (II).
In 1896, his son George (II) would set up his own business as a pig dealer in Birmingham. Their existence spanned a time in England when the English pig breeds were established, the industrialisation of the meat processing trade took place and when the English producers had to weather the storm of the intense onslaught of foreign firms trying to wrestle slices of the lucrative English meat market from their hands. In the immortal words of Charles Dickens, “it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness,” and in the life of George Samworth Senor and Junior, it was in a real sense their spring of hope.
Despite the lack of information on the life of George (I), I pressed on to glean insight into the times he lived and the man he was.
First I ask the question if it is possible to know what the discussions would have been around the dinner table of a pig trader in Birmingham towards the last half of the 1800s.
A. Dinner Table Conversations with George Samworth (I)
History provides ample information to know with a great degree of certainty the discussions they would have had around the dinner table in their Birmingham home.
Birmingham Above Knockcroghery
Birmingham, at this time, was and remained a key hub for the hog trade, linking the central and northern counties with the all-important southern counties well into the 1900s. The south with its dairy industries took the lead in hog production but this does not mean that the north and centre of England were not important and the key hub in this epic drama was Birmingham!
An example of its importance in the first half of the 1900s can be seen in a comparison that was made between Birmingham and the Irish village of Knockcroghery in the county of Roscommon almost right in the centre of Ireland. In a 1939 publication (Díosbóireachtaí Párlaiminte) the author mentions that if pork producers from this Irish town would bring their pigs to the Birmingham market, they would leave with £2000 more in their pocket than if they sold it in their home town the next day.
Joseph Harris, writing his epic work on pork husbandry in 1885 writes about the Birmingham pig market and says “Birmingham has long been one of the greatest pig markets in the kingdom, and the pig breeding of the district has been not a little affected and improved by the winter fat-stock show which has for some years been held here at Bingley Hall, with great success.” This places George Samworth Senior in a city, as important to the hog trade as Calne and Gillingham.
Getting into the Mind of a Hog-Man in the late 1800s
Besides confirmation of the importance of Birmingham, Harris’s writing gives us a glimpse into the mind of a hog man in the late 1800s and by extension, into the mind of George Samworth. This was his world and these are the times when he was growing up and when he started his career. In the dinner conversation with George and his family, these are exactly the kind of things that would be discussed.
Hot topics at this time were the development of the Berkshire and Tamworth breeds and here Birmingham played a key role. Harris writes, “The town of Birmingham unites Staffordshire and Warwickshire. The old Warwickshire breed was a white or partly-coloured animal of the old-fashioned farm-yard type and has never been improved into a special breed. The Staffordshire breed was the “Tam worth.” At present, the Tamworth is rapidly going out of favor with farmers, from the want of aptitude to fatten, and are being replaced by useful pigs, the result of miscellaneous crosses of no special character. The best is the middle-sized white pigs, a cross of the Cumberland-York with local white breeds, often called the Cheshire. The northern cross improves the constitution, and gives hair of the right quality, hard, but not too much or too coarse.” (Harris, 1885)
“At Bingley Hall, the class of Berkshire breeding-pigs under six months old generally brings from twenty to twenty-five pens. At present, however, the Berkshires in the Birmingham district are chiefly in the hands of amateur farmers, tenant farmers not having taken very kindly to them.” (Harris, 1885)
“But the breed must be spreading rapidly if the ready sale of the young pigs at the Birmingham show be taken as evidence.” (Harris, 1885)
“Mr Joseph Smith, of Henley-in-Arden, one of the most successful exhibitors of Berkshires, keeps three or four sows, and sells all their young; and others find the demand for young pigs constant throughout the year.” (Harris, 1885)
“Mr Thomas Wright, of Quirry House, Great Barr, (who did so much toward founding the Bingley Hall show) considers the cross of the Berkshire with the Tam worth produces the most profitable bacon pigs in the kingdom, the Berkshire blood giving an extraordinary tendency to feed, and securing the early maturity in which alone the Tamworth breed is deficient. The cross of the Berkshire boar with large white sows has been found to produce most satisfactory results to plain farmers. My own notion with regard to all agricultural stock is, that we should abandon crosses and stick to our pure breeds, adapting them to our particular wants by careful selection.” (Harris, 1885)
“The Tamworth breed is a red, or red-and-black pig, hardy, prolific, and the best specimens well-shaped, but slow in maturing. It seems a near relation to the old Berkshire; but modern Berks breeders carefully exclude all red-marked pigs from their breeding-sheds. Reddish hairs at the tips of the ears of Essex would be permitted and admired. Mr Alderman Baldwin, of Birmingham, is a noted breeder of this hardy, useful pig, which, however, does not seem to have any success as a prize winner. At the Royal Agricultural Show at Warwick, 1859, the Yorkshire and Berkshire breeds divided all the honors.” (Harris, 1885)
Improving the breeds was the talk of the town and George Samworth found himself in the middle of these developments.
Improved Oxfordshire
Birmingham, with its close proximity to Oxfordshire, would have been up to date with developments from this productive part of the country. The information is fascinating as it gives us the mechanism of introducing foreign genetics into the English hog gene pool.
An Essex Boar (Harris, 1885)
Harris writes about the Improved Oxfordshire the following: “These black pigs,” says Mr Sidney, “although they are scarcely numerous enough to enable them to claim the title of a breed, are interesting, because representing a successful attempt to unite the best qualities of the Berkshire and improved Essex. The old Oxfordshire breed was very like the old Berkshire. The first great improvement is traced to two Neapolitan boars imported by the late Duke of Marlborough when Marquis of Blandford, and presented by him to Mr Druce, senior, of Eynsham, and the late Mr Smallbones, in 1837. These Neapolitans were used with Berkshire sows, some of which were the result of Chinese crosses. Two families of jet black pigs were formed by Mr Smallbones and Mr Druce. On the death of Mr Smallbones, Mr Samuel Druce, jun., purchased the best of his stock, and had from his father, and also from Mr Fisher Hobbs, improved Essex boars. The produce was a decided “bit,” and very successful at local, Royal, and Smithfield Club shows. The improved Oxfords are of fair size, and all black, with a fair quantity of hair, very prolific, and good mothers and sucklers.” (Harris, 1885)
“Mr Samuel Druce writes me: ‘I have recently raised one of Mr Crisp’s black Suffolk boars. In fact, wherever opportunity offers, I obtain good fresh blood of a suitable black breed, with the view of obtaining more lean meat than the Essex, better feeding qualities than the pure Berkshires, and plenty of constitution. I have never been troubled with any diseases among my pigs. Without change of boars of a different tribe, if of the same breed, constitution cannot be preserved. Where breeding in and – in from a limited stock is persisted in, constitution is lost, the produce of each sow becomes small in size and few in number. ‘The Oxford dairy farms have a first-rate market for pork in the University. Porkers at thirteen to sixteen weeks are wanted to weigh 60 lbs. to 90 lbs.; bacon pigs at nine to ten months, 220 lbs. to 280 lbs., but at that age, the improved Oxfords are easily brought to 400 lbs.” (Harris, 1885)
Essex Sow (Harris, 1885)
These were some of the things important to hog-men in Birmingham when George Samworth (I) was cutting his teeth in pig dealings. It is clear that there were a lot of technical developments taking place at this time. It is strange to think that pig breeding was at one point the “Silicon Valley-style” cutting-edge technology that grabbed the attention of young people but such were the times when George Samworth started his career. He certainly had the mind to understand it and the skill to put his knowledge to use.
The Pig Buyer
It is true that companies and people who excel in bacon and ham production have an intimate knowledge of pork farming and nutrition. The different disciplines go hand in hand. Over the years I have become familiar with most positions held related to the pork trade by, at some point, doing every conceivable job in the processing plant. I spend many days on pork farms as we integrated the requirements from the processing plant with what is delivered to the abattoir by the farmer. The one position which I never gave a second thought to and that suddenly became the focus of my interest after started doing work on the life of George Samworth is the role and life of the pig buyer.
The key function is fairly obvious – they bought pigs as intermediaries between the farmer and the factory. We get a glimpse of the role of the pig buyers from Ruth Guiry (2016). She is writing about life in another key hog town, Limerick in Ireland, but the function and role of the pig buyer could not have been much different in Birmingham. She writes that “the number of pigs produced by ‘small man’s industry’ in the city’s lanes could not meet the constant demands of the bacon factories, so a constant supply of good quality pigs from elsewhere was necessary to ensure the continual working and profitability of the bacon factories. The pig buyers … therefore played a central role in the success of the bacon industry, linking the farmers who produced the pigs with the factories that processed them. While many buyers were independent, others were employed directly by the bacon factories to source pigs at fairs..” (Guiry, 2016)
The pig trader was a skilled person. Guiry gives the following insight on the skill of the pig buyer which dovetails beautifully with the preceding section where we tried to glean insight into the dinner conversations in the Samworth household. She writes that “these pig buyers were known to be skilled, knowledgeable men who were able to quickly and accurately estimate the value of an animal …. They ensured a high quality of animal for the bacon factories, checking that a pig wasn’t too fat or too lean, that its limbs were of the right proportion and the health of the animal adequate.” (Guiry, 2016)
She mentions that the pig buyer often had to travel through the country in the course of their work. The “pig buying” happened at the station, at shows and also in the country. She describes the comradery among the pig buyers. Again, her focus is on the pig buyers in Limerick, but it is easy to see how it could be transferred to the buyers in Birmingham. She writes, “The Gores, they were from Waterford, now I know some of the Cork people, in rugby, and there’s one of them there, but Noel Murphy people were in Cork Rugby, they were pig buyers as well from Cork…well involved, they would all book into the same place …. these nights away … before the fairs, were sort of rousing affairs, you get all the pig buyers from … in the one boarding house … the crack was good like.” (Guiry, 2016)
The pig buyers often had their own lorries to transport the pigs to the abattoirs. Pig buying was a lucrative business with many pig buyers owning large properties so that they could keep some of the pigs in their back yard or somewhere else on their property. One of their other duties became the calibration of the scales. Falconer (1916) reports that it became customary for the pig buyers in Birmingham to calibrate the scales every morning. They would place half a cwt* or cwt* on the platform and then they adjusted the index till it showed a cwt* or half a cwt*.
The legendary Phil Armour from Chicago generated the funds required to start his packing plant through retail stores he started after selling equipment at the Californian gold rush. Sir David de Villiers Graaf of South Africa secured the funding for his meat enterprise through clever legal footwork after the Cape government forced him out of his shop to build the Cape Town Railway station. George Samworth (I), I suspect, did this through pig buying! Far from being a peripheral function, I now understand that the role of the pig buyer was key to the success of the meat processing trade and there was a lot of money in this line of work.
The story is usually taken up with the life of George Samworth (II), born in 1868. (1) Having looked at what certainly would have occupied the thinking of George Samworth (I), we delve into the annals of history to see if there are any tangible footprints left about him. Beaver & Lawrence (2005) begins the account of the life of his son, George Samworth (II) in riveting style. They write that he left school at age eleven and, “after trying a number of jobs in agriculture, found employment with a consortium of Birmingham pig dealers.” This means that he finally got employment with the same group that George (I), his father was associated with. I set out to see if I could find any information on his dad. A tantalising bit of information comes to us courtesy of the Birmingham Daily Post, 3 December 1892.
B. In the Shoes of George Samworth (I)
A Great Heritage from George Samworth (I)
The newspaper article reports that George Samworth, Sen. pig dealer, New Canal Street was summoned for selling ten pigs at the cattle siding at the London and North-Western Railway in Fazeley Street in violation of the markets clauses of the Consolidation Act.
It is here that we find a unique insight into the character of this remarkable man! Mr Bell (from the Town Clerk’s office) prosecuted and Mr O’Connor defended. Mr Bell said that inspector Wiltshire went to the Fazeley street siding on the 27th of October, and from what he heard went to the defendant and asked him if he had sold any pigs there. He said he did not, but the inspector subsequently saw a man named Laxton, of Coventry, who would be called, and who would state that the defendant sold him the two pigs remarking that he was fairly caught. Mr Bell then read the 90th of the Consolidation Act of 1883, under which the summons was taken out, however, because it was a fact that dealers carried on business in the cattle siding, which was an improper place, whilst the Corporation had provided a pig market at an expense of some £34 000.
– “Mr Brame: Is this part of the new pig market that the pig dealers themselves have provided?”
– “Mr Bell: Oh, no.”
– “Arthur Wiltshire, an inspector, gave evidence bearing out Mr Bell’s opening statement and said that defendant remarked “They tell me you have fairly caught me, but I will not let you do it any more. I am not going to sell any more pigs on the sidings.” The new market was open at the time“.
– “Mr Carter: It is not customary to allow pigs to be sold in the sidings?”
“Witness: No.”
– “Mr Laxton also gave evidence“.
– “O’Connor: Was the old market crowned?“
“Witness: No.”
– “What was it moved for? Because they wanted it for vegetables.”
– “Mr O’Connor said that there was no intention on the part of the defendant to commit an offence, and he would ask the Bench to bear in mind that the new pig market had only been opened on the day on which the offence was committed, and the Act required, and the Act required that the market should be opened before the offence could be committed.”
In the 1891 England & Wales Census, George is listed as a pig dealer, 41 at the time. His oldest son George was 22. We know that George (II) was born in 1868 which would have made him 22 at the time of the census, thus confirming we are dealing with the right family. The census report that his wife was Mary Samworth and that they had 10 children and one servant. The kids were George (22), Charles (19), Ernest (14), Louisa (12), Sara (10), Helen (8), Emily (7), Edith (5), William (3) and Sydney (8 months).
From this, we have a few important clues besides the fact that we are talking about the right person, the father of the man who would become the father of the Samworth Brothers, George and Frank. The fact that he had a servant is the first clue that he was successful in his trade and a man of means. The 1891 senses list the occupation of George Samworth, son of George Samworth also as a pig dealer which all confirm that we are on the right track.
The Back Story – Courtesy of Kieron McMahon**
Let’s leave the details of the court case aside for a moment and reflect on the fact that George Samworth was a pig dealer, had a servant and lived in a comfortable dwelling in Birmingham. More information came to light which confirms this and gives us remarkable insight into the man, his character and abilities and the environment where George Samworth, his son and father of the Samworth Brothers grew up in. It comes to us in the form of the back story to the events described in the newspaper article above, courtesy of Kieron McMahon, a world-class blogger from England and his site, Midlands Pubs, Birmingham.
Old Pig Market, Bordesley St & Allison St, courtesy of Google Earth.
Stone in Bordesley Street, laid by Joseph Horton, Esq. on 16 February 1892.
On the corner of Bordesley Street and Allison Street, Birmingham is a three-gabled brick building that was erected in 1891/2. It is the old pig market. Joseph Horton Esq. was the man responsible for identifying a suitable pig market. Two sites were identified, one on Montague Street and the other on Albert Street. The pig dealers preferred the latter. Due to problems obtaining the properties, the Bordesley & Allison site was seen as a good compromise by the pig dealers. The Corporation did not see it their way and so started what became known as the Pig Market Dispute.
Pig buying in Birmingham was monopolised at this time in the hands of a few men who were known as the Birmingham Pig Salesmen’s Association. One of them was George Samworth who was one of the men spearheading the development of the Bordesley & Allison site. It was a private enterprise. The other men who took the lead in the construction with George Samworth were Daniel John Foster, Joseph Doolan, Patrick Long, Joseph Gosling and John Jones. The design of the building was done by Owen & Ward.
The Corporation preferred the Montague Street site which the pig traders never liked. They nevertheless pressed on with their development and the two sites were effectively constructed at the same time. The Bordesley & Allison site was completed first in what was a race to see who would finish their construction first and was opened in 1892.
The Corporation responded with legal action against George Samworth, Daniel John Foster, Joseph Doolan, Patrick Long, Joseph Gosling and John Jones to stop pig trading at the site, claiming that it “infringed the manorial rights and statutory rights of the Corporation who collected tolls on the sales of livestock.“( McMahon) The Pig Market Dispute went on for some time. Essentially, there could not be two pig markets in Birmingham and sales at this site ceased in the late 1890s.
Fazley street where George sold the pigs which landed him in a spot of trouble is 0.3 miles away from the Bordesley & Allison site from where they were already selling pigs.
From the trial of George Samworth (I), one sentence in particular with the accompanied exchange between Mr Bell, appearing for the Corporation and Mr Brame now takes on new meaning! Let’s look at it again. It reads that “it was a fact that dealers carried on business in the cattle siding, which was an improper place, whilst the Corporation had provided a pig market at an expense of some £34 000.” Mr Brame then asked, “Is this part of the new pig market that the pig dealers themselves have provided?” to which Mr Bell replied, “Oh, no.”
Here we have a clear reference to the two pig markets which existed and it seems as if the one which the Corporation provided was in operation by October 1892. George clearly did not see himself confined to either of the two locations to ply his trade.
World-Class Schooling for Young George Samworth
The technical requirement to be a good pig buyer gives us insight into the mental aptitude and alertness of George Samworth (I), grandfather of George and Frank Samworth. It was simply a requirement of the job to be very sharp with uncanny attention to detail! Their dad, George Samworth (II) grew up in this environment.
His dad, George Samworth (I) was a formidable man and a leader in his trade. Reflecting on the incident of the sale of the ten pigs on 27 October 1892 and the leadership he took in the creation of the pig market in Bordesley Street which was completed in the same year, sometime before October, shows clearly him to be an exceptional leader and driven for success which he, no doubt, passed on to his son who worked with him. George Samworth (I) undoubtedly saw in this event, the arrest over selling 10 pigs at the wrong location, his dad’s drive for success. He was willing to trade from a different site than the two recognised sites which existed in Birmingham for pig trading at the time. It gives us a glimpse into the Samworth household and answers the question as to the topics that would have been discussed around the dinner table, especially in the middle 1890s. His son George may have left school at age 11 but what an education he received!
Conclusion
Four things stand out that George Samworth (I) no doubt passed on to his son along with the art of pig buying. These are skill, business acumen, a fierce drive to succeed and leadership! Do I hear the words of David Samworth of People, Quality, Profits?” There is, however, another remarkable observation to be made. George Samworth (II), the son of George Samworth (I), father of the Samworth Brothers did not sit back and enjoy the spoils handed to him by his dad. He took everything his dad taught him and he used these to excel even further when he started his own Pig Buying company in 1896.
This trait would become characteristic of the Samworth Brothers and that of future generations. From the first time I started learning about this family, it is something very peculiar that struck me. The ability that each son had to carve out his own unique success, built upon the success of his dad. As if there is a built-in drive to do better than the previous generation! It is remarkable and something we see right here from the founder of the company himself! His ability to transcend the achievements of his dad.
George Samworth (II) was perfectly prepared for greatness! Both nature and nurture played an indispensable part in preparing the young pig trader to take everything his dad gave him and set future generations of Samworth brothers and children up to create a legend! An utterly unique feature of the story that continues to run through the veins of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren is the absolute focus to build upon what has been handed down to them and do better than what previous generations achieved.
From the time of the birth of George Samworth in 1868, he was being prepared for greatness through hard work, dedication, sacrifice and a legendary father who led and taught by example!
(c) Eben van Tonder
* CWT Definition
CWT refers to a centum or cental weight, meaning hundredweight.
“A hundredweight (CWT) is a unit of measurement used to define the quantities of certain commodities being bought and sold. It is used in some commodities trading contracts. Pricing by hundredweight also is a standard option for shipping packages that take up less than an entire truckload. Usage of hundredweight more generally has declined in favor of contract specifications in pounds or kilograms.
The value of a hundredweight differs in its American and British usages. In the United States, a hundredweight is a unit of mass equal to 100 pounds. In the United Kingdom, a hundredweight is a unit of mass equal to 112 pounds.” (investopedia)
** Kieron McMahon
I mention Kieron in particular because the information that he unearthed is not readily available. People deem it somehow “less important” when in actual fact, I came to appreciate the fact that such information is of the greatest importance. The entire sage of the “Pig Market Dispute” in Birmingham is relegated to dark, obscure archives and inscriptions on cornerstones scattered around the city and if someone does not take the time and make the effort to dig these stories up, they will be lost to us forever.
In my research on bacon and meat curing, I deal with this all the time. I want to state it clearly: there is no information available about the pig buyers association in Birmingham, about the Pig Market Dispute or the location of the pig trading site from any of the major English newspapers of the time that I have access to or any of the usual repositories of archive information I regularly consult. I have spent today going through countless old, out of print English journals related to agriculture, trade and industry, many of them from Birmingham and could find no reference to George Samworth, pig buyers or anything that could fill out the information required to change George Samworth into a flesh and blood person. At least, nothing remotely comparable to what Kieron unearthed! His site was relegated to pages 5 or 6 in one of my google searches.
Pubs and pork buying is not something that will be top of the list of school-leavers career choices these days. What we must appreciate is that these were the cutting edge technologies of the time and as far as pubs are concerned, key centres for the exchange of information. Was Lloyd of London, the start of the worldwide insurance industry not formed in just such a pub or coffee shop in London?! Meat curing and preservation was exactly the “global warming” issue of the 1800s. There was a real possibility that the world would run out of food. It was not possible for countries like England to have achieved the enormous advances in feeding their population nutritious food if men like George Samworth and others did not achieve the small victories they did. Nor would that have gone far if there were no reading rooms and pubs around where information could be disseminated and shared. It is the exact premise of my work at the Earthworm Express where I seek to tell small stories of enormous importance to understand our world. In my book on the history of meat curing, Bacon & the Art of Living, I devoted a chapter to celebrating the pub culture of the British and after what I’ve seen from Kieron and his team, I will be doing a major review of not just this chapter but I now want to weave it more deliberately into my entire work!
Today we have other challenges, but one thing I know for certain is that it will likewise take young dynamic visionaries who are able to exploit the latest technology and innovation who will save our planet from catastrophe. Men like George Samworth and the thousands of others I feature in my blog.
We live in a universe where we are in an endless quest for partnerships. In life, business – on every level. Molecules want to connect. That is what they are there for! All of life wants relationships to create and be more effective. Life affirms relationships! The British pubs, coffee shops and reading rooms was the catalyst where these relationships were formed. Like water to chemical reactions, they were the ether that drove these processes of the past! These thoughts elevate the work of Kiron to another universe!
I, therefore, want to give kudos to Kieron McMahon. He is not some pub-mad nutcase who simply write a blog about what he is passionate about – he is a key historian who, against the tide of academia, is able to pick up on what is really important and write about it. Kieron is absolutely spot on in his focus on pubs! Without people like him, these stories will be lost forever and I salute him for this! In years to come people will understand it, value it and talk about it. Why? Because he took the time to research it and to write his work down!
The Irish Pig Buyers seems to have been a breed of people in their own class. Why Ireland excelled in Pig Buyers is something for further investigation. Here is a delightful article from the Limerick Leader, 26 April 1986, entitled, Rise and Fall of Parish Pig Buyers.
1. “George Samworth was born in Birmingham in 1868, the eldest of a family of thirteen children. At the age of eleven, he left school and, after trying a number of jobs in agriculture, found employment with a consortium of Birmingham pig dealers. They were engaged in buying pigs from farmers in the surrounding countryside and re-selling them, still alive to pork butchers’ shops in the Birmingham area. His working week amounted to some 65 hours and his starting wage about ten shillings (50p) a week. George did well in his and gained a thorough knowledge in the trade of pig dealing.” (Beaver & Lawrence, 2005)
“Beaver and Lawrence do an excellent job of describing the life of the young George in such brilliant terms that I will do it a disservice to not quote them verbatim. They write, “For an intelligent young man, entry into the pig dealing trade was easy: no special premises or equipment were required and, as all business was done on a ready cash basis, very little capital was involved. On buying expeditions, he travelled in the guard’s van with this bicycle and on arrival at his destination area, cycled from farm to farm examining, bargaining for and buying pigs from individual farmers. these were sold to local pork butchers in the Birmingham area, of which there were then over 100 trading in the city alone.” (Beaver & Lawrence, 2005)
He had two sons, George and Frank and four daughters, Evelyn, Mable, Doris and Hilda. George Senior started his own firm in 1896 and his two sons, Geoge and Frank both joined his firm, Frank doing so at age 14. Four years before he started his own firm, in 1892, an article appeared about a pig dealer from New Canal Street, Birmingham, who was summoned for selling ten pigs at the cattle siding of the London and North-Western Railway in Fazeley Street in violation of the markets clauses of the Consolidations Act.
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Ancient plant Curing of Meats
Eben van Tonder
15 February 2022
Introduction
I have been studying the history of meat curing and ham/ bacon processing for well over 15 years. Over the years I looked at the use of saltpetre and the older curing salt from antiquity, sal ammoniac. I considered long term salt curing. I searched the world for natural nitrite and sal ammoniac deposits and scratched around in remote parts of the globe for signs of an ancient meat curing culture.
You see, the food we eat is not always the thing that make the headlines or what historians love writing about. Yet, the precise nature of recipes and the uninterrupted mother to children transmission of culinary history, the way that the food we grew up with sticks and transmits our culture and becomes as important to us as our language makes food and recipes one of our best glimpses into the past, even to a time when writing did not exist or was not universally known.
I started to suspect that nitrate curing of meat from plant matter played just as important role in establishing meat curing as nitrate and ammonia salts. The subject was so vast and so many clues came to me from so many angles over so many years that I was uncertain where to start the story. The task was daunting!
In Lagos, I met Doğan Genç and Ayhan Yilmaz from Turkey on a business trip from the ancient city of Bursa, on behalf of their refrigeration company, Kaplanar. Unknown to them, the one morning they spent with me in a small boardroom at Spar Head Office in Nigeria would be the event that gave me the courage to dive into the subject. They introduced me to an ancient Turkish dish, Pastrma or Salt Cured Beef. It has a rich and relevant history. It became the point where I take a deep breath and launch into the subject of the ancient origins of the plant curing of meat! Let’s begin the story by looking at the history of Pastrima and immediately branching out to the general geographical and important region of the Black Sea and another famous method of curing meat, namely with horse sweat!
“The nomad Turks of Central Asia has developed many methods to preserve their surplus food. Some of these methods and the foodstuff discovered based on these methods have survived until the current times. “Pastırma” the salt-cured, air-dried beef is one of these foodstuffs that is inherited from the Central Asian Turks.” (TFC)
Cingil (2019) reports that the Turks used an area’s suitability for drying meat as a criterion for settlement. They would hang meat in a tree and observe how long it takes to dry or if it decays. If it remains in good condition for a long time, they will settle there. It is reported that Emir Timur selected Samarkand using this method.
“The Turkic tribes, who lived in the steps of Central Asia, before 11th Century A.D., have salted and air-dried their leftover meats to preserve it. Due to their nomadic nature, the dried meat was stored in leather bags and consumed, as necessary.” Weber Baldamus, in his world history book, mentions an unusual method of treating meat, based on the information obtained from Amiadus of Antioch” or Amiadus of Antakya who lived between 273-375. He writes, “Hun Turks eat dried meat and the meat that they crushed between the horse’s saddle and calf, along with fresh game animals, together with various herbs.” (Cingil, 2019) According to Cingil (2019), this is also the earliest reference to pastirma.
Jean, sire de Joinville, the great chronicler of medieval France who wrote in the 1200s, mentions “steak tartare” as “a Mongol culinary technique of placing the steak between the saddle and the saddle blanket, and eaten raw once all the blood has been beaten out.” (Turnbull, 2003) This is a famous Western reference and one that people love to use to show that de Joinville probably got the report wrong, but after a thorough investigation of the matter I believe the critics got it wrong and not de Joinville.
TFC is one of the authors who dispute the factualness of these claims. He contends that “the Huns actually stored the meats in the pockets found on the saddles. Therefore, the meat never touched the body of the horse.” He refers to the old sources of the Huns as per the Hungarian National Museum. (TFC) I see no contradiction between these sources. The meat could have been stored in the saddlebags as per the Hungarian National Museum and some riders may have chosen to place them between the saddle cloth and the saddle as described by both Jea, sire de Joinville and Amiadus. The next reference comes to us in the 1600s.
Władysław Łoś, responded to a question about placing the meat between the saddle cloth and the saddle in an online forum by pointing out that the story was again popularised in the 17th century, “by a certain Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, a French military engineer in service of Poland, author of the book “Description des contrés du Royaume de Pologne” (“Description of the countries of the Polish Kingdom”). He repeated the Joinvilles story but this time his reference is to contemporaneous Tatar horsemen in the service of the Polish military.” He points out that the Tatars in question were not Mongols, but a Turkish tribe.
That this experience repeated itself in other parts of the world during different times is clear from history. Using the sweat of horses to cure meat, intentionally or unintentionally was practised by the Boers in South Africa. I refer to this in my article, Saltpeter, Horse Sweat, and Biltong where I explore the chemistry of sweat and the reaction with the meat and refer to the word we use on South African farms to this day in reference to the white sweat of horses as “saltpetre,” the enigmatic salt of antiquity used to cure meat and as a key ingredient in gunpowder. Saltpetre is potassium nitrate, today used in long term curing.
Ancient Meat Preservation
When one talks about ancient culinary processes, it is important to understand that the human view of bodily excretions in antiquity was vastly different from the current views. Anything generated by the body, including animals, was viewed as very special and endowed with powers, useful for humans. I refer to my article, How did Ancient Humans Preserve Food? Levine (1999), in her work on the origins of horse domestication, presented “some results from an ongoing ethnoarchaeological study of equine pastoralism on the Eurasian steppe. The data have arisen principally in the course of five interviews, conducted between 1989 and 1992, with people involved with horse husbandry in Mongolia and northern Kazakhstan in the recent past or present.”
She writes that “The horse is used extensively in Kazakh folk medicine (Toktabaev 1992). Horse fat, excrement, bone, hair, liver, kidney, and stomach are used in the treatment of many ailments. . . Back problems were treated by wrapping the sufferer in a fresh horse skin.” Importantly for our study, she says that horse sweat had a very specific medicinal value. “Horse sweat is said to cure gastric diseases, ulcers, typhoid fever, plague, fever, and cancer of the gullet.” The medicinal usages probably followed the discovery of its effect on the meat and the subsequent ingestion of it. Levine, writing on the general usefulness of the horse makes the same point about sweat again when she writes, “The horse can move rapidly and easily long distances over hard ground, providing its owners with both mobility (riding, packing, traction) and nourishment (milk, meat, fat). Other products, such as bone, hoof, hair, hide, excrement, and even sweat, are also valued, for example, as fuel, raw materials for the fabrication of tools, utensils, musical instruments, and other objects, and for medicinal purposes.”
The point is that using sweat to cure meat is not farfetched. I had a suspicion for a long time that urine and sweat had both been used in antiquity in meat preservation and from food, it entered medicinal use and gained religious value. The only way that meat can be cured is through access to nitrate or nitrite. It required nitrogen. Reduction takes place through bacteria from nitrates to nitrites and chemically from nitrites to nitric oxide which is the species responsible for linking up with the hem moiety on the meat protein and which then produces the cured colour of cured meat. The controlling mechanism of the entire process is one of reduction.
The only other way it can happen is through the oxidation of l-arginine by nitric oxide synthase. This requires time and the right conditions as far as temperature is concerned and metabolic water as we see in long term dry ageing of hams and bacon. Where reduction is easily managed, isolating, and harvesting oxidation enzymes are prohibitively expensive. The only way it can be done economically is through time and using what is already in the muscle. There should be no doubt in anybody’s mind that the basic curing reaction of accessing one nitrogen atom and one oxygen atom to form NO is the basis of curing. Without it, curing is not possible and what you have at best is salted meat.
Medical, Culinary, Religious and Military Value of Nitrogen
My initial focus was on nitrate salts found in desert areas and in certain caves. I discovered the two curing salts of choice for ancient people as ammonium nitrate (sal ammoniac) (The Sal Ammoniac Project) and the various nitrate salts. Later, humans mastered the art of producing saltpetre as it became important in the ancient worlds arms race with its key role in gunpowder.
Ray, talking about the arrival of saltpetre production technology in India, says that “the manufacture of nitre was. . . most probably introduced into India after the adoption of gunpowder as an implement of war.” (Ray, P. C., 1902: 99 – 100) According to Frey, the watershed time for India between the age of the blade and the age of the gun came in the early sixteenth century.
The area of the world where we are focussing on Turkey to the south of the Black Sea and across the Caucuses mountains into modern-day Russia and Mongolia yields ample historical record of the importance of these salts. Frey states that “it is likely that Mongols who introduced the making of fireworks to India in the mid-thirteenth century. We know almost nothing about saltpetre production during this early period, but technical expertise apparently diffused with the adoption of rocketry and eventually artillery by Indian rulers in the fourteenth century. The break-up of the Delhi Sultanate, the rise of regional states, and the growing presence of Turkish mercenaries in India may be linked to the establishment of regular saltpetre production and the adoption and use of gunpowder weapons.” (Frey, J. W.; 2009: 512)
It speaks to the sophistication of Mongal and Turkish technology related to nitrate production. In Arabic, saltpetre (nitrate salt) was referred to as Chinese snow, for, according to Needham, it was recognised and used in China long before anywhere else. “The oldest extant Arabic mention is in the Kitiib al-Jiimi’ fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrilda (Book of the Assembly of Medical Simples) finished by Abti Muhammad al-Mllaqi Ibn al-Baitarg about 1240 AD. Others follow shortly after. (Needham, J.. 1980: 193, 194)
As my investigations into the ancient origins of meat curing continued, I discovered the link between sea travel and nitrite curing. Sea travel is a great example of an activity that necessitated storing food for a long time. In keeping with the ancient practice of storing meat in water, they most probably used seawater. Dr Francois Mellett, a renowned South African meat scientist, shared a theory with me related to the curing of meat stored in seawater. He writes, “I have a theory that curing started even earlier by early seafarers: when a protein is placed in seawater, the surface amino acids are de-aminated to form nitrite for a period of 4 to 6 weeks. Nitrite is then converted to nitrate over the next 4 weeks. Finally, ammonia and ammonia are formed from nitrate. It is possible that they preserved meat in seawater barrels and that the whole process of curing was discovered accidentally.” I applied Mellett’s logic to coastal communities when I discovered the importance of meat storage in seawater by ancient coastal settlements and small groups migrating along the coastal regions of the world.
Of course, I saw horse domestication as another event, which, like seafaring, would necessitate the long term storage of meat.
Linking Meat Curing with Horse Domestication
I have known that curing would be intimately associated with the domestication of horses for a long time. I started to research the people who lived in the region where horses were domesticated. I looked at the Scythians (Research Notes on the Scythians). Horse domestication I dealt with in The Turfan Depression links with the Black Sea Region.
East of the Dnieper River within the Don and Volga basins, on the Western Front of what later would be occupied by the Scythians, between 4600 and 4200 years ago, a dominant genetic horse population appeared which replaced the wild horses that roamed Eurasia for millennia.
No sooner did I discover this, and I found myself delving through old records about the Caucasus, or Caucasia, a region spanning Europe and Asia to understand the nature of their nitrate (saltpetre) deposits. Why? Because it is linked with the origins of the art of meat curing which I suspect happened in this region and to the north of it which again is linked to Turfan, the area I first suspected as the site where meat curing became an art, but the lack of solid evidence of a long meat curing tradition from old records from the Turfan area made me suspect that they only used it at a major source for Saltpeter and Sal Ammoniac, the primary two curing salts from antiquity. These were traded along the silk road that ran into Europe. The creation of a meat curing tradition happened somewhere else.
Why the link between the Caucasus and meat curing? Because my suspicion is that meat curing was transformed into an art (practices on large scale according to set principles and procedures) in an area where the horse was domesticated because no other event would have given rise more to the need for this than the domestication of the horse (other than sea voyages). As the exploration of vast distances and military exploits became possible, following horse domestication, the need would have existed to carry food along on these campaigns and since we know the Scythians were more than likely involved in the domestication of the horse (or the ancestors of what became the Scythian people), we know that animal protein (dairy and meat) was a major part of their diet.
> The Caucasus
I begin my investigation at the southern edge of the area where horse domestication took place.
Archaeological and geological records from the Caucasus are very sparse, to say the least, but it is the one region, adjacent to the site of horse domestication natural nitrate deposits occur. From there my interest in it. Well, my interest is in the entire Don and Volga basins regions (mostly, present-day Russia) between 2000 BCE and 2200 BCE. I begin in the south and will work my way north.
So, what am I looking for in the Caucasus mountains? Saltpetre and any other clue to develop the ancient picture for me.
I came across this fascinating book by McCulloch, John Ramsy. (1845) M’Culloch’s Universal Gazetteer: A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, and Historical, of the Various Countries, Places, and Principal Natural Objects in the World.
> Minerals
About minerals found in the Caucus mountains, McCulloch writes, “Iron, Copper, Saltpetre, sulfur, and lead are found, the last in tolerable large quantities. Salt is almost wholly wanting.” So, a little bit of saltpetre, which explains importing it from Turfan. No salt – very interesting! It was plentiful in the Don and Volga basins. . . more on this later!
> Vegetation
I add a section of what I will be looking for in the Don and Volga basins region namely vegetables. About this McCulloch writes: “In amount and variety of vegetation the Caucasian regions seem to be unrivalled. Chardin, writing in 1692, says, ‘Mount Caucasus, till ye come to the very top of it is extremely fruitful,’ and Spencer in 1838 says, ‘However high the ascent, we see luxuriant vegetation mingling even with the snow of centuries.’ Nearly every tree, shrub, fruit, grain, and flower found from the limit of the temperature zone to the pole is native to or may be raised in the Caucuses. The Northern bases consist of arable land of excellent quality, meadows of the finest grass and dwarf wood in great abundance.” He continues to describe the quality of the soul in the regions to the south, east and west in equal lofty terms.
> Fruits, Vegetables, Grains
He continues, “Among the standard fruits are found the date palm, the jujube, quince, cherry, olive, wild apricot and willow leaved pear. Pomegranates, figs, and mulberries grow wild in all the warmer valleys and vines twine around the standard trees to a very great elevation up the mountains. . . . In addition to the vine, the other climbing plants are innumerable, which, mixing with the standards, the bramble fruits (raspberries, blackberries &c,) and other dwarf woods form a density of vegetation which is impossible to penetrate, unless a passage be hewn with the hatchet. Rye, barley, oats, wheat, millet are abundantly raised, even as high as 7500 ft. above the sea, and besides these grains, the warmer plains and valleys produce flowers of every scent and dye, cotton, rice, flax, hemp, tobacco, and indigo, with every variety of cucumber and melon.”
McCulloch quotes several texts to prove that the list just given is only a small sample of what is available from these regions, in particular from Georgia.
The list given is extremely important because it feeds into something I’ve picked up from the geological record of the territory occupied by the Scythians, especially the region where horse domestication took place in other research. A picture is forming that may alter our traditional view of the trajectory of the art of meat curing dramatically but patience is called for. Lots of investigation must be done across vast regions before I can venture to put the final picture together. If what I suspect happened is true, it will be truly revolutionary, but let the data form the picture.
The one sentence that caught my eye will follow. It’s under his treatment of the animals which are as innumerable as the plants. The detail is not as important as the list of plants and I understand that his lists of plants go back probably to the earliest, to the 1600s. It does not give us a list of what was there in 2000 BCE, but we will get there. The picture is, however, that most mentioned here were indigenous to the area and grew wild.
> Cattle
The first important comment relates to cattle. He writes, “This is also home of wild cattle; the large species (the Aurochs) being found in the forests; while of the domesticated kinds, the varieties are numerous and serviceable.” I wish I could have seen the aurochs!
> Horses
This is the actual point I want to make here following on the identification of the exact location where horse domestication took place through DNA research. He writes the following of the horse which we know has been domesticated in the region directly adjacent and to the north!”The horses of the Caucasus have been famous from very high antiquity, the Bechtag mountains having been formerly called Hippicon (ἱππικόν) from the number of these animals which were grazed upon its side (Ptolemy, v., 9). They are not less numerous in the present day and are among the very finest varieties of the species.”
These horses were indeed famed throughout the ancient world, and it stands to reason that he is describing none other the descendants of the earliest domesticated horses, referring to their excellence based on the superior qualities they had for the horseman. In other words, domesticated horses but further refined through selective breeding.
I find it absolutely fascinating that what DNA research in 2021established could have been accurately predicted based on a careful reading of these old texts. That the region had superior technology related to horse husbandry and breeding cannot be disputed and I am sure that the process which started domestication did not stop. They continued their selective breeding, no doubt! The technology that brought the events about in the 2000s BCE kept producing superior animals and it is fascinating that the traditions continued from 2000 BCE into the 1800s A.D.. It is therefore not far-fetched at all to expect meat curing to be still practised at a superior level in regions where it originated. Of course, I can imagine events that could wipe such traditions out, but as a very broad general rule of thumb, I can see how a deeper understanding of curing in a region would point to an older tradition.
> The Nations of the Caucuses
There is probably no other part of the world, except Africa, S. of the Sahara, where so many nations and languages are collected within so small a space as in the Caucasus. Guldenstadt gives a list of seven different nations, besides Tartars, who speak languages radically different, and who are again subdivided into almost innumerable tribes, among whom the varieties of dialect are nearly infinite. The principal nations he thus enumerates
1. Georgians;
2. Basians;
3. Abchasians;
4. Tcherkessians;
5. Oketiens;
6. Kistiens;
7. Lesghians;
8. Tartars.
(Reise, i., 458 – 495.)
Of these the most numerous and important are the Georgians and Circassians or Tcherkessians; but the Abchasians and Okesians, called by Pallas and Klaproth Abassians and Osetians, are also powerful tribes. In habits and manners, a strong resemblance is observed among them all; they are usually wandering hunters and warriors, for which occupations their country is peculiarly fitted, and only in inferior degree shepherds or agriculturists. A partial exception must, however, be made to this general character in favour of the Georgians, who reside in towns, and have long possessed a fixed form of government and internal polity; but for the rest, they appear to possess the erratic disposition, reckless courage, boundless hospitality, and much of the predatory habits which mark the Arab and other half barbarous people. (See CIRCASSIA, GEORGIA, &c.) It is well known that Blumenbach looked here for the origin of his first and most intellectual race of men (the Caucasian); but for this, as already stated (anté 177). there is not a particle of evidence historical or philological. The Caucasians though surrounded by the means of improvement, and occupy a country more favourably situated than that of Switzerland, have made no progress either in arts or arms; and continue to this day the same unlettered barbarians as in the day of Herodotus. (Clio, 203.) They have fine physical forms, but their mental endowments are of the most inferior description.”
Next, he describes the nations living in these regions and their technology related to warfare.
Meat Preservation with Fruits and Vegetables
I found that all the nations around the Black Sea have long and ancient meat curing traditions. Georgie, Azerbaijan, Moldovia, Romania, Bulgaria, and of course, Turkey. In fact, we began with Doğan Genç and Ayhan Yilmaz from Kaplanar visiting Lagos and alerting me to the existence of Pastirma. Unknowing to them, it would provide the crucial link I long suspected that ancients not only cured their meat with the sweat of horses and nitrate and sal ammonia salts from desert regions but more importantly with plants!
It is, therefore, from Turkey that the rest of the story comes. The traditions of curing meat with plant matter are generally from Central Asia. The dish that unlocked the plant-based curing techniques for me is partirma.
TFC writes that “the oldest meat preservation method is to salt and air-dry the meat in the sun. Different cultures of the world have different meat preservation methods. The method used to make “pastırma” is invented by the Central Asian Turks, and it is the forerunner of today’s “pastırma”, a term which literally means ‘being pressed’ in Turkish.” (TFC)
“Looking into the old scripts, such as “Divan-ü Lügat-it Türk”, the first Turkish- Arabic dictionary written by Mahmoud al-Kashgari, the word “pastırma” was not used. Instead “basturmak” was used, which means to place something under a very heavy object. In the Turkish language used by the Central Asian Turks, there were other words such as “kedhirilmek” or “kakaç” used which means dried meat, and the word “kak” was used for everything dried.” (TFC)
“Based on the information from “Divan-ü Lügat-it Türk,” during autumn, meat would be mixed with some spices, dried and stored until spring. During spring the animals would lose weight and their meat becomes flavorless. Therefore, those who have stored up some “pastırma” would have access to good tasty meat.” (TFC)
Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes a major part of modern-day Turkey. “Arrival of “pastırma” in Anatolia was especially well received in the city of Kayseri. The 17th-century Turkish traveller Evliya Çelebi, praised “pastırma” of Kayseri in his Book of Travels, and Kayseri “pastırma” is still regarded as the finest of all. Although there are several other cities that are known to make “pastırma,” Kayseri is the only one that is associated with this delicacy. Due to the fact that it is an important trade that passes from generation to generation, the climate of Kayseri and the high amounts of nitrate found in the city water also plays a very important role in this matter.” (TFC)
“Good quality “pastırma” is a delicacy with a wonderful flavor. Although “pastırma” can also be made with mutton or goat’s meat, beef is preferred. During the Ottoman period, although they almost always consumed lamb in their dishes, when making “pastırma” beef was the meat of choice.” (TFC)
Making of Pastırma
“Cattle, mainly from the eastern province of Kars, are brought to Kayseri, where they are slaughtered, and the meat made into “pastırma” at factories found on the northwest of the city. The different cuts of meat produce different types of “pastırma.” There are 19 to 26 varieties depending on the size of the animal. Extra fine qualities are those made from tenderloin and loin; fine qualities are made from cuts like the shank, leg, tranche and shoulder; and low quality from the leg, brisket, flank, neck and similar cuts. The many tons of “pastırma” produced in Kayseri are almost all sold for domestic consumption all over Turkey.” (TFC)
“The ideal season for making “pastırma” in autumn. The season starts by mid-September and continues until the end of autumn. This weather presents qualities such as; sunny and clear skies, low humidity and mild wind that are ideal conditions for drying and maturing. The “pastırma” making process consists of 5 stages that are; procurement of the animals, preparation of the meat, processing of meat, coating and packaging.” (TFC)
“The making of “pastırma” lasts for about a month. The freshly slaughtered meat rests at room temperature for 4-8 hours before being cut into pieces suitable for making “pastırma.” The meat is slashed and salted on one side, stacked, and left for 24 hours to rest. The same process is done to the other side. After the second 24 hour period, meat slabs are rinsed with plenty of water to remove the excess salt, and left to dry outdoors for a period varying between 3 to 10 days, depending on the weather. After some further processing, the meat is hung up to dry again, this time in the shade and spaced out so that they do not touch one another. After 3 to 6 days, they are covered with a paste known as “çemen” paste. “Çemen” is composed of fenugreek seed flour, garlic and powdered red chilli pepper and water to form a paste. This paste covering the slabs of “pastırma” plays an important role in the flavour, and protects the meat from drying and spoiling by cutting its contact with air. The excess “çemen” is removed, leaving a thin layer, and left to dry again. Finally “pastırma” is ready for consumption.” (TFC)
“When buying “pastırma”, make sure that it has a bright red hue, and cut very thinly with a cleaver. “Pastırma” can be consumed freshly on its own, or cooked with eggs, tomatoes, inside the white bean stew or “börek” (the savoury pastry). In the Anatolian region of Turkey it is also added to bulghur rice pilaf and sometimes in stuffed grape leaves.” (TFC)
“In conclusion “pastırma” is an important culinary legacy from the Turkish forefathers and a delicious delicacy that adds a depth of flavour to any type of food it’s combined with.” (TFC)
An insightful video on how to make Pastirma.
Conclusion
Pastrma became my entry point into the ancient art of curing met with plant matter replete with nitrates. Over the months to come I will delve into the wonderful technical and scientific considerations which are brought up by the subject. In our time, fermentation of brine produced from plant matter with starter culture bacteria to affect the conversion of nitrates to nitrites and the chemical and enzymatic creation of Nitric Oxide which is responsible for meat curing became a trend as a way to sidestep the legislative requirement to declare the direct use of sodium nitrate or nitrite in meat cures. What I discovered is that this is nothing new. It stands in an ancient tradition of recognised curing systems. In our technical evaluation of the method, we will discover the vast accumulation of health benefits that accrue to products cured in this way. I am escited to begin this facinating yourney with you!
It is mentioned in the documents that it was among the unique products of the Ottoman Palace Cuisine (matbah-ı amire) in the 1500s and that it was among the favourite foods of the cuisine with the name “Pastama-ı Kayseriyye”.
Again, in the Seciye Registers of the Ottoman Period Ankara Province (1591-1592), it was complained that the pastrami sent every year did not come from Kayseri.
The famous traveler Evliyâ Çelebi, after describing the white bread, lavash pastry and layered pastry when he came to Kayseri when he came to Kayseri, in his Travels, said, “There is no cumin bacon and musk-cented broth, which are known as Lahim-i kadid (fat meat). He always goes to Istanbul as a gift”.
In 1880, British Lieutenant Ferdinand Bennet was describing the Kayseri Sanjak of Ankara province, the food habits of the region; Bulgur pilaf with meat, yoghurt, pita… He reported that more vegetables and fruits are eaten in summer, pastrami is consumed in winter, and 360,000 okkas of pastrami is exported from Kayseri to Istanbul in the same year.
The French traveler Vital Cuinet, who visited Anadalu in 1888-1890, described the commercial life of Kayseri and recorded that bacon, wool, carpets, animal skins, almonds and various fruits were exported from the city.
The first information about the production of pastrami is found in a Construction Book in 1869 and in Fahriye Hanım’s work titled “Housewife” written in 1894, and detailed information about Kayseri Pastrami is given.
German Ewald Banse, in his work on the observation and geography of Anatolia in 1919, wrote that “Germir Pastrami” is very famous while talking about Kayseri.
The first books on bacon and sausage production analysis in Turkey are in Ottoman Turkish; These are the books called “The Copy of Kayseri Pasdırmaları” (manufacturing style) and “Inspection of Pastrami and Sucuks of the Allelum (in general)”.
In the Ottoman period Kayseri Sanjak Yearbook, dated 1881-1891, it is stated that “Kayseri pastrami has gained a lot of fame.”
In one of his articles, the writer Mustafa Gümüşkaynak from Kayseri;
“Kayseri has neither cotton nor olives, nor tobacco, nor any natural product. Nature has made it convenient to make only pastrami in this city. When the season comes, the pastrami piri comes and sits on the summit of Erciyes. Pastrami piri is strong like nature. It makes winter summer, and summer turns into winter. Pir enchants Kayseri. Once enchanted, a bright summer comes to Kayseri. The fat drips from the bacon. This is called “Bacon Summer”. Then it rains, and this is called “Bacon Rain”. This precipitation destroys the dust. Dusty bacon loses all its value.”
Kayseri is the homeland of fenugreek pastrami since the depths of history. The effect of its climate, nitrate water and traditional master-apprentice chain is great in this.
The weather is clear and sunny, low humidity and slightly windy in the autumn, when there is intense pastrami production in Kayseri. This environment allows the bacon to dry without getting wet, in the most correct and natural way.
As it can be seen, for years, “pastirma” is a very important part of Kayseri culture, about which poems, folk songs and epics have been written.
Of course, there will be bacon production in other cities. But these never change the fact that “pastirma is from Kayseri”. Just like Antep baklava, Maraş ice cream…
In short… -Pastirma and Ravioli both belong to Kayseri, they are from Kayseri! It belongs to the people of Kayseri! Just as; -Like Sausage and Water Pastry!
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References
A website by the Turkish Cultural Foundation (TCF); Published under the section, Turkish Cuisine. Work reference “Her Yönüyle Pastırma”, Prof. Dr. O. Cenap Tekinşen, Doç Dr. Yusuf Doğruer, Selçuk Üniversitesi Basımevi, Konya 2000; Mustafa Çetinkaya / Skylife Magazine.
Frey, J. W.. 2009. The Indian Saltpeter Trade, the Military Revolution, and the Rise of Britain as a Global Superpower; from The Historian, Vol. 71, No. 3 (FALL 2009), pp. 507-554; Published by: Wiley Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/24454667 Accessed: 23-09-2017 12:56 UTC
Levine, M. A.. (1999) Botai and the Origins of Horse Domestication. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 18, 29–78 (1999) Article ID jaar.1998.0332, available online at http:/ /www.idealibrary.com
Needham, J.. 1959. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth. Cambridge University Press.
Needham, J.. 1980. Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Chemical and Chemical Technology; Part IV: SPAGYRICAL DISCOVERY AND INVENTION: APPARATUS, THEORIES AND GIFTS Cambridge University Press.
Ray, P. C., 1902, A History of Hindu Chemistry from the earliest time to the middle of the sixteenth century A.D.. Williams and Norgate.
Turnbull, S. (2003) Mongol Warriors, 1200 – 1350. Osprey Publishing
Władysław Łoś, studied Medieval Art & History at Warsaw University Poland (1985)
Westphalia is a region in Germany from where the most iconic hams in the history of ham making came. A key feature of the ham is that it is cold smoked. I give the complete list of Westphalian ham and bacon recipes available to me below. I suggest you read through all of them carefully and develop your own particular recipe. The two key features of the ham and bacon are that it must be cold smoked and I would use the Emperor of Russia’s Brine recipe, but it all depends on your own preference.
The 1872 publication edited by Ellet, E. F and published by H. Bill, Norwich, Conn. boast “five thousand practical receipts and maxims from the best English, French, German, and American sources.” I quote the following from his work, The New Cyclopedia of Domestic Economy and Practical Housekeeping
867. — HOW TO MAKE HAM SUPERIOR TO WESTPHALIA. (Udo.)
As soon as the pig is cold enough to be cut up, take the two hams, and cut out the round bone, so as to have the ham not too thick: rub them with common salt, and leave them in a large pan for three days; when the salt has drawn out all the blood, throw the brine away, and proceed as follows: for two hams of about eighteen pounds each, take one pound of moist sugar, one pound of common salt, and two ounces of saltpetre, mix them together, and rub the hams well with it, then put them into a vessel large enough to contain them in the liquor, always keeping the salt over them; after they have been in this state three days, throw over them a bottle of good vinegar. One month is requisite to cure them; during which period they must be often turned in the brine; when you take them out, drain them well, powder them with some coarse flour, and hang them in a dry place. The same brine will serve again, except that you must not put so much salt on the next hams that you pickle. If the hams are smaller, put only three-quarters of a pound of salt, but the salt will not do any harm if you do not let them remain too long in the brine; if you can get them smoked, they are then not so subject to be infested by vermin; no insect whatever can bear the bitterness of the soot; the smoke of wood is preferable to the smoke of coal. Be particular that the hams are hung as far as possible from the fire, otherwise the fat will melt, and they will become dry and hard and rank.
The following are recipes collected from around the world by
913. – WESTPHALIA HAMS
Prepare the hams in the usual manner by rubbing them with common salt and draining them; take one ounce of saltpetre, half a pound of coarse sugar, and the same quantity of salt; rub it well into the ham, and in three days pour a pint of vinegar over it. A fine foreign flavor may also be given to hams by pouring old strong beer over them, and burning juniper wood while they are drying: molasses, juniper berries, and highly flavored herbs, such as basil, sage, bay leaves, and thyme, mingled together and the hams well rubbed with it, using only a sufficient quantity of salt to assist in the cure, will afford an agreeable variety.
918. – WILTSHIRE BACON
Sprinkle each flitch with salt; and let the blood drain off for twenty – four hours. Then mix one pound and a half of coarse sugar, the same quantity of fine salt, six ounces of saltpetre, and four pounds of coarse salt; rub this well on the bacon, turning and wetting it in every part daily for a month; then hang it to dry, and afterwards smoke it ten days.
925. – A PICKLE
That will keep for years, for hams, tongues, or beef, if boiled and skimmed between each parcel of them. To two gallons of spring water put two pounds of coarse sugar, two pounds of coarse, and two and a half pounds of common salt, and half a pound of saltpetre, in a deep earthen glazed pan that will hold four gallons, and with a cover that will fit close. Keep the beef or hams as long as they will bear before you put them into the pickle; and sprinkle them with coarse sugar in a pan, from which they must drain. Rub the hams, & c., well with the pickle; and pack them in close, putting as much as the pan will hold, so that the pickle may cover them. The pickle is not to be boiled at first. A small ham may lie fourteen days; a large one three weeks; a tongue twelve days; and beef in proportion to its size. They will eat well out of the pickle without drying. When they are to be dried, let each piece be drained over the pan; and when it will drop no longer, take a clean sponge and dry it thoroughly. Six or eight hours will smoke them; and there should be only a little sawdust and wet straw burnt to do this; but if put into a baker’s chimney, sew them in a coarse cloth, and hang them a week. Add two pounds of common salt, and two pints of water, every time you boil the liquor.
Have a Westphalian recipe?
If you have a Westphalian recipe, please share it with me for inclusion here.
William and William Harwood Oake
By Eben van Tonder
10 July 2021
From Worth, R. N.. Jan 1888. Tourist’s Guide to Somersetshire: Rail and Road. E. Stanford
Introduction
It’s been a while now since the early hours one Monday morning when I learned the name of the man who invented mild cured bacon, William Oake. All I knew about him is that he was a pharmacist from Ulster in Northern Ireland. I was reviewing my book on the history of bacon curing, Bacon & the Art of Living. I had just worked through the chapter where I give my historical review of bacon curing, Chapter 12.09: The Curing Reaction. I worked through the progression of mild cured bacon to pale dried bacon and tank curing. Just before tank curing, I included Auto Curing in the review. Something about the timing and the sparse description of the process did not sit well with me. I knew that the re-use of old brine was in its infancy in England in the 1820s and 1830s from a quote from The Complete Grazier where the reference speaks about it in very tentative forms and says that the brine can be re-used twice. In 1852 Youatt gives a far more confident reference to the reuse of old brine. I knew that that reusing old brine was part and parcel of the auto curing system of bacon production which, by 1861 was already in use in England, Sweden, Denmark, and Canada.
The adoption of the mild curing system by C & T Harris only took place in the second half of the 1800s. By 1861 auto cure was already in use in England which relies on a complete re-use of old brine. Why did they not work the concepts of tank curing out long before the end of the decade? Besides these, I was still wrestling with the question if Oake was the one to rely on a continual re-use of the old brine. Was this his invention, so to speak? If I take that out of the equation, then it reduced the uniqueness of the mild curing system and it would mean that there was not much of a difference between mild curing and the sweet cured system of C & T Harris.
These questions plague me. I was sure I am missing something. If Oake was the one who started re-using the old brine repeatedly and if this is one of the features of auto curing, I wondered if there is a link between Oake and auto curing. There had to be! It was around 19:00 on Tuesday evening, 6 July 2021 when I started searching a combination of auto curing and William Oake and an explosion of information followed. Unfortunately for me, I had just figured out that the Maillard Reaction was responsible for unexpected results in my MDM replacement product I was working on and the rest of the night was spend intermitted searching for information on Oake and Auto Curing and frantically reviewing the Maillard reaction! Needless to say that I did not get much sleep that night, but what an absolutely glorious night it has been!
I dedicate this article then to William Oake and his son, William Harwood Oake. William should be celebrated and I share what I have been able to uncover about his life. I also reveal that his son was the inventor of auto cured bacon. I want to immediately extend an invitation to anybody with more information to share it and in particular to their extended family who may have valuable source material. The English factory started by Howard Oake only closed in the 1980s and there should still be many people from Gillingham who have first-hand recollections of the process and his factory.
Mild Cured Bacon
William Oak invented mild cured bacon and the essence of the invention centred around the power of the salts he used in the brine. The initial information came to me from The Journal of Agriculture and Industry of South Australia, edited by Molineux, General Secretary of Agriculture, South Australia, Volume 1 covering August 1897 – July 1898 and printed in Adelaide by C. E. Bristow, Government Printer in 1898. By the time of writing in 1897 and 1898, William Oake has already passed away.
A second reference comes to us from the Cape of Good Hope (Colony). Dept. of Agriculture, VOL . VIII . 1896. Published for the Department of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope by WA Richards & Sons, Government Printers, Castle Street, Cape Town. It quotes the same paper published in Australia in 1889. It refers to a paper that was read at a congress of the South Australian Agricultural Bureau on pig-breeding and bacon-curing by Mr TN Grierson of Bodolla, New South Wales.
“There is at the present time a new process coming into vogue, which is attracting considerable attention amongst bacon-curers. The process is called the “mild cure.” The discoverer of the new process of curing was, it appears, an eminent chemist – the late Mr William Oake, of Ulster. In the course of an experiment, he discovered that the antiseptic properties of salt were found in nature apart from chloride of sodium (salt) and that the obnoxious effects of dissolving the albumen in the curing process could, therefore, be avoided. This is really the key to the new system of curing. By the new process of treatment, it is said that the bacon and hams, although thoroughly cured with the very essence of salt, still retain all the albumen originally in the meat, and yet do not taste salty to the pallet. By the new process, the lean of the cured bacon remains soft and juicy, and natural in colour; and the best proof of the value of the system is in the fact that where mild cure has been adopted the bacon and hams will keep for any length of time in any climate. A great deal of labour, it is said, is saved by the new process, while the article put on the market is declared to be much superior in taste and flavour quality to bacon cured on the old system.” ( Department of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope, 1896)
A definition of albumen from 1896 defines it as follows. “Albumen is a substance found in the blood and the muscle. It is soluble in cold water and is coagulated by hot weather or heat. It starts to coagulate at 134 deg F (57 deg C) and becomes solid at 160 deg F (71 deg C).” It is distinguished from fibrin which is the substance in blood that causes it to coagulate when shed. “It consists of innumerable delicate fibrils which entangle the blood corpuscles, and from with them, a mass called blood clot. Fibrin is insoluble in both cold and hot water.” (Farmer, 1896). Albumin, with an “i”, in the modern use of the term refers to “any of a class of simple, sulfur-containing, water-soluble proteins that coagulate when heated, occurring in egg white, milk, blood, and other animal and vegetable tissues and secretions.” (Dictionary)
Albumen, therefore, refers to meat juices in particular. It is then the opaque fluid found plentifully in eggs, meats, fish and succulent vegetables, especially asparagus. (Gejnvic) It is the red substance that oozes from our steaks when we fry it and is mostly myoglobin, a protein from muscle tissue.
The reason why the meat juices do not leach from the meat is simply a function of the brine which surrounds the meat and comes down to the matter of partial pressure. Bristow gives us the real reason for the effectiveness of the system in terms of the speed and consistency of curing when he says “the same pickle can be used for many years – the older the better; it only requires, when it becomes somewhat muddy, to be boiled and clarified.” He follows this statement by saying that he has “seen pickle which had been used in one factory for 16 years, and that factory produces some of the best bacon and hams in Australia.”
There is no question that the preservative that William Oake observed is saltpetre, reduced to nitrite. In the detailed process description given, Oake insisted that the blood be drained properly. I give the full system as described by Bristow in note 1. The meat is cut up and notice that Oake’s system called for “the portions [to be] (are) laid on the floor of the factory (which should be made of concrete or flagged), flesh uppermost, and lightly powdered over with saltpetre, so as to drain off any blood.”
Here he does not use salt. He only uses saltpetre. After this step the pork cuts are “placed in the tanks” and he now introduces salt (NaCl) for the first time. He writes, “for salting. . . — sprinkle the bottom of the tank with salt, then put in a layer of sides or flitches, sprinkle saltpetre over them lightly, and then salt and sugar. The next layer of sides or flitches is put in crosswise and served in the same way, and so on until the tank is full. Then place a lid to fit inside the tank (inch battens 3in. apart will do); fix an upright on top of the lid to keep the bacon from rising when putting in the pickle.”
Now let’s consider the makeup of the pickle. He says that it is prepared as follows: “To every 10lbs. of salt add 8lbs. of dark-brown sugar, lib. of spice, and 1/2lb. of sal-prunella. Make it strong enough to float an egg; let it settle for some time, then skim, and it is ready to go on to the meat.” Let us pause for a second and clearly understands what is meant by sal-prunella. Sal-Prunella is, according to Errors of Speech or Spelling by E. Cobham Brewer, Vol II, published by William Tegg and Co, London, 1877, a mixture of refined nitre and soda. Nitre, as used at this time was refined saltpetre used in the manufacturing of explosives.
Let us again quote Oake through Bristow when he says that “in the course of an experiment he (Oake) discovered that the antiseptic properties of salt were found in nature apart from chloride of sodium (salt) and that the obnoxious effects of dissolving the albumen in the curing process could, therefore, be avoided. This is really the key to the new system of curing.”
Based on these statements I am convinced that what William Oake was testing for was to identify the exact substance which is responsible for preservation of the meat. He tested the salt and that is not it. Salt preserves primarily through the drying effect it has on meat. He no doubt tested saltpetre and as experiments from the 1920s confirmed, by itself, it is a very poor preservative. However, there was a preserving power that developed in the brine which he clearly did not understand. It is due to this, I firmly believe, that I make the vague statement that he “discovered that the antiseptic properties of salt were found in nature apart from chloride of sodium (salt).” He knew it was something that was added to the salt and based on the priority he gives saltpetre in the application of the different salts, I believe he had a suspicion that it had something to do with the saltpetre but by itself, he knew that it was not it! Still, there is an “antiseptic” mechanism at work that is from nature but his vague wording at this point clearly shows that he is uncertain as to what it is exactly. In the cure, there is “antiseptic properties of salt were found in nature apart from chloride of sodium (salt).”
When I started this journey, I was very reluctant to say that Oake’s main characteristic of his mild cured system is the repeated re-use of the old brine. I could not come to that conclusion precisely because I very dearly wanted that to be the conclusion. I, therefore, forced myself to find other options besides this and I refused to concede the point until such a time arrives when I am forced by the overwhelming weight of the clear evidence to say that to Oake goes the credit for using the power of old brines in a system of curing where the older the brine is, the better! Such a time has now arrived where I can say that the preponderance of evidence forces me to make this one simple conclusion that William Oake came to the understanding of the power of the repeated use of old brines albeit that being achieved without a full understanding of the mechanisms which was not understood at that time. This is absolutely and comprehensively remarkable!
Therefore, look at my handling of the matter in my 2019 article when I was first introduced to Oake, Tank Curing Came From Ireland. The best explanation I could give of exactly what made mild curing so revolutionary was the overall system that he developed by taking known techniques from his time and ordering it in a better way so that the outcome of the work would be better. You can see how I tried to avoid the conclusion that Oake pioneered the multiple re-uses of the old brine! I now believe that the former statement is still correct related to his ordering of the different components in the work of curing bacon in a better way and that it holds up to evaluation and scrutiny, but by far the biggest feature in his new system was the repeated re-use of the old brine. For this reason, I now choose to retain the original articles I have written and I will simply amend it with a note referencing this article and my better and fuller conclusion on the matter.
Another point that must be made and which is probably far more important than I ever realised is that the genius of Oake was not just what he used in his brine, but what he omitted. From the Sessional Papers, Volume 34, Page 204, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons,1902, we have the statement about Oake’s invention “to meet the increased demand for mild – cured goods without the use of modern preservatives.” This means that Oake is not just responsible for the repeated reuse of the old brine but for omitting any other preservative from bacon. It was then his work that was directly responsible for steering the course of the development of curing technology away of artificial preservatives and keeping the process, unbeknownst to him, close to the natural processes which take place in meat in dead matter and in living animals and humans. Sure, at this time Oake and Harris used borax or boric acid as preservatives in their hams, but Oake identified another preserving principle from nature which we now know as nitrite!
Its Roots
The first clue I got that there was something distinctly different to Oakes system of continued reuse of the brine from anything that was in use at the time came to me from an 1830 edition of The Complete Grazier. The report says that wet cure is more expensive than dry cure unless the brine is re-used. First, the meat is well rubbed with fine salt. A liquor is then poured over the meat and “though the preparation of such brine may, at first sight appear more expensive than that prepared in the common way, yet we think it deserves a preference, as it may be used a second time with advantage if it be boiled, and a proportionate addition be made of water, and the other ingredients above mentioned.” (The Complete Grazier, 1830: 304)
The concept of reusing the power of old brine is something that has been known in England from at least the 1820s or possibly many years earlier. The Complete Grazier (1830) says that liquid brine may appear to be more expensive than if it is done “in the common way” which in the context should refer to dry curing or rubbing a mixture of dry ingredients onto the meat. The edition of the Complete Grazier referred to is from the 5th edition which means that by this time, the description may already be 5 years old if it appeared in the 1st edition. Notice the comment that the brine can be used “a second time.” The continued reuse of the brine was not what the author in the Complete Grazier was describing. The practice of reusing old brine in England of 1820 and 30 was a far cry from the complete system of William Oake from the same time in Ireland where the multiple (continues) re-uses of old brines were part of Oakes complete mild cured system.
I must also add that in the system that Oake developed the brine was no longer boiled after every use which has a major impact on the microorganisms responsible for the reduction of saltpetre which is added before the brine is re-used. By not boiling the brine after every use, a distinct microflora develops.
The inspiration to re-use old brine was European with its roots in Westphalia in Germany. William Youatt who compiled the Complete Grazier restates this process in his 1852 work, Pigs: A Treatise on the Breeds, Management, Feeding and Medical Treatment of Swine; with directions for salting pork, and curing bacon and Hams. He says that “the annexed system is the one usually pursued in Westphalia : — ” Six pounds of rock salt, two pounds of powdered loaf sugar, three ounces of saltpetre, and three gallons of spring or pure water, are boiled together. This should be skimmed when boiling, and when quite cold poured over the meat, every part of which must be covered with this brine. Small pork will be sufficiently cured in four or five days; hams, intended for drying, will be cured in four or five weeks, unless they are very large. This pickle may be used again and again, if it is fresh boiled up each time with a small addition to the ingredients. Before, however, putting the meat into the brine, it must be washed in water, the blood pressed out, and the whole wiped clean.”
Youatt repeats the re-use of the brine in the publication just mentioned. He writes, “In three weeks, jowls, &c, may be hung up. Taking out, of pickle, and preparation for hanging up to smoke, is thus performed: — Scrape off the undissolved salt (and if you had put on as much as directed, there will be a considerable quantity on all the pieces not immersed in the brine; this salt and the brine is all saved; the brine boiled down [for re use].” Notice that his 1852 description is far more “matter of fact” and he does not go into all the explanations and caveats he did in the 1830 description and his reference to pickle . . . used again and again is a progression from the 1830 reference.
The incorporation of this facet of curing brines was undoubtedly not as advanced as it was in Ireland in the 1820s and 30s. Mild cured bacon was separately listed in newspapers of the time related to price and market conditions. The very first reference goes back to 1837 to a report from Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is fascinating that following this initial reference, Antrim completely disappears from the map and Limerick and Waterford takes over. This report simply said about bacon arriving from Ireland and that the Bacon market was dull the past week but (except) for “a small parcel of mild cure.” (Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) 21 July 1837)
Before this date, mild cured bacon is not mentioned. Remember that bacon was a commodity with prices regularly quoted in newspapers like maize and other farming commodities in certain publications. The second reference is in 1842 reported in the Provisions section of Jackson’s Oxford Journal which would regularly report on bacon prices from Ireland. In a mention about produce from Ireland, it says, “in the bacon market there is no great alterations; heavy bacon is more inquired after, and all fresh mild cure meets a fair demand.” Heavy bacon seems to be used as opposed to mild cure. (Jackson’s Oxford Journal (Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) 17 September 1842, p4)
The progression in the references, all related to bacon from Ireland and all focussed on amongst other, Limerick and Waterford. An 1845 report said that “choice mild-cured Bacon continues brisk.” (Jackson’s Oxford Journal (Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) 26 July 1845, p4.)
An 1853 report from Ireland itself is very instructive. From Dublin, a report says “We are glad to observe that several Dublin curers are now introducing the system of mild cure in bacon as well as hams, in consequence of the great difference had in price. (The Freeman’s Journal, (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) 11 Feb 1853, p1)
From this, it would seem that we are justified in retaining the most likely place for the invention of mild cure to have been in Northern Ireland, sometime just before 1837. (see my addendum to this work, Addendum A, Occurrences of “mild cure” in English Newspapers.
Following Reports About Oake and his Son
Report from The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) 23 Sep 1853, Fri, Page 4
There is a reference in The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland), 23 September 1853 reporting that the previous Wednesday, letters from London “announced the disposal of the provisions contract for the royal navy, 12 000 tierces (casks) of pork and 4000 tierces (casks) of beef.” The short notice says that “we have the satisfaction to add that half the pork contract was taken for Irish account, and a considerable portion will be made up in Limerick, by Shaw and Duffield, William G. Gubbins, William Oake, and Joseph Matterson.” The article is quoting the Limerick Chronicle and shows that Oake had tremendous commercial success.
We also know that at least one of his sons was involved in the business with him, but not in Ireland. A notice was posted in Manchester Weekly Times and Examiner (Manchester), Saturday, 28 September 1889 of the death of William Harwood Oake from Gillingham, Dorset “elder son of the late William Oake of Limerick“, aged 49. This means that WH Oake was born in 1840 and if we presume William Oake from Limerick had him when he was 20, William was probably born around 1820. I later revised this estimate, taking more information into account and it seems that he was born around 1807.
From Daily News (London, Greater London, England) 18 Jul 1885, Sat Page 3 about the dissolvent of the partnership of the firm Oake Woods Waring. The new firm Oake Woods was created from this.
In The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Western Countries, 18 July 1885, page 8, a notice appeared for the dissolution of a partnership between William Howard (Harwood??) Oake, John Woods, and William Waring trading as Oake, Woods, and Waring, at Gillingham, Dorset. If the address is not a clear link to the son of William Oake from Limerick in Ireland, the commodities they traded in is the final proof and a picture is emerging of an imminent “bacon” family. They were, according to the notice, bacon and provision merchants. The partnership was dissolved due to Waring retiring. At first, I thought that if (and there is good reason to suspect this), that William Oak from Limerick is the inventor of tank curing, this would indicate that by 1885 the process has not been exported to England since his son is selling the bacon which is, probably being imported from Ireland.
The circumstantial evidence is strong. William Oake had a substantial bacon curing operation and was able to do it at prices so far below curers in Britain that they were able to secure a large part of a lucrative Navy contract. The cost compared to dry salt curing is one of the main benefits of tank curing is compared to dry salting. The driving force for these was then, as it is today, cost and quality, but mainly cost. The other one that goes hand in hand with cost, is speed. Tank curing or mild curing is much faster than dry salting.
Britain was the main market for Irish bacon and it stands to reason that the Irish would have been very protective over their technology. It makes sense that he set his son up to trade their bacon in England and did apparently not export the technology to England.
I discovered that my conclusion is only partly correct. His son and partners may have started selling Irish bacon produced by his dad but it quickly changed into a fully-fledged bacon curing operation itself. It turns out that the Gillingham, Dorset was a curing operation where auto curing was employed.
Talking about the Gillingham station, The Dorset Life reports that “the effect on agriculture was the rise in the number of Gillingham farmers; 12 in 1842; 34 in 1859; 45 in 1875. In 1860 and 1893 the station platform was extended to cater for the vast numbers of milk churns that were brought in each day. Close to the railway was Oake Woods & Co., bacon curers. Pigs arrived in cattle trucks to be delivered just yards away to the bacon factory. Next to Oake Woods was the Salisbury, Semley & Gillingham Dairy which acted as a collection depot and purchased milk from farmers whose production was in small quantities.” (Dorset Life. 2016)
This factory became intimately associated with Wiltshire bacon curing. They won first prize as well as the silver medal at the annual Dairy Show held in the Agriculture Hall, Islington. (Cassell, 1894)
William Oake, his Son and Possible Relatives
Information that I could find about William Oake, his son and possible relatives. I will continue to update this section. A death notice appeared for Harriette Oake who passed away on 27/07/1844, Henry Street. She was the wife of William Oake who was the Commander of the Eleanor which was a trader between the port and London port. This could be the parents of William Oake from Limerick.
There is a record of the death of William Oake on 24/08/1859 Thomas Street, a provision merchant, buried at St. Munchin’s
William Harwood Oake from Gillingham Dorsetpassed away on 28 September 1889.
There is an interesting reference to William Oake, a master butcher who lived in Perth, Perthshire, in Scotland referring to records for 1939 and 1940. A direct descendant? (Leslie’s Directory,1939-1940)
Auto Curing
So far the timeline that was fixed in my mind was that the continued re-use of the old brine was adopted by C & T Harris in the last half of the 1800s or possibly the very early years of the 1900s. The one fact that did not fit my timeline was auto curing. I learned that reusing old brine was part and parcel of the auto curing system of bacon production which, by 1861 was already in use in England, Sweden, Denmark, and Canada. If this was the case, how did Harris only got introduced to the system so late?
Let us first understand what auto curing is. The process is described as follows. The pig is slaughtered in the usual way and the sides trimmed and chilled. After chilling, it is laid out in rows on a sort of truck that exactly fits into a large cylinder of steel 32 feet long, 6 feet in diameter and which will hold altogether 210 sides. When the cylinder is filled, the lid, weighing 3 ½ tons (7000lb. Danish) is closed and hermetically sealed by means of hydraulic pumps at a pressure of 3 tons to the square inch.
A vacuum pump now pumps all the air out which creates a vacuum of 28 inches. It takes about an hour to pump all the air out. The brine channel which leads to the brine reservoir, holding around 6000 gallons of brine is now opened. The brine rush into the chamber and as soon as the bit of air that also entered has been extracted again, the curing starts. It happens as follows.
The brine enters the cylinder at a pressure of 120 lbs. per square inch. It now takes between 4 and 5 hours for the brine to enter the meat completely through the pores which have been opened under an immense vacuum. When it’s done, the brine runs back into the reservoir. It is filtered and strengthened and used again. This is very clearly the continued reuse of old brine. I was baffled.
A feature of the system is that it allows the bacon to be shipped overseas immediately, assuming that maturation would happen en route as was usual. The time for the total process is around three days. On day 1 the pig can be killed, salted on day 2 and packed and shipped on day 3.
There are two brine reservoirs. The one is used with a stitch pump to inject brine into the sides as usual before they are placed in the cylinder and the second tank is used. The largest benefit of this system is the speed of curing and many people report that the keeping quality of the bacon and the taste is not the same as bacon cured in the traditional way.
The system cured the meat in a short time, partly because of the vacuum and the penetration of the brine into the muscle, but also because it too used the power of the old brine which is based on the reduction of nitrate to nitrite. The vacuum had an impact in rather keeping the brine inside the meat and sealing the meat fibres over the areas where holes were created during injection and brine normally leached out again.
It clearly is a progression of the mild cured system but who invented it? The brine is distributed into the meat through step one and not primarily by what they call the “opening of the meat pores.”
There is a reference from another source that meat cured in this way is more tender. The system allowed for a 3% to 4% brine pick up which would have added to the bacon being much more tender than with dry curing.
Capital Structure
The following article appeared in The Morning Post (London, Greater London, England) 23 Nov 1889 reporting on new companies (Limited) which has been registered recently. The firm opted for public funds to finance the imminent international expansion.
The Morning Post (London, Greater London, England) 23 Nov 1889
The Gillingham, Dorset Operation and Oake-Woods’ Patent
Oake’s son and partners were responsible for setting up the curing operation in Gillingham, Dorset, making it clear that they were not just re-selling Irish bacon cured by Oake’s father, but they actually used the auto cure technology.
The Journal of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association (1887) reports that Oake, Woods and Company won a bronze medal for their British Mild Cured Bacon. This being the case, we know for certain that mild cured technology, including the repeated re-use of the old brine which was the cornerstone of the system, was in wide use in Britain by 1887 which hones in on the time when C & T Harris acquired the technology. It must have been well before 1887. The second important point to note is that Oake, Woods and Company not only used auto curing but also mild curing.
An article appears in The Age, Melbourne, Australia in 1898 which describes the proliferation of the system. It reports that the leading factories in Canada, Denmark and Sweden are all adopting the new auto-cure process because the article produced by it means is superseding all other brands in the largest market in the world” which at this time was England. The author of the article gives us a date when the curing operation of Oake, Woods and Company, Ltd was started in Gillingham, Dorset using auto curing. He refers to them as “curers of Wiltshire Bacon” which was in operation for 18 months by 1895 taking the establishment of the auto curing line to 1896. We know that by 1861 it was already in use in England, Sweden, Denmark, and Canada. It was, however in the 1890s when international patents were taken out and it would appear as if the expansion plans were truly global including the Scandanavian countries just mentioned but also the USA, South Africa and New Zealand.
A certain Mr Down, “the patentee of the process” described the process in his own words which are reported in great detail. It is a tedious description and the reason why it was so successful is attributed to incorrect factors, but it is nevertheless instructive and gives the full description of the process. Those who are interested can read the full article at https://www.newspapers.com/clip/80931212/auto-cure/. I received a mail from Will Dean who writes that Mr Down was the managing director of Oake Woods in the 1890s. His full name was Evan Roberts Down.
Stanier elaborates on this information provided by Down. He says that the factory and offices close to the railway station was established in 1847. Vitally he credits William Harwood Oake, son of William Oake from Limerick for the invention of auto cured bacon. He writes, “Oake (referring to William Harwood) invented the ‘Auto-Cure’ method of curing bacon under pressure in cylinders, for which the Danes paid a £4,000 annual royalty. It seems then, that the factory was established in 1847 and sometime between then and 1861 he invented auto curing. Very importantly, the Danes who obtained the system of mild curing which was invented by his dad paid him a royalty for the use of his technology. This fact along with the reference to Mr Down as the patentee, informs us that he very well protected the invention. By 1896 it was in full operation in Gillingham.
Dean who looked at the actual patents told me in private communication that he “had always thought [the process patented by Oake Woods] sounded extremely similar to the “tanalising” process for treating timber – amusingly this is actually mentioned in one of the patents.” He also provided me with copies of the actual patents.
Special thanks to Will Dean who sourced these and sent them to me.
The fact that Down is clearly listed as the inventor in these patents is of considerable interest. It may be that he takes the place of the inventor, who had to be listed as filing the application simply on account of William Harwood Oake having passed away on 28 September 1889. Down may in fact have been responsible for improvements to the system in addition to the reality that Oake was not around in the 1890s to file the application.
We return to product quality briefly and an observation related to the Gillingham site is in order. We know that water quality was very important to William Oake. Stanier mentions related to this site that “water was pumped from a well, and extensive cellars beneath the factory were said to be the best in the country for curing-by hanging bacon in the smoke of smouldering hardwoods. 150 were once employed but the factory closed in about 1980.” He makes it clear that he is talking about the same factory we referred to above when he writes that “the United Dairies milk and cheese factory remains next door along Station Road.”
Food Flavourings, Ingredients, & Processing, Volume 1, 1979 likewise confirms the 1861 date of the invention of the auto cure system. The invention was featured at the Paris show in 1867. The 1897 Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Morocco, Harrison and Sons, mentions that the system was brought out not just by Oake but by his company, Oake, Wood & Co.
Two personal sidenotes are in order related to Down. Will Dean tells me that his family own the house which belonged to, and was built for a “certain Mr Down.” This is the same E. R. Down who filed the patents for Oake-Woods and who ran the firm in the 1890s. A second note is that Evan Down’s son was killed in WW1. I include the information because throughout my work on bacon I strive to link the human story to the profession and art of meat curing. It goes hand in hand and is the basis for the double emphasis in my work on the history of bacon, Bacon & the Art of Living. For this reason, I site a reference also given to me by will Dean that provides fascinating background information on the Down family where the story is told of Captain William Oliphant DOWN MC. For his actions he received the military cross and including this reference in a work on bacon is an honour! In Bacon & the Art of Living, I include many stories from the Anglo Boer war. It seems as if there is nothing like war to remind us about the value and joy of living! A distant second is the epic story of bacon!
International Expansion
The matter of international sales of this patented system is very interesting. Henry, M. (1897) reports in a section called “A tip to Bacon Curers”. “SINCE the beginning of May this year experiments have been going on with a new method of curing bacon at the Ystad bacon factory in Sweden, and the results that have been attained have been so successful that it has been adopted at the Landskrona factory also, which belongs to the same owner. Mr Philip W. Heyman, of Copenhagen, the well-known curer of bacon, is adopting the same method, too, at two of his Swedish factories, and five of his Danish factories, and other bacon factories in Sweden and Denmark are making arrangements for having the same method introduced. The auto-cured bacon is treated in the following manner: The meat is cooled in the usual way and placed in large strong iron cylinders that can hold about 200 sides of bacon at one and the same time, and the lids are closed and can be kept closed by water pressure. The advantages claimed for this method, which is patented, are, besides others, the following: The auto-cured bacon will retain the juice of the meat, by which it becomes more nutritious and tender and of milder and more agreeable flavour than bacon cured according to the usual method, and it is easier to digest and keeps for a longer time than the latter so that it need not be ” forced off ” in sale even during hot weather. It will lose no more in weight than other bacon when smoked. Swedish auto-cured bacon has been sent “unbranded” for some time to London from the above-mentioned factory, together with other bacon cured according to the usual method, and has been referred to the latter, having attained about a couple of shillings per cwt, higher price. The first bale of branded auto-cured Swedish bacon, marked “Down’s auto – cure patents, Sweden, ” has been forwarded to the official representative for Sweden, Dr Hugo Wedin, of Lancaster Avenue, Manchester, ” for showing, ” having arrived last week, and has been inspected and tested by a number of merchants interested in the bacon trade here. It is expected that this bacon will soon find an increased sale on its own merits.” (Henry, 1897)
The elaborate quote gives us an insight into the extent of the propagation of the system due to international interest. I retained the description of the process to remove all doubt that we are talking about William Harwood Oake’s system and the advantages have been re-stated. From the quote, one wonders if the annual royalty of £4,000 paid by the Danes for the system was paid by Mr Philip W. Heyman or by some Danish association. The publication in 1897 seems to point to the system being introduced into Scandinavia closer to the end of the 1800s.
There is a report from the Queensland Agricultural Journal: Volume 2, Jan 1898, Queensland Department of Primary Industries which says that “A NEW process of bacon – curing ( says the Australasian ) has been brought under the notice of the Minister for Agriculture in Victoria, named the “ Auto – cure Process of Bacon – curing, ” which has been adopted by some of the large bacon factories of Sweden, and by Messrs . Oake, Woods, and Co., Gillingham, Dorsetshire, who have employed it for the last eighteen months in the production of Wiltshire bacon.” The article then makes the interesting statement that “the new process will be used on a considerable scale in Canada and Denmark”
A year later, The Journal, Volume 2 by South Australia’s Department of Agriculture (1899) reports that “in Sweden and Dorsetshire (England), at the factory of Oake, Wood & Co., at Gillingham, a new process under the name “auto cure” has recently been adopted. About seven hours only is required to cure meat, which retains its albumen in an almost unchanged condition, so that the meat is tender, mild, and sweet. The process is carried on in air-tight cylinders of considerable capacity. The meat is then impregnated with brine under considerable pressure. The cost of apparatus to treat 150 sides at a time is said to be £780 in Britain.”
From New Zealand comes information that the same patent was lodged on 3 September 1896 number 8750 E. R. Down from Gillingham, Dorset, Eng. for cylinder or vessel for curing bacon and hams. (Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives of New Zealand) It seems likely that similar applications were filed around the world.
An 1893 reference from the NZ official yearbook mentions that a very definite expectation existed among farmers that the trade of raising pigs will meet the demand of local meat curers and the trade is expected to increase rapidly. It reports that an unnamed firm, referred to as “one of the largest suppliers in the UK of mess pork to the navies of the world and the mercantile marine operations” sent an agent to New Zealand in order to investigate the viability of setting up a branch in the colony. The agent was there a couple of months and was making inquiries as to the prospect of opening up a branch establishment. Reference is made to a trial that he ran to test the quality of the New Zealand pig for their purposes. The trial was done by preparing some carcasses by a process patented by the firm. It is this last statement that makes me suspect it to be Oake-Woods that is referred to. Market research, done clandestinely before the patent application is lodged seems very plausible. It would fit the scenario where an actual application was done and granted three years later in ’96. I am sure that like today, foreign patent applications was an expensive process and the approach would seem reasonable. The close time between the report of the clandestine work and the actual granting of a patent, the reference to an existing international footprint to supply the navies of the world and the fact that the head office was in England makes it almost certain that this reference is to Oake-Woods doing market research before filing the application.
The approach of protecting the process with a patent, followed by appointing local producers to use the system under license is an extremely effective way of expanding internationally. Oake-Woods was one of the only firms that could do it based on the fact that their process was highly patentable. The reason for this is that theirs was not only a process as was the case with mild cured bacon of William Oake but involved very specific equipment. A process is impossible to protect as the case of William Oakes mild cure system illustrated beautifully. The moment unique equipment enters the equation, the entire situation changes and it becomes highly patentable! No other firm to my knowledge had both a totally unique process as well as totally unique equipment going along with the process at this time. A process is only protected till your staff leaves. It was true then as it is true today! To my knowledge, Oake-Woods had the most expansive international coverage of any bacon and ham curing company at the time by far!
The agent of the company in question in New Zealand ran the trails and then shipped these to his principals in England. He received a cablegram which stated that the meat and the curing were done to “perfection.” As a result of this, arrangements were made for extensive trade throughout the colony. The English firm was prepared to erect factories at a cost of £20,000 each in areas where they have a reasonable expectation to secure 2,000 pigs per week. (The NZ Official Yearbook, 1893) I wondered if this was not C & T Harris for a long time but Oake-Woods fits the profile of the unnamed company in question much better.
Through a Gillingham, Dorset Facebook group, Helen Shorrocks contacted me with the following interesting recollection of a South African operation. She writes, “My Grandad worked for them (Oakes William & Co.) all his life, I believe he was head butcher and was offered a job in South Africa as a young family man with the company as they had a factory out there. My Grandmother wouldn’t go.” The same modus operandi would have been used in South Africa where a local company was granted a license to use the technology after it was patented.
Conclusion
The Oak family is responsible for giving us two powerful and historically significant systems of curing. The first being mild curing by William Oake and the second was auto curing by William Harwood, his son. The key feature of both systems is the repeated re-use of the brine where the microflora is retained for as long as possible and the brine was only boiled under very specific conditions. The second, auto curing, adds vacuum and pressure with the accompanying befits. This is a remarkable journey and we salute the work of William Oake and his son.
Notes
(1) Mild Cured System
I quote the entire section from The Journal of Agriculture and Industry of South Australia. A better treatment of tank curing of that time is as far as I know, not in existence. I can only imagine the Irish immigrants who brought this technology to Australia. After quoting it, I will make a few comments on the system.
“Bacon-Curing under the Factory System.
Like the dairying industry in the latter years, the manufacture of bacon and hams has undergone great changes. The old expensive system of dry-salting has been almost entirely superseded by the less expensive method of curing with pickle in tanks. This method is not only less expensive, but it is the safest and most profitable for the climate of the Australian colonies.
There is at the present time a new process coming into vogue, which is attracting considerable attention amongst bacon-curers. The process is called the “mild cure.” The discoverer of the new process of curing was, it appears, an eminent chemist — the late Mr William Oake. of Ulster. In an experiment, it is said he discovered that the antiseptic properties of salt were to be found apart from chloride of sodium (salt), and that the obnoxious effects of dissolving the albumen in the curing process could, therefore, be avoided. This is supposed to be the key to the new system of curing. By the new process of treatment, it is said that the bacon and hams, although thoroughly cured with the very essence of salt, still retain all the albumen originally in the meat, and yet do not taste salty to the palate. By the new process, the lean of the cured bacon remains soft and juicy, and natural in color; and the best proof of the value of the system is in the fact that where the mild cure has been adopted the bacon and hams will keep for any length of time in any climate. A great deal of labor, it is said, is saved by the new process, while the article put on the market is declared to be much superior in taste and flavor and quality to bacon cured on the old system.
Whatever may become of the new process, whether a success or not, it is certain that the time has now gone past for farmers to kill and cure for sale their own pigs to best advantage. The trade now requires an article well got up and of uniform quality to bring the highest prices, and as a rule, farmers have not the convenience for such work, and therefore are unable to compete against factories where they have all the latest appliances. It is therefore advisable for farmers either to co-operate and build a factory or to sell their pigs to some individual or company in the trade.
A factory with a capacity for working from 120 to 150 pigs per week, with refrigerating room and all machinery required, can be erected for about £1,000, and pigs of an average weight of 125lbs. can be killed, cured, smoked, and made ready for placing on the market at a cost of 4s. per head. In these times of keen competition and low prices, to make bacon-curing a profitable industry- no bacon should be held longer than from six weeks to two months, and hams from three to four months — the longer it is held the more weight it loses, and very often does not improve in quality.
The following is the system adopted in curing bacon with pickle. It is necessary to have a number of tanks, either built of brick and cement, slate, or wood. If timber is the most easily got, 2 1/2 in. planks well put together will answer. These tanks, if made 5ft. square by 40in. deep, will hold fifty ordinary sized pigs. Tanks sufficient for one week’s killing, with one spare tank for turning over the bacon, will be required.
Pigs that are to be killed should be kept without food for twelve or fourteen hours, and during that time should be yarded up adjoining the slaughter house. In no case should pigs be driven or heated in any way just prior to killing. From the yards to the killing pen a small race can be made, where from six to eight at a time can be run in and killed ; and the best method of killing is to stun the pig by a smart blow on the forehead, halfway between the eyes and the top of the head, with a hammer or similar weapon ; then, before the pig can struggle, turn him square on his back, place a foot on each side of the head, facing the animal, holding the head down to the floor by placing the left hand on the snout. Now place the point of the knife on the animal’s throat, at the same time looking over the carcass and pushing the knife in a straight line in the direction of the root of the tail. If you do not stick just right the first time, you will see why when the pig is opened. A little observation will enable you to become an expert pig sticker.
The killing pen should be raised from the ground about 2ft. 6in., and the floor allowed about 2in. fall. The blood will then flow all into one corner, where a receptacle can be placed underneath, and the blood all saved and used or sold for manure. From the floor of the killing pen the pigs can be drawn easily into the scalding vat, which should be placed adjoining the killing pen. A good size for the scalding vat is 6ft. long, 4ft. wide, and 2ft. 6in. high, and if a steam pipe is laid on from the boiler into the scalding vat the water can always be kept at a regular temperature — the best heat for scalding is 160°. Adjoining the scalding vat should be placed another vat of similar dimensions for cold water. After the pig is scraped it should be dropped into the vat of cold water, which will cleanse and cool the carcass and get the final scrape before being drawn up by the gamble on to the aerial tram, where the internals are removed and the backbone cut out, and then run into the factory, where they are allowed to hang till the following morning, when they are cut up into flitches or full sides, according to the size of the pigs.
As the carcasses are cut up the portions are laid on the floor of the factory (which should be made of concrete or flagged), flesh uppermost, and lightly powdered over with saltpetre, so as to drain off any blood. It can then be placed in the tanks for salting in the following manner: — Sprinkle the bottom of the tank with salt, then put in a layer of sides or flitches, sprinkle saltpetre over them lightly, and then salt and sugar. The next layer of sides or flitches is put in crosswise, and served in the same way, and so on until the tank is full. Then place a lid to fit inside the tank (inch battens 3in. apart will do); fix an upright on top of the lid to keep the bacon from rising when putting in the pickle. The pickle to be made as follows: — To every 1Olbs. of salt add 8lbs. of dark-brown sugar, lib. of spice, and 1/2lb. of sal-prunella. Make it strong enough to float an egg; let it settle for some time, then skim, and it is ready to go on to the meat.
Explanatory note by Eben: Note Sal-Prunella is, according to Errors of Speech or Spelling by E. Cobham Brewer, Vol II, published by William Tegg and Co, London, 1877, a mixture of refined nitre and soda. Nitre, as used at this time was refined saltpetre used in the manufacturing of explosives.
At the end of forty-eight hours turn the meat over into another tank, taking care to put the sides that were on top in the bottom of next tank, treating it as regards saltpetre, salt, and sugar exactly the same as at first, and using the same pickle. It can then remain until the seventh day from when first put in. It can then be taken out, and stacked on the floor of the factory, putting some salt between each layer, but do not stack higher than four sides deep, until it has been on the floor for some days when it should be turned over, and stacked higher each time until the fourth week from the day it went into the tanks; the bacon will then be cured.
The bacon can then be placed in tanks containing cold water, and allowed to soak all night. Wash well with a brush, then hang up to dry, and when properly dry it can be trimmed and smoked.
As hams require slightly different treatment from the bacon, separate tanks are required. Before placing the hams in the tank rub over the face of each one a thin layer of brown sugar. When the first layer is placed in the tank sprinkle over with saltpetre and salt, same as with the bacon, treating the balance the same as at first until the tank is full. Make the pickle same as for bacon, and leave the hams same time in tanks. Always retain the same pickle for the hams, and in no case use the bacon pickle for hams. The same pickle can be used for many years — the older the better; it only requires, when it becomes somewhat muddy, to be boiled and clarified. I have seen pickle which had been used in one factory for sixteen years, and that factory produces some of the best bacon and hams in Australia.
Explanatory note by Eben: This means that tank curing or “mild cure” as it was called, was in use in Australia at least by 1880.
Smoking Bacon and Hams.
The smokehouse should be built according to the intended output of bacon and hams, and the walls of the building should not be less than 12ft. high. One of the principal things in smoking bacon is to have the smoke as cool as possible before coming into contact with the bacon and to assist this it is well to put a floor 6ft. 6in. or 7ft. from the ground, just allowing a slight opening between the flooring boards to allow the smoke to make its way up to where the bacon is hung. The flitches or hams should be hung as close together as not to touch, so as to allow the smoke to penetrate every portion. A small slide can be put in the gable of the smokehouse to regulate the smoke as required. A place should be made in the centre of the floor, say 6ft. by 3ft., where the sawdust is placed. This is lighted, and if the door is kept closed there will be no flame, but the sawdust will smoulder and cause a great quantity of smoke. From twenty-four to forty-eight hours will suffice to properly smoke the bacon if the weather is suitable, after which it may be packed and forwarded to market.
Where teatree (Melaleuca) is obtainable it is excellent for smoking ; it imparts a flavor to the bacon which is much appreciated by many people.
A Conclusion is offered
Mild-cure Bacon. — In all of the large cities of Britain and the European continent, the public demand is for mild-cure bacon. The system of cure is very simple and perfect, but requires expenditure of at least £1,000 on the plant for carrying it out. By this process the albumen of the meat is retained and is not coagulated, so that the bacon is devoid of excessive salt, is by no means hard or dry, and there is no loss of weight in the curing. A factory costing £2,000 to construct could easily cure 400 pigs per day. The process takes about a month to complete, but after the first day there is no further labor involved.”
References
The Age. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia29 Mar 1898, Tue, Page 7
APPENDIX TO THE JOURNALS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF NEW ZEALAND . SESSION II . , 1897 . VOL . III .
Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Antrim, Northern Ireland) 21 July 1837
The Bristol Mercury and Daily Post, Western Countries, 18 July 1885, page 8
Cape of Good Hope (Colony). Dept. of Agriculture, VOL . VIII . 1896. Published for the Department of Agriculture, Cape of Good Hope by WA Richards & Sons, Government Printers, Castle Street, Cape Town.
Cassell. The Official Guide to the London and South Western Railway: The Royal Route to the South and the West of England, the Channel Islands, Europe and America, Cassell and Company, ltd Jan 1894
Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Morocco, 1897. Harrison and Sons.
The Freeman’s Journal, (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland) 11 Feb 1853, p1
The Freeman’s Journal (Dublin, Dublin, Ireland), 23 September 1853
Jackson’s Oxford Journal (Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) 17 September 1842, p4
Jackson’s Oxford Journal (Oxford, Oxfordshire, England) 26 July 1845, p4.
The Journal of the British Dairy Farmers’ Association: For the Improvement of the Dairy Husbandry of Great Britain (1887), Volume 3
The Journal of Agriculture and Industry of South Australia, edited by Molineux, General Secretary of Agriculture, South Australia, Volume 1 covering August 1897 – July 1898 and printed in Adelaide by C. E. Bristow, Government Printer in 1898.
The Journal, Volume 2 by South Australia. Department of Agriculture. Vol II, No. 1. Edited by A Molineux, F. S. L., F. R. H. S, General Secretary Agriculture. Bureau of S. A., August 1898, to July 1899, Government Printers. 1899.
The Queensland Agricultural Journal, Issued by the direction of the Hon. A. J. Thynne, M. L. C. , Secretary for Agriculture. Edited by A. J. Boyd, F.R.G.S.Q. Vol. II. PART 1. January 1898. By Authority: Brisbane: Edmund Gregory, Government Printer.
The English Pig, the Kolbroek and the Kune Kune in Bacon & the Art of Living
By Eben van Tonder
26 June 2021
Introduction
I fell in love with the story of the Kolbroek from the first time I heard it. It is one of the indigenous South African pig breeds, closely related to the Kune Kune from New Zealand. In trying to trace the origins of these breeds I had to go back to the development of the English pig. It’s one of the greatest stories of our trade and here I share the complete work from Bacon & the Art of Living on these amazing animals!
From Bacon & the Art of Living
Below is the list of chapters dealing specifically with the Kolbroek, the Kune Kune and the English pig.
C & T Harris: The Complete Collection
By Eben van Tonder
19 June 2021
Photo from our Solheim apartment in Johannesburg. A multi-needle injector from the Harris factory.
Introduction
The first article I did on C&T Harris appeared on 20 May 2015. Over the years I updated and expanded it. Susan Boddington, a historian and author from Wiltshire was the first person to become a valued collaborator. She continues to work closely with me. Mike Caswell who grew up in Calne joined the efforts with a wealth of first-hand information and sharing the results of dedicated research. There are many others from all over the world.
When I ran the Johannesburg company, Van Wyngaardt with Paul Fickling for Etienne Lotter and his Etlin International, my year and a half in Johannesburg gave me the opportunity to complete the first major draft of my book on the history of bacon, Bacon & the Art of Living. My daughter, Lauren, joined me when she was employed to manage the in-store campaigns for Van Wyngaardt and for weeks on end I would get back to our Solheim apartment where she would prepare dinner while I would write. It gave me the chance to expand this early article into several chapters in my book.
When I contracted Covid a second time in 2021, as sick as I was, I saw an opportunity for another major revision. By this weekend, still recovering, I managed to re-work all the chapters dealing with the Harris operation in Calne. In my book, I presented the story in narrative form. This style may be annoying to some but it proved to a very useful investigative technique as it forced me to think through every process in the 1st person and allowed me to see relationships between seemingly unconnected bits of technology in a completely new and holistic way. By, as it were, “living in the moment,” I gained insights I would never have seen if I simply reported the features of each system separately.
From Bacon & the Art of Living
Below is the list of chapters dealing specifically with the Harris operation for those who desire to confine their enquiry to Harris.
One very important additional chapter must be grouped here. Chapter 10.14 Dublin and the Injection of Meat deals with the invention of stitch pumping and arterial injection in particular. Harris used this system for many years. It places the invention of using a needle to inject brine into meat in the right time when Harris started using stitch pumping which directly resulted in the invention of sweet cured bacon. In this chapter I also develops the benefits of pre-rigour meat injection in great detail. It must logically therefore be grouped with the general work on Harris bacon as it shows the invention of processes which was either pioneered by them or used, in cases where it was invented by others.
Please make contact!
Any contributions or comments can be directed to me at :
The story of bacon is set in the late 1800s and early 1900s when most of the important developments in bacon took place. The plotline takes place in the 2000s with each character referring to a real person and actual events. The theme is a kind of “steampunk” where modern mannerisms, speech, clothes and practices are superimposed on a historical setting. Modern people interact with old historical figures with all the historical and cultural bias that goes with this.
The Boers (Our Lives and Wars)
The Afrikaner Nation and Boers feature prominently in my story of bacon. The timeline is such that I returned to South Africa just before the outbreak of the war. So, inserting the Boer War into this work makes perfect sense.
The second role of inserting it is that it is a perfect example of the power of the mental world where we serve images we created and exist only in the mind such as nationalism. It is central to the “art of living” considerations and insights that came to me through the discipline of meat curing.
American volunteers, welcomed by President Kruger. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Annexing the Orange River Colony
Annexing the Orange River Colony May 1900
Australians in the ABW
Dirk Marais wrote,
“Australia and the ABW 1899-1902
NSW Bushmen
The war between the British and the two Dutch South African republics – the Boer War – began on 11 October 1899 when the Boers declared war on the British. It lasted until 31 May 1902 when Lord Kitchener and General Botha signed a treaty, the Peace of Vereeniging. Australia, as part of the British Empire, offered troops from the six separate colonies and from 1901, the new Australian Commonwealth.
Contingents
The first colonial contingents arrived in South Africa between November 1899 and March 1900; the second between December 1899 and February 1900; the third between April and May 1900 and the fourth between May and June 1900. The 5th NSW contingent departed between March and April 1901 and consisted of the 2nd and 3rd NSW Mounted Rifles and those troops destined to become the 3rd NSW Imperial Bushmen, plus reinforcements for the Field Ambulance NSWAMC and A Field Battery RAA. After 1901 additional contingents of soldiers were sent to South Africa to form battalions with squadrons from each state. These battalions were first numbered as units of the Commonwealth Contingent. Later the entire force was designated as the Australian Commonwealth Horse.
Casualties
It is estimated that about 16,000 Australians fought in the Boer War and there were about 600 casualties and deaths. Six Australian soldiers were decorated with a Victoria Cross. In our collection are some general records relating to the Boer War, such as regimental orders and photos of the NSW Bushmen’s Contingent.”
Captioned breakfast on the Veld; looks like Aussies but has the WO got a lemon Squeezer? Photo and comments by Iain Hayter.
Australian soldiers in the Anglo-Boer war, c. 1901. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
Australian light horse Artillery ABW 1899-1902. Photo and caption by Dirk Marais.
Black Refugees, soldiers and ordinary people
From the album of photographs of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library. Photo provided by Andries Pretorius.
Sol Plaatjies
Reference: http://historicalpapers-atom.wits.ac.za/sannc-delegation-to-england-1914; Deputation of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) to England in 1914, in protest of the Native Land Act of 1913. The members of the SANNC delegation to England as shown in the photograph were Thomas Mapikela, Doctor Walter Rubusana, Reverend John Dube, Saul Msane and Solomon Plaatje.
Martin Plaut writes about the role of ‘black Boers’, as they refer to black people fighting for the Boer nations, and says that the role of these ‘black Boers’ is captured in this British ditty:
‘Tommy, Tommy, watch your back There are dusky wolves in cunning Piet’s pack Sometimes nowhere to be seen Sometimes up and shooting clean They’re stealthy lads, stealthy and brave In darkness they’re awake Duck, Duck, that bullet isn’t fake.
Chris Pretoriusposted a quote about Plaatjies: “In 1932, Solomon Tshekisho (Sol) Plaatje, intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer, born at Doornfontein near Boshof, OFS in 1876, passed away in Soweto at the age of 56. He was (amongst others) court translator for the British during the Siege of Mafeking and diarized his experiences, which was published posthumously.”
Medical inspection at a Black concentration camp administered by the British Native Refugee Department. Photo and description supplied by Hans de Kramer.
Scouts attached to the 14th Brigade (possibly the Lincolnshire Regiment) during operations in the Bethal, Ermelo, and Vlakfontein area during the Paardekop period. Photo and description supplied by Dennis Morton.
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein se ou markplein vanaf die dak van die Poskantoor. 1880’s. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Voor Bloemfontein teer strate gehad het. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Boer Warrior
Hans Swart. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman. Sent to him by Piet Lombard from Heilbron.
Bittereinders vas gestaan tot die laaste! Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Boer gesin “Sharpshooters”Oud en Jonk was deel van die oorlog ABO 1899-1902. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Danie Theron en Pres.Steyn in gesprek. ABO 1899-1902. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Anglo-Boere Oorlog helde bymekaar as senior Oudstryders gedurende die 1940’s. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Two Boers. Names and date of photo unknown to me. Note: thank you to MC Heunis for pointing out the hat badges. They were burghers of the Orange Free State. Photo and description supplied by Leo Taylor.
British Soldiers
A wonderful photo from my meagre collection. Such awesome soldiers so far from home. Photo and description supplied by Lisa Huckle.
Louis Botha
In ou Vryheid…1887.. Die latere generaal Louis Botha staan 3de van regs. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Brandwater Basin (Where my great Grandfather surrendered to the British – ABW)
British Prisoners of War at the Waterval Camp North of Pretoria. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Bermuda, Hawkins Island
Prisoners of war on Hawkins Island, Bermuda. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Prisoners of war on Hawkins Island, Bermuda. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Prisoners of war on Hawkins Island, Bermuda. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Canadians fighting in the ABW on the side of Britain
Canadian troops under fire; Field Hospital; Battle of Paardenberg Drift; 19 February 1900.
Canadians climbing a kopje. Supplied by Tinus Myburgh.
Cape Town
A very busy Cape Town harbour in 1900. The Anglo-Boer War is in full swing as men and supplies are brought ashore and transported to the various battles being fought in Northern Cape. Photo and comment supplied by Grant Findlater (Dr Lock).
Kaapstad hawe…1870’s. Foto beskikbaar gestel deur Nico Moolman.
‘n Ingekleurde Poskaart van Kaapstad uit die jare
The Pier, Rogge Bay, Cape Town. Sundays were a favoured day for outings on the Pier at the end of Adderley Street. In this photo from the early 1900s, people gather on the beach to watch fishermen bring in their catch while a number of small fishing boats lie at anchor at the lee of the pier. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
The Theatre drawing by Lady Anne Barnard ca 1802. Photo and description by Stephan Lategan.
Washerwomen at the seasonal wetland on Rondebosch Common, on Campground Road Photo by Hilton, T. on Flickr. When we lived in Rondebosch I used to run around the common every day for exercise
Sea Point 1856. One of the first open-air photos taken around Cape Town. The future daughter-in-law of a certain Dr James Cameron. Photo by Andre Strydom.
Medical staff in the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp. Photo by Elria Wessels.
Medical staff in the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp and one of the patients (her name was Lizzie van Zyl). Photo by Elria Wessels. Tony Van Der Helm writes that “she is holding a cloth doll under her right shoulder and evidently died within the hour after the photo was taken. Speaking under correction, I think the doll was given to her by Emily Hobhouse.”
Medical staff in the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp and one of the patients (her name was Lizzie van Zyl). Photo by Elria Wessels. Tony Van Der Helm writes that “she is holding a cloth doll under her right shoulder and evidently died within the hour after the photo was taken. Speaking under correction, I think the doll was given to her by Emily Hobhouse.”
Women on their way to a concentration camp. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Women on their way to a concentration camp. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Crossing the River
British troops watch while a train of transport wagons cross a drift during the Anglo-Boer War. 1899-1902. In the background, one can observe a railway bridge destroyed by the retreating Boer forces. Supplied by Dirk Marais.
British artillery crossing a stream. Location unknown! From the album of photographs of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius.
British artillery crossing a stream. Location unknown! From album of photographs of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius.
British forces crossing a river! Exact location not given. From the album of photographs of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius.
“Ei Kona horse” ABW labourers crossing a stream on their way to work From the album of photos of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library.
Royal Irish Rifles crossing the Vaal River. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Modder rivier brug 1900, supplied by Dirk Marais
Colesberg ABW
British Scouts Firing at a Boer Patrol Commando near Colesberg! Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
Concentration Camps
Howick Concentration Camp and some women and children waiting for the water. Some children and women in front of their tents. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Howick Concentration Camp and some women and children waiting for the water. Some children and women in front of their tents. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Howick Concentration Camp and some women and children waiting for the water. Some children and women in front of their tents. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Howick Concentration Camp and some women and children waiting for the water. Some children and women in front of their tents. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels
Below, Boers Entering Van Rhyndsdorp, Photo supplied by Iain Hayter.
Boers Entering Van Rhyndsdorp,1901 Under the command of Genl JBM Hertzog. Photo supplied by Iain Hayter.
Genl. De la Rey
General de La Rey on his horse. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Gen. De Wet, Christiaan.
Pres. MT Steyn en Genl.De Wet met besoek aan Pres.Steyn se plaas Onze Rust 1909. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Die sout van die aarde. Tant Nelie en oom Christiaan. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Christiaan De Wet and boet Piet de Wet. (amongst others.) Here with Pres Steyn, Pre-ABW. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
A rather sad end to a fighting man’s career. Gen De Wet on the backseat of a motor car after being captured during the rebellion 1914/15. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman
What De Wet loved best during the ABW. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
De Wet being escorted in Norvalspont Camp by cheerful ladies after Surrender briefing. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Gen De Wet oversees the stacking of captured British munitions at Roodewal before blasting it to smithereens…OHS…. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
General De Wet’s bodyguard and staff. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
‘The Big 3’ Generals in Netherlands – 22 August 1902 de Wet, de la Rey and Botha . Photo Credit – Nico Moolman
Genl De Wet, addressing the bewildered at Norvalspont con camp on the peace conditions … post-Melrose House agreement. Later to be known as the Peace of Vereeniging. ABW Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Genl De Wet drumming up support for the Boer cause in Potchefstroom in August 1900, after the first farms were torched by the British. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
The family De Wet. During the ABW. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
De Wet riding through Kroonstad with Archie Coulson ( interpreter) to his right and other staff members. Archie’s brother fought on the British side. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Genl De Wet and his son Danie. …Danie was later killed in action at Mushroom Valley Winburg during the Rebellion of 1914. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Braving the cold, De Wet and French. Talking Peace. End of ABW. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
This amazing set of photos by Dirk Marais. Generaal De Wet en sy Kommando 1901 Potchefstroom.
This amazing set of photos by Dirk Marais. Generaal De Wet en sy Kommando 1901 Potchefstroom.
The newspaper article is from a 1950’s Sunday Times article. Who is the “Pieter” referred to in the article? There was a Pieter de Villiers Graaff who was known as the Cape Rebel (Kaapse Rebel). He was a cousin of Sir David de Villiers Graaff, who is featured prominently in my work on bacon. Pieter participated in 25 battles in the ABW against the English and on 24 March 1901, he was captured and sent to India as a POW where he remained for the duration of the war. I doubt if the Sunday Times article refers to him. He did, however, have a son, also named Pieter de Villiers Graaff. He was born on December 16, 1911, and passed away on July 11, 1988. He was 76.
This amazing set of photos by Dirk Marais. Generaal De Wet en sy Kommando 1901 Potchefstroom.
Funeral of Mrs CR de Wet at Dewetsdorp in May 1934. A forgotten widow. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Funeral of Mrs CR de Wet at Dewetsdorp in May 1934. A forgotten widow. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Dutch Volunteers
The Dutch volunteers having a bite to eat. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Diggers during the Gold Rush
Lydenburg /Pilgrimsrest area during early gold rush about 1873. Supplied by Peter Boright.
District Six
District Six (Afrikaans Distrik Ses) is a former inner-city residential area in Cape Town. Over 60,000 of its inhabitants were forcibly removed during the 1970s by the apartheid regime.
Diyatalawa and Ragama, Ceylon (Diyatalawa is where my great grandfather was a POW – ABW)
Rugby field, Prisoner of War Camp, Diyatalawa, Ceylon. Photo by Elria Wessels.
POW Carting firewood. Prisoner of War Camp, Diyatalawa, Ceylon. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
Main Gate Diyatalawa POW Camp Ceylon and the camp and some of the POWs held there. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Diyatalawa POW Camp Ceylon. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Diyatalawa POW Camp Ceylon, Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Diyatalawa POW Camp Ceylon, Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Diyatalawa POW Camp Ceylon, Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Kinders as so Jonk as Krygsgevangenes geneem hoe hartseer! Diyatalawa Camp, Ceylon. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Prisoner of War, POW Camp, Ragama, Ceylon. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Prisoner of War, POW Camp, Ragama, Ceylon. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Prisoner of War, POW Camp, Ragama, Ceylon. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Dorsland Trek
Daar was die Groot Trek in Suid Afrika gewees , maar dan die Dorsland – Angola trekkers. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Duitswes
‘Die osse stap aan deur die stoww, geduldig, gedienstig, gedwee.” Duitswes…1915. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
Eastern Cape
Boer trenches at Hlangweni. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Farm Life
Farm Life
Op “Viljoenshoek ” se plaaswerf naby Lindley 1920’s. Foto supplied by Nico Moolman.
Football Team
Jason Patrick Hanslo supplied the photos and give the following description. “Kaffir Football team (Basutu XI), Cape Argus, 1899 (The Cape Argus, 10 August 1899, p. 7.) They played 49 games in England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and France in only a 4-month tour. They were captained by Joseph Twayi. They were the first South African football side to tour abroad and for most opposition the first black team they played against. Their team wore blue shorts and orange shirts with blue facings. In June 1899, the Manchester Times reported on the forthcoming tour and wrote ‘the team is said to be strong, the players being of splendid physique. The Scottish Sport noted that they were reportedly ‘big, powerful men, with a “rare turn of speed” and “considerable individual skill”’ and went on to describe them as a ‘determined, fine-built body of men, who have only picked up the game in the last four or five years. The tour was also reported in the Chicago Tribune and Brooklyn Daily Eagle in the United States and the Evening Post in New Zealand. And guess what the Cape Argus said? In 1899 in an article about the Kaffir football tour to the Cape Argus noted: “The whole affair is farcical as it is unsportsmanlike, and smacks very much of hippodrome. Western Province “soccer” enthusiast can scarcely credit the fact that a gang of Kafirs should seriously be expected to give an exhibition worthy of the name, and the British football public will soon realise this fact.”
Free State
Nagmaal te Heilbron. 1890’s. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Germans fighting for the Boers in the ABW
Housing
‘n Ou kantstraat Boere-dorpshuis in die platteland, 1890’s. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Old Afrikaner house. Many did not have it easy. Photo by Nico Moolman.
Horses
Feeding Horses in Riebeeck Square Photo: Arthur Elliott (1870-1938)
‘n Ou negatief se kiekie. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Iain Hayter writes about the remounts at Port Elizabeth. “At the best of times, the unloading facilities with their archaic method of discharging their cargo onto surfboats bobbing next to the transport ship, far at sea, was inefficient. Now there was pandemonium with dozens of vessels of all shapes and sizes riding at anchor in the Bay, patiently waiting to discharge their cargoes. Priority was given as follows: troops, remounts, mules preceded by military hardware, medical equipment, mail and finally coal for the railways.
What became abundantly clear early on in the war was that the mortality rate of the horses was excessive. Instead of addressing the root cause which was not attributable to battlefield casualties but rather due to death at sea arising from starvation and illness and on land due to overwork or ill-treatment, the British scoured the world for horses.
Port Elizabeth was designated as the staging post for remounts. From November 1899, these remounts started arriving from as far afield as Canada, Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. This initial trickle of horses rapidly became a torrent. The rigours of the long slow sea journey claimed many horses. Then in Algoa Bay, they were hoisted from the ship into unstable buckling lighters at sea and then unloaded onto North Jetty to be stabled at the agricultural showground at North End and at Kragga Kamma.
The scale of this remount operation can only be comprehended in terms of the number of remounts transferred from ships in the Bay to dry land at the foot of Jetty Street. According to Neil Orpen in his book on the history of the Prince Alfred’s Guards, this cumbersome laborious process was used no less than 123,000 times between November 1899 and June 1902. In addition to these remounts, the antiquated discharge method also had to cater for 46,000 troops, almost 800,000 tons of military stores as well as thousands of tons of hay. The harbour at Port Elizabeth must have been a hive of activity. One wonders whether this was a 24/7 operation as, without the benefit of modern lighting, proper sources of lighting for nighttime work would have been problematic.
Hermanus
Photo and description by Robin Lee. Cattle on Grotto Beach, messing around where the Blue Flag Beach will later, 1910
Indigenous Houses
– Used by Boers in the ABW
Correspondents scrutinizing a hut in the Boer Laager at Klipdrift. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels
– Technology in housing before the white settlers arrived
Supplied by Mark Finnigan
Indigenous People – When the Settlers Came
“Mapoch was the first real leader of the Ndzundza Ndebele who settled up near Dullstroom (as opposed to Mzilikazi’s followers who became the Matebele and the Amanala Ndebele north of Pretoria). Mapoch built the ‘caves’ or fortified settlements at what is now Roossenekal. When he died and his son was too young to succeed, Nyabela became regent. During 1892 – 1893 King Nyabela fought what is known as the Mapoch War against the Boers and was defeated and sentenced to life imprisonment. The Caves were under siege by the Boers for 8 months. When Nyabela eventually surrendered all the fit and able of the clan were divided amongst the farmers as indentured labourers and the old, infirm and very young left to die. He was let out of prison in 1899, then died 1902 years later. This is the tribe that later became the people who are known as the Ndebele, with their colourful home decorations and dress designs. They became a symbolic way for the people to identify themselves to each other and show solidarity.” (Sarahrichards.co.za)
Irish fighting for the Boers in the ABW
Johannesburg
Johannesburg Market Square. 1895. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
Johannesburg Market Square, photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Transvaal Gold Mine. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Joubert Park, a pleasure resort in Johannesburg. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Post office in Jeppe Street, Johannesburg. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
De Korte Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The main street leading to the cemetery and the township of Vrededorp, where a large number of Dutch reside. Photo and description supplied by Dirk Marais.
View of Johannesburg. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais.
Kimberley
Mens kan skaars glo elke delwer het sy eie kleim gedelf te Kimberley 1876. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Kruger, President
Prez Kruger…enkele weke voor die uitbreek van die Anglo-Boere Oorlog.. Foto verskaf deur Nico Moolman.
The Arrival in Cape Town, of the Mortal Remains of President Paul Kruger. Supplied by Dirk Marais.
Klipdrift ABW
A Hut at the Boer Laager – Klip Drift ABO. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
Timo Kok
Timo Kok is the brother of my grandfather on my mom’s side, Eben Kok. He was held in as a POW in the Diyatalawa camp in Sri Lanka. I record the account of his capture and subsequent incarceration in The Castlemaine Bacon Company.
Meat of War
An English Breakfast…ABW style… — with Cuan Elgin. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Veldt breakfast in a British Army camp. ABW — with Rita Malan. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Gen. Elliott’s men have a go at drying Biltong. ABW. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Photo supplied by Jennifer Bosch who wrote, “On the subject of meat I came across an interesting photo a ‘vleis kas’ (meat box) Photo label: Spouse of H Voorewind, a teacher from the Netherlands stationed at Lydenburg, stands next to the meat box. The left side of the photo is unclear because the negative was not left to dry properly: Eggenote van H. Voordewind, Nederlandse onderwyser te Lydenburg, by die vleiskas. Die linkerkant van die foto is onduidelik omdat die negatief nie goed droog geword het nie.
Photo supplied by Nico Moolman. He writes, “Boer POW’s having a Braai-picnic. Note the knives to cut the meat St Helena ABW”
Photo supplied by Elria Wessels. She writes, “Some of the POWs on Burts Island weighting and cutting up the meat that was part of their rations.”
Photo by Elria Wessels. She writes, “Some members of a Boer Commando near Colesberg. They have some biltong hanging above their heads.”
Ndongeni kaXhoki Zulu
Supplied by Sakhile SR Zulu who wrote: This is Ndongeni kaXhoki Zulu my great grandfather who saved British colony from Boer with Dick King.
Warren Loader replied to the post: Some accounts say that Ndongeni did not complete the epic trip to Grahamstown with Dick King and there has been some controversy on just how far he managed to get. Harry Lugg’s book contains the translation of a 1905 Zulu pamphlet in which Ndongeni tells his story. Ndongeni was apparently born in 1826 in Zululand but his father was killed by Dingane, leaving his mother and he seeks refuge on Dick King’s farm at Isipingo, outside Durban.
He worked as a herd boy for Dick King and accompanied him on trips as the voorloper leading the team of oxen which drew Dick’s wagon. Dick and Ndongeni met Captain Smith’s column at the Umzimkulu river and showed them the road to Durban. He witnessed the Battle of Congella and saw one of the British officers killed. He was later called by Dick and told that he was going to accompany him back to the farm at Isipingo. After nightfall, Dick and Ndongeni went down to the bay, where they found horses and a small boat and were rowed across the bay with the horses swimming along behind.
Ndongeni’s saddle was without stirrups but Dick said it would not matter as they were not going far. The first stop was the kraal of Mnini on the Bluff where the two stopped to ask Mnini to obscure the tracks which they had made. They then moved southwards crossing the rivers they encountered close to their mouths and not at the drifts which the boers had barred. Dick swam the ‘Umlazi’ river clad only in his shirt and Ndongeni, who could not swim, rode across carrying Dick’s clothes on his head. He soon realised that they had bypassed Isipingo and Dick told him that they were going south to the Umzimkulu River. It was only when the pair reached that river was Ndongeni told that the real destination was Grahamstown.
After crossing the river, Ndongeni began to feel very tired because he had been riding without stirrups. Dick lent him his stirrups and he managed to get a new horse and the second pair of stirrups from a military camp [at the mouth of the Mgazi River???]. They rode on but it soon became clear Ndongeni was not able to continue; “..my legs from the hips felt as if they had been severed … powerless and unable to lift them.” Dick told him to go back to Mgazi and watch out on the fourth day thereafter, for a ship passing on the way to relieve the garrison at Durban. Ndongeni did see the ship pass dead on schedule and later walked back to Durban, leaving his horse behind at the camp.
Lugg mentions the rumour to the effect that Ndongeni had only accompanied Dick King as far as the Umkomaas River but he discounts it totally saying that nobody involved in the events, including Dick and his son, ever denied Ndongeni’s contribution to that stirring ride. He mentions that the Natal Government awarded Ndongeni a farm in recognition of his service and that they would not have done so unless the story, as given by him, was substantially true. Ndongeni only received his farm in 1898, which is about as shameful as you can get. But, as I discovered the other day when down at the Point, he has received some further recognition since then.
Sakhile SR Zulu replied to this with great appreciation for the information and added that “there are some rumours that the government of that time didn’t want to praise Ndongeni as an equal contributor and some information was hidden.” Amazing information and a great photo. What a privilege to have Sakhile SR Zulu making the contribution himself.
Scorched Earth (Verskroeide aarde)
Photo caption “Burning a farm.” Could be in the Ermelo area. I’m not sure. From the album of photographs of the 14th Brigade (Lincoln Regiment) Field Hospital in the Boer War in the Welcome Library. Photo supplied by Andries Pretorius.
Stellenbosch
Supplied by Nico Moolman.
Table Mountain
Platteklip Gorge, Table Mountain, c. 1890. Photo supplied by Douwe van der Galiën.
View from Signal Hill showing Table Mountain, Kloof Nek, Lion’s Head and some of the homesteads in the upper Table Valley, 1895. Photo supplied by Douwe van der Galiën.
Pragtige Foto deur Henk Sinderdinck van die Moederstad-Kaapstad. Uitsig vanaf Blouberg 1950.
Moederstad-Kaapstad , Uitsig vanaf Tafelberg. Deur Henk Sinderdinck.
Boers shoeing horses at Naauwpoort. Photo supplied by Dirk Marais
New Zealand soldiers in the ABW fighting on the side of Britain.
Photo and the description below are supplied by Dirk Marais.
New Zealand troopers from the Sixth Contingent move across open country in South Africa, 1901. This photograph may have been taken by Private William Raynes, a Waikato farmer serving with No. 16 Company.
Much of the conflict took place on open plains known in Afrikaans as veldt. Extreme temperatures made life tough for New Zealand troops. While trekking men would often be forced to endure severe daytime heat, while at night they would sleep out in the open with only an overcoat to keep the freezing cold at bay. Soldiers on trek often began their day at 4 a.m. and broke camp at 5.30 a.m. before spending up to 12 hours on patrol. To preserve the strength of their mounts, the soldiers alternated between riding and leading their horses on foot. Using this method, they could cover 30 km or more in a day.
The New Zealanders who fought in the South African War were the first soldiers from this country to take part in an overseas conflict. Prompted by Premier Richard Seddon, the First Contingent was rapidly assembled and became the first colonial contingent to reach South Africa.
Between 1899 and 1902 New Zealand sent 10 contingents to South Africa. The men who enlisted came from a variety of backgrounds and from all over New Zealand. Many had prior experience in the Volunteer forces but others were ordinary citizens who were skilled riders and marksmen. The contingents were often made up of companies that had strong regional identities and many were supported by local fundraising. In addition to the men of the contingent, two small groups of New Zealand women served in South Africa. Hospital-trained nurses helped combat the ever-present threat of disease in the unsanitary conditions of field hospitals in South Africa. New Zealand also sent a contingent of female teachers, dubbed the ‘Learned Eleventh’, to teach Boer refugee children in the schools set up in British-run concentration camps.
The Royal Irish Regiment crossing the North Kaap River: 20 September 1900. Photo supplied by Hilton Teper.
The Royal Irish Regiment recruited from the counties of Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny. It served in South Africa with General Hart’s Irish Brigade. Around 30,000 Irishmen saw service with the British Army in South Africa.
Iain Hayter writes, “There were a number of instances where Irish fought Irish in the ABW and many poems poems were written, the Irish being so lyrical……… We are leaving dear old Dublin The gallant famous fifth; We’re going to the Transvaal Where the Boers we mean to shift. We are the sons of Erin’s Isle – Modem Musketeers: The famous Fifth Battalion Of the Dublin Fusiliers. Let this conflict be a warning To all Britannia’s foes; Not to tease her ftirious lion As on his way he goes. For if they do, they’ll fmd they’re wrong And won’t get volunteers To stand in the face of a Regiment Like the Dublin Fusiliers
and
On the mountain side the battle raged, there was no stop or stay; Mackin captured Private Burke and Ensign Michael Shea, Fitzgerald got Fitzpatrick, Brannigan found O ’Rourke, Firmigan took a man named Fay – and a couple of lads from Cork. Sudden they heard McManus shout, ‘Hands up or I’ll run you through’. He thought it was a Yorkshire ‘Tyke’ – ’twas Corporal Donaghue! McGany took O ’Leary, O ’Brien got McNamee, That’s how the ’English fought the Dutch’ at the Battle of Dundee. The sun was sinking slowly, the battle rolled along; The man that Murphy ‘handed in’, was a cousin of Maud Gonne, Then Flanagan dropped his rifle, shook hands with Bill McGuire, For both had carried a piece of turf to light the schooh-oom fire … Dicey brought a lad named Welsh; Dooley got McGurk; Gilligan turned in Fahey’s boy – for his father he used to work. They had marched to fight the English – but Irish were all they could see – That’s how the ‘English fought the Dutch’ at the Battle of Dundee.
Martinus (or Marthinus) Theunis Steyn (2 October 1857 – 28 November 1916) was a South African lawyer, politician, and statesman. He was the sixth and last president of the independent republic of the Orange Free State from 1896 to 1902.
Pres Steyn luister of hy die trein kan hoor aankom. Hier staan hy en sy gesin op ‘n Europese stasie tydens sy verblyf daar na die AB Oorlog. Photo and description by Nico Moolman.
Pres MT Steyn, A Fischer, A Browne en JBM Hertzog as afgevaardigdes van die Nasionale Konvensie. Op die “Carisbrook Castle” op pad na Engeland om erkenning vir Uniewording te verkry. 1909. Supplied by Nico Moolman.
Pres Steyn as jong regs-student in Engeland 1879. Supplied by Nico Moolman.
St Helena, Broadbottom Camp, Deadwood Camp.
Deadwood Camp St Helena. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
POWs in Broadbottom Camp, St Helena. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
POWs in Broadbottom Camp, St Helena. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
POWs in Broadbottom Camp, St Helena. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Jan Smuts
Field Marshal Jan Christian SmutsPC, OM, CH, DTD, ED, KC, FRS (24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader, and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. Smuts subsequently lost the 1948 election to hard-line nationalists who institutionalised apartheid. He continued to work for reconciliation and emphasised the British Commonwealth’s positive role until his death in 1950.
In the Second Boer War, Smuts led a Boer commando for the Transvaal. During the First World War, he led the armies of South Africa against Germany, capturing German South-West Africa. He then commanded the British Army in East Africa.
From 1917 to 1919 he was also one of the members of the British Imperial War Cabinet, and he was instrumental in the founding of what became the Royal Air Force (RAF). He was appointed as a field marshal in the British Army in 1941. He was the only person to sign both of the peace treaties ending the First and Second World Wars. A statue to commemorate him was erected in London’s Parliament Square.
Jan Smuts en Louis Botha Lichtenburg 1914 begrafnis van Gen de la Rey. Photo and description by Linda Fouché.
Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
General JC Smuts inspects the cadet HO our guard at St. Andrew’s School, Bloemfontein with the school’s legendary headmaster, Mr FW Storey, who was, like General Smuts, known as the Oubaas. Supplied by Roger D Crawford
Gen Smuts with Senator Murray, right, and senior UDF officers at an airport. Probably Bloemfontein. Supplied by Nico Moolman.
F/M JC Smuts reads a letter presented to him by the Mayor of Castiglione, Italy Senior Giuseppe Girotti (shown in the picture next to the F/M). The letter reaffirms the undertaking of the people of Castiglione to care for the graves of South African soldiers in the Sixth South African Armoured Division cemetery. The letter was presented when the field marshal unveiled the memorial in the cemetery during the tour in Italy. Photo supplied by Herman Labuschagne.
Field marshal Smuts photographed in the Sixth S.A.A. Div. Cemetery at Castiglione. On the left is Maj-Gen. EH Theron with Maj-Gen. WH Everett Poole in the centre. Photo supplied by Herman Labuschagne.
A divisive figure during his lifetime and long after his death, Smuts’ accomplishments and alignments were multifaceted.
He first rose to fame by fighting against the British Empire as a general in the Boer resistance during the South African War (1899-1902). Thereafter he started a long career in South African politics, most notably by playing a leading role in the constitution of the Union of South Africa in 1910. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister on and off from this point almost up to his death in 1950.
An international statesman and military strategist, he also played a leading role in both world wars, attaining the rank of Field Marshal in the British Armed Forces. Thereafter he was also instrumental in drafting both the Atlantic Charter that in part inspired the creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and later the Preamble to the United Nations Charter.
Toward the end of his life, Smuts was more popular in the international arena than he was in his home country. Afrikaners regarded him as being too cosy with English South Africans and the British Empire, which they regarded as an impediment to their own interests, and non-white South Africans, particularly Indians and blacks, had lost faith in him bringing an end to a system of racial segregation he had a hand in creating.
Had he lived longer and remained in power, South African history might have been different. Smuts rejected the Apartheid policy of the National Party, which came to power two years before his death and identified himself with the Fagan Report, which finally recognised blacks as a permanent feature in “white” South Africa.
Whatever one’s view of Smuts, there can be no denying that he is a figure deserving of study.
Die konings-gesin hier saam met Generaal Smuts en Sir Pierre van Ryneveldt tydens hulle besoek in Suid-Afrika met Prinses Elizabeth se mondigwording.. 1947. Heel regs..Prinses Margaret. ( eie versameling van Nico Moolan.) The Royal family on tour in South Africa in 1947. Here with Gen Smuts … Prime Minister … and Sir Pierre van Ryneveld CIC SA Armed Forces. Photo: own collection of Nico Moolman.
Below: Gen Smuts set the pace whilst leading the way during the royal visit of 1947. (own collection, Nico Moolman)
Gen Smuts at what appears to be an occasion at a military gathering of sorts. Pre WW2 Glass negative by Nico Moolman.
General Smuts with tant Nonnie De la Rey and her family after oom Koos was killed in the roadblock. Photo and comments by Nico Moolman.
Genl Hertzog, Sir Herbert Baker and Genl Smuts in Pretoria by Nico Moolman.
Tydens die Britse koningshuis besoek aan Suid Afrika in 1947 het hulle ook Standerton aangedoen. My ma Dora het hierdie foto geneem waar Generaal Jan Smuts vir prinses Elizabeth aan Oudstryders van die Anglo Boere oorlog voorstel My oupa Niklaas Moolman was ook die dag daar maar het botweg geweier om aan hulle voorgestel te word.Daaroor was my pa erg omgekrap. ( So met die uitsoek van my ou robbies, gister weer die kiekie ontdek ) Photo supplied by Nico Moolman.
Die Uniegebou op 4 Augustus 1915 en dring aan op gelyke regte. Glas negatief. Geen ander foto hiervan op rekord nie. Foto beskikbaar gemaak deur Nico Moolman.
Statesman Jan Smuts at the Opening of the Voortrekker Monument 16 December 1949. Photo and description by Dirk Marais.
The two princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret, together with South African prime minister, Jan Smuts, stayed at the Natal National Park in the Drakensberg. Photo and description by Dirk Marais.
Crowds at the funeral of the South African wartime Prime Minister, General Jannie Smuts on 15 September 1950. Photo and description by Dirk Marais.
Churchill and Smuts in North Africa, 1942. The latter was a “fortifying influence” to Churchill in the pivotal changes he made there to the British military command. (Reuters)
Gen. Smuts at the Court of Appeal’s ‘Opening Day’ in Brand Street Bloemfontein 1929.Note the decorated – Lamp of Truth- above the speaker. By Nico Moolman.
Gen. Smuts, and world-renowned botanist at the time, Dr. Pole-Evans, discussing a find..in 1930. By Nico Moolman.
Gen. Smuts, with Gen Hertzog and others. 1930’s by Nico Moolman.
Genl. Smuts on the day of Emily Hobhouse’s funeral at the Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein. 27th October 1926 by Nico Moolman
Genl Smuts and D Krige. Just before Anglo-Boer War’s end by Nico Moolman.
A very telling photo. Taken on the day of the unveiling of the Women’s Memorial in Bloemfontein. 16th December 1913. Extreme right: Genl Smuts to the left of Genl Botha. Extreme left Genl De Wet. It was during this get-together that De Wet and Maritz started planning on the Rebellion that followed down the line, and Smuts would hunt down his former comrade. By Nico Moolman.
Genl Smuts wishing his troops the best of luck as their ship, The Mauretania, leaving Durban. One of them was my dad. Chris Moolman. This photo is from his album. By Nico Moolman.
Below: President Paul Kruger’s funeral.
Stéphan Pretorius supplies the photo below with this comment about Smuts’ sixth sense
Winston Churchill and Field Marshal Jan Smuts accompanied one another just after the D-Day landings to General Sir Bernard Montgomery’s headquarters, 12 June 1944.
Left to right: Lieutenant-General Sir Richard O’Connor, commanding VIII Corps; Churchill; Field Marshal Jan Smuts; Montgomery; Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff. Here these Allied commanders are seen looking up at aircraft activity overhead.
An interesting snippet of history happened during this visit by Smuts and Churchill to Monty’s headquarters. While visiting the headquarters and as senior officers stood outside with the Prime Minister (Churchill), Field Marshal Smuts sniffed the air and said, ‘There are some Germans near us now…I can always tell!’” and low and behold, just two days later, “two fully armed German paratroopers emerged from a nearby Rhododendron bush, where they had been hiding all along (they had become isolated from their unit, seeing that they were unable to rejoin when they chose to surrender). Had they used their guns and grenades on Churchill (and Smuts), everything would have changed.
Gen Smuts the young and upcoming politician. By Nico Moolman.
by Nico Moolman
Gen Smuts in 1943 in uniform by Nico Moolman.
Gen Smuts receiving the silver box from Lord Aston as a token when The Freedom of Plymouth, England, was bestowed upon the Oubaas. By Nico Moolman.
Gen Smuts. The mountaineer by Nico Moolman.
Gen Smuts. The mountaineer by Nico Moolman.
J. C. Smuts, the son of Jan Smuts, wrote in the biography on his dad, “Jan Christian SMUTS by J.C. Smuts” that “In May 1923, my father scrambled briskly up Skeleton Ravine to the summit of Table Mountain, where he unveiled a memorial at Maclear’s Beacon to those who fell in the First World War. He was in a buoyant mood, as he always was on the mountain tops, with the distant panoramas stretching away into the hazy hinterland, and the mists swirling in the crags below, and the crisp air of the lofty spaces fanning the heated brow. Here, to a group of hardy climbers squatted on the grey rocks around him, he delivered the greatest and most inspired oration of his life. It has been compared to Lincoln’s oration at Gettysburg. I shall quote this speech fully. It came to be known as the “Spirit of the Mountains”.
Those whose memory we honour today lie buried on the battlefields of the Great War, where they fell. But this is undoubtedly the place to commemorate them. Nothing could be more fitting and appropriate than this memorial which the Mountain Club of South Africa erected to the memory of their members who fell in the Great War.
And this, the highest point on Table Mountain, is the place to put the memorial. The sons of the cities are remembered and recorded in the streets and squares of their cities and by memorials placed in their churches and cathedrals. But the mountaineers deserve a loftier pedestal and a more appropriate memorial. To them, the true church where they worshipped was Table Mountain. Table Mountain was their cathedral where they heard a subtler music and saw wider visions and were inspired with a loftier spirit.
Here in life, they breathed the great air; here in death, their memory will fill the upper spaces. And it is fitting that in this cathedral of Table Mountain the lasting memorial of their great sacrifice should be placed. Not down there in the glowing and rich plains, but up here on the bleak and cold mountain tops. As Browning put it:
Here, here's their place,
Where meteors shoot,
Clouds form,
Lightnings are loosened,
Stars come and go.
Here for a thousand years their memory shall blend with these great rock masses and humanise them. The men and women of the coming centuries, who will in ever-increasing numbers seek health and inspiration on this great mountain summit, will find here not only the spirit of Nature, but also the spirit of man blending with it, the spirit of joy in Nature deepened and intensified by the memory of the great sacrifice here recorded.
Geologists tell us that in the abyss of time Table Mountain was much more of a mountain than it is today. Then it was more than 18,000 feet high, of which barely one-fifth remains today. And in another million years no trace may be left of it. Here there is no abiding city, neither is there an abiding mountain. Human life itself may be but a passing phase of the history of this great globe. But as long as human memory lasts, as long as men and women will remember and be interested in the history of their storied past, so long the Great War – perhaps the greatest in human history – will be remembered, and the memory of the great sacrifice here recorded will endure as part of it.
Standing here today as we do on the summit of Table Mountain, may I add a few words in reference to the spirit of the place? The attraction of the mountains for us points to something very significant and deep in our natures. May I illustrate the matter by a little story which is not quite true, but neither is it entirely mythical, and it finds some support in the testimony of science.
Once upon a time, in the far-off beginning of things, the ancestors of the present human race lived far down in deep blue pools of the ocean, amid the slimy ooze from which they had themselves sprung. There they lived and developed a long time, and in the sounds of the sea, in the rhythm of the waters, and of the rising and falling tides they learnt that sense of music which is so mysterious a faculty in us, and which is in a much smaller degree shared by so many marine animals.
The music in a sea shell pressed to our ears carries us back to the very beginnings of life on this planet. It is a far-off echo of our most ancient experience as living things. As our ancestors thrived and developed they gradually found the pressure of the waters too much for them. They felt stifled and longed for more freedom to breathe. And so they rose slowly on to the beaches, and finally emerged into the air on the seashore. What a blessed relief was there! What an unconscious sense of lightness and exaltation! No longer submerged in the stifling depths, but with full lungs expanding in the invigorating air. The rising from the sea was the most glorious advance in the forward march of terrestrial life.
But it was not enough. The same process of development and advance continued on the seashore. In the course of time the heavy air of the sea levels became too much for the ever-forward movement of the forms of life. The pressure on the lungs was too great, and the forward movement seemed to be arrested in a sort of atmospheric morass, in which a great heaviness hung, on the spirit of life. At this stage a new great advance was registered. The rise to higher levels took place. Some animals developed wings with which they could fly upward and for longer or shorter periods remain in the high places and breathe a keener air. And in this rise they shook off their ancient sluggishness and lethargy, and developed a spirit of joy which had hitherto been unknown to them. The skylark, rising in an ecstasy of song high up into the air, is an illustration of the new great advance.
Other forms of life developed other means of locomotion and of ascent from the heavy low levels. As the dull, dead weight was removed from the lungs a new sense of lightness, of progress, of joy and gladness dawned on the ever higher rising forms of life. The great relief was not only of a physical character, but had the most far-reaching and spiritual values. And so it has come about that finally in man all mortal and spiritual values are expressed in terms of altitude. The law expresses degradation, both physical and moral. If we wish to express great intellectual or moral or spiritual attainments we use the language of the altitudes. We speak of men who have risen, of aims and ideals that are lofty, we place the seat of our highest religious ideals in high heaven, and we consign all that is morally base to the nethermost hell. Thus the metaphors embedded in language reflect but the realities of the progress of terrestrial life.
The Mountain is not merely something externally sublime. It has a great historic and spiritual meaning for us. It stands for us as the ladder of life. Nay, more, it is the great ladder of the soul, and in a curious way the source of religion. From it came the Law, from it came the Gospel in the Sermon on the Mount. We may truly say that the highest religion is the Religion of the Mountain.
What is that religion? When we reach the mountain summits we leave behind us all the things that weigh heavily down below on our body and our spirit. We leave behind a feeling of weakness and depression; we feel a new freedom, a great exhilaration, an exaltation of the body no less than of the spirit. We feel a great joy. The Religion of the Mountain is in reality the religion of joy, of the release of the soul from the things that weigh it down and fill it with a sense of weariness, sorrow and defeat. The religion of joy realises the freedom of the soul, the soul’s kinship to the great creative spirit and its dominance over all the things of sense. As the body has escaped from the over-weight and depression of the sea, so the soul must be released from all sense of weariness, weakness and depression arising from the fret, worry and friction of our daily lives. We must feel that we are above it all, that the soul is essentially free, and in freedom realises the joy of living. And when the feeling of lassitude and depression and the sense of defeat advances upon us, we must repel it, and maintain an equal and cheerful temper.
We must fill our daily lives with the spirit of joy and delight. We must carry this spirit into our daily lives and tasks. We must perform our work not grudgingly and as a burden imposed on us, but in a spirit of cheerfulness, goodwill and delight in it. Not only an the mountain summits of life, not only on the heights of success and achievement, but down in the deep valleys of drudgery, of anxiety and defeat, we must cultivate this great spirit of joyous freedom and uplift of the soul.
We must practise the religion of the mountain down in the valleys also. This may sound a hard doctrine, and it may be that only after years of practice are we able to triumph in spirit over the things that weigh and drag us down. But it is the nature of the soul, as of all life, to rise, to overcome, and finally to attain complete freedom and happiness. And if we consistently practise the religion of the mountain we must succeed in the end. To this great end Nature will co-operate with the soul.
The mountains uphold us and the stars beckon to us. The mountains of our lovely land will make a constant appeal to us to live the higher life of joy and freedom. Table Mountain, in particular, will preach this great gospel to the myriads of toilers in the valley below. And those who, whether members of the Mountain Club or not, make a habit of ascending her beautiful slopes in their free moments, will reap a rich reward not only in bodily health and strength, but also in an inner freedom and purity in an habitual spirit of delight, which will be the crowning glory of their lives.
May I express a hope that in the years to come this memorial will draw myriads who live down below to breathe the purer air and become better men and women. Their spirits will join with those up here, and it will make us all purer and nobler in spirit and better citizens of the country…”
My wife and I were so impacted by these words that we made it the basis of our wedding vows. See Our Manuka Bay Wedding.
My brother found this behind a cupboard in my parents flat. It had been lying there for thirty years. That’s my mother in front. Can’t read the writing underneath. My father’s handwriting. From Barry Hyman Bass.
Gen Smuts as in 1942. The ultimate Officer in Command. Photo by Nico Moolman.
Gen Smuts with his Clark grandchildren .. — by Jan Ward.
Gen. Smuts delivers a speech at the Wanderers in Johannesburg. After returning from England. Photo supplied by Nico Moolman. Sir DeVilliers Graaff just over his shoulder.
South Africans in Tanganyika (WW1)
South Africans at the station in Itigi Tanganyika, WW1. Glass negative. Supplied by Nico Moolman.
Treaty of Vereeniging, signed on 31 May 1902 (end of ABW2)
Transvaal Representatives after the signing of the peace treaty with the British. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Gideon Jacobus van Tonder was born in 1864 in Uitenhage, Eastern Cape (then the Cape Colony). He passed away in 1924 in the Free State. He is buried at the Rustfontein Dam, which is located on the Modder River near Thaba ‘Nchu. He was the owner of the farm Brakfontein in that area. He also resided at 21 Hill Street, Bloemfontein. From 1894 to 1900 he was minister of Agriculture in the Orange Free State Government. Giel Venter from Fauresmith gave me this information. Giel is one of his descendants. If Gideon was still alive we would have spent many days talking about farming and animal husbandry and of course, bacon curing!
When President Steyn was out of the country or on leave, he acted as State President on numerous occasions. When the ABW broke out, he resigned from government after his son, Hansie, was killed at the Battle of Magersfontein. Genl. De Wet wrote about it in his book, Three Years’ War.
De Wet wrote: “I can only remember three instances of anyone being hurt by the shells. A young burgher, while riding behind a ridge and thus quite hidden from the enemy, was hit by a bomb, and both he and his horse were blown to atoms. This youth was a son of Mr Gideon van Tonder, a member of the Executive Council.”
I am planning a visit to Giel, as soon as it is permitted and will update this section with much more information.
In the photo is Gideon Jacobus van Tonder, his wife and children in 1914. Hansie is not there. Killed in Magersfontein, 1899. Another photo was sent to me by Giel Venter and beautifully preserved in the Van Tonder House he set up in Fauresmith.
Vredefort Concentration Camp ABW
Concentration Camp at Vredefort, Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Concentration Camp at Vredefort, Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
Sports day for the inhabitants of Vredefort Concentration Camp. Photo supplied by Elria Wessels.
The story of bacon is set in the late 1800s and early 1900s when most of the important developments in bacon took place. The plotline takes place in the 2000s with each character referring to a real person and actual events. The theme is a kind of “steampunk” where modern mannerisms, speech, clothes and practices are superimposed on a historical setting. Modern people interact with old historical figures with all the historical and cultural bias that goes with this.
The Fathers of Meat Curing
June 1959
Dear Tristan,
Amsterdam is one of the greatest cities on earth and for someone with your adventurous spirit, it is perfect. I remember that you had a small cannabis garden back home in Cape Town. This makes your move to Amsterdam all the more appropriate! You already know the culture.
Hashish, another name for cannabis, has been used since antiquity as an anesthetic. It was described in the “Arabian Nights” by the name bhang. Bhang was smoked like a cigarette or taken orally in tablet form. Some mix it with sugar and eat it like candy and still, I heard that some create a green liquid from it to serve as a drink. I love your passion for the natural world and your desire to make money! Follow your dream! 🙂
T-man, since you and your sister have been entreating me to complete my work on bacon, I decided to begin with a review of everybody that I found over the years who had an impact on unravelling the mystery of meat curing. Many of the men and women did this without even realising the value of their discoveries to the inquisitive bacon factory or production manager.
I will complete this work, but you and Lauren have to promise me that before you eventually publish my work, you will add the most recent discoveries to my letters in this section of the work. This way, it will remain current and useful to the curing professional or the layperson who wants to know bacon curing or those who are simply interested in a great story will know they have the latest version with all the facts available to us!
Nitric Oxide
A study of curing is a study in the interaction between nitrogen, oxygen with a meat protein, myoglobin, with an auxiliary role for blood proteins, haemoglobin. It is about oxygenation, protonation, and reduction. It has recently been discovered that there exists a close correlation between certain reactions in human physiology and meat curing – the exact same processes are involved which means that in the basic meat curing reaction, it so happens that we merely mimic a biological process in our bodies. I decided to begin my letters from the Union of South Africa by giving you an overview of some of the men and women who contributed to our understanding of the curing process and their important contributions.
In the letters following, I will circle back and go into some detail into the important discoveries which I touch on in this overview. There have been many important advances in our understanding of the curing reaction over the years since 1893 and they all begin with a far greater understanding of proteins on the one hand and nitrogen compounds and their role in curing on the other hand. We discovered, for example, that meat curing begins with a bacterial reduction of saltpetre (nitrate) to nitrite and then a chemical reduction of nitrite to Nitric Oxide (NO). It is the interaction of this molecule with protein that gives the meat its reddish/ pinkish colour and the important protein that it interacts with, in the muscle, turns out to be myoglobin.
Here I must caution you that early work was done by giving the interaction of nitric oxide with a protein found in blood, haemoblobin (Hemoglobin – American English; haemoglobin (British English). This should not alarm you. Let me explain what I mean.
Haemoglobin and Myoglobin
One of the proteins in the blood cell is haemoglobin. It is a red protein that is responsible for transporting oxygen in our blood. Early researchers in meat curing did their trails on it. In recent years we discovered that the curing reaction is not so much the effect of curing agents on haemoglobin, as it is in reality, the reaction with a meat protein found in all muscles, myoglobin. The oxygen is passed from the haemoglobin in the blood to the myoglobin, located in the muscle. We can say it is the cell oxygen reservoir. When you work out and the blood oxygen delivery is not enough, it temporarily provides oxygen.
The reason for using haemoglobin was “mostly a matter of convenience” and “a matter of necessity since myoglobin was not isolated and purified until 1932 (Theorell, 1932).” “In spite of the differences between haemoglobin and myoglobin, Urbain and Jensen (1940) considered the properties of haemoglobin and its derivatives sufficiently like those of myoglobin to allow the use of haemoglobin in studies of meat pigments.” (Cole, Morton Sylvan, 1961: 2)
These are then some of the fathers of meat curing and processes that were elucidated by them. In the case of Da Vinci, he is one of many people who’s work provides a link back to our ancient past and the art of meat curing that is thousands of years old. Our art is built, in huge part, on the foundations the following people laid.
7000 BCE to 3000 BCE
Good evidence suggests that meat curing has been practiced with sodium or potassium nitrate at various locations around the world where it naturally appears as a salt. Four locations stand out. The Atacama Desert in Chile and Peru, the Tarim Basin in Western China, the Dead Sea, and Egypt. It is in the Tarim Basin, where I believe, it was first developed into the art that we recognise today with a level of sophistication in the application of saltpetre by the early Christian Era that has not been fully appreciated until recently (1987).
LEONARDO DA VINCI
Leonardo da Vince (1452–1519) described a method of preserving the cadavers for his own dissection and study. (Brenner, E.; 2014) The mixture he used consisted of turpentine, camphor (scent masking), oil of lavender (scent masking), vermilion (colouring agent), wine, rosin (a resin used as an adhesive), sodium nitrate, and potassium nitrate. In his mix, for preservation, he relied on sodium and potassium nitrate and turpentine. It is clear from these and other examples that the preserving power of nitrates was well known, well before modern-day scientific rigour would come to the same conclusions. The knowledge of the particular taste imparted, the colour formation and the preserving power of curing through nitrate, nitrite and nitric oxide has been harnessed for thousands of years.
GLAUBER, PRIESTLY, CAVENDISH, DAVEY
It is generally believed that nitric oxide, the chemical compound responsible for meat curing, was discovered by Joseph Priestly in 1772. This is not completely true. Before the time of Priestly, the production of nitric oxide was known through the reaction of nitric acid () with any one of a number of commonly available metals. Nitric acid was, for example, known in the 13th century Europe and was known as aqua fortis. A known way of making it was was to react sulphuric acid and potassium nitrate as was developed by Johann Glauber (1604 – 1670). It was observed that a gas was formed when nitric acid was poured over copper, iron, or silver by a number of natural philosophers including Johannes van Helmont (1579 – 1644), Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691) and Georg Stahl (1660 – 1734). The last two noticed that this gas forms brown fumes when it comes in contact with the atmosphere.
Priestly’s contribution was immense in terms of identifying NO as a distinct chemical entity, separate from other gasses or “airs.” Priestly made important discoveries related to NO and was able to characterise it, but it was the eccentric and brilliant Henry Cavendish (1778 – 1810) who showed that NO is a composition of nitrogen and oxygen. Humphrey Davey (1778 – 1829) showed the diatomic nature of the compound (Butler, A. R., Nicholson, R.; 2003).
CARL WILHELM SCHEELE
In 1777, the prolific Swedish chemist Scheele, working in the laboratory of his pharmacy in the market town of Köping, made the first pure nitrite. (Scheele CW. 1777) He heated potassium nitrate at red heat for half an hour and obtained what he recognised as a new “salt.” He realised that there was more than one “acid of niter.” He distinguished phlogisticated acid of niter or nitrous acid (HNO2), as it became known in the 1800s, from nitric acid (HNO3) as being a weaker volatile acid produced by the reduction of nitric acid. He also showed that niter, when strongly heated, lost oxygen, and left a salt that readily decomposed into a volatile acid when treated with acid. (http://nitrogen.atomistry.com/)
The two compounds (potassium nitrate and nitrite) were characterised by Péligot and the reaction established as 2KNO3→2KNO2+O2. (Péligot E. 1841: 2: 58–68) (Butler, A. R., and Feelisch, M.) (Butler, A. R., and Feelisch, M.)
ANTOINE-LAURENT DE LAVOISIER
Antoine de Lavoisier (1743 – 1794), the father of modern chemistry did landmark work on nitric acid. In 1790 he coined the terms nitrate and nitrite. In his work on nitric acid, he noted that different oxidation states of nitrogen have been known for some time. The term niter was allocated to these compounds by Macquer and Beaumé, but Lavoisier changed this to nitrites and nitrates “as they are formed by nitric or by nitrous acid.” (Lavoisier, A; 1965: 217)
CARL REMIGIUS FRESENIUS
A private laboratory was founded in 1848 in Germany by C. R. Fresenius (his doctoral advisor was none other than Justus von Liebig). One of the first recorded tests of nitrite as a meat preservative took place at his laboratory. (Morton, I. D. and Lenges. J.,1992: 142)
JUSTINUS KERNER
Kerner in Germany makes the link between Saltpetre and food safety particularly in relation to the prevention of botulism. After studying many outbreaks of botulism, he identifies the omission of saltpetre from the curing brine as the common denominator in the various outbreaks. (1817, 1820, 1822) (Peter, F. M. (Editor), 1981.)
HÜNEFELD
Hünefeld in 1840 observed a crystalline substance in the blood of an earthworm thus discovering haemoglobin. “Reichert, von Kolliker, Leydig, Budge, Kunde, and many others noted that blood from various species yielded a similar crystalline substance. As early as 1852 Funke described the method of laking blood with water and then inducing crystal formation with alcohol and ether. Laking is defined as “the physical or chemical treatment of blood to abolish the structure of the red cells and thus form a homogeneous solution. Laking is an important preliminary step in the analysis of haemoglobin or enzymes present in red cells.” Although he prepared only small quantities of haemoglobin, the principle of this method has been widely used” for many years. (Ferry, R. M.; 1923)
HUMPHREY DAVY
Humphrey Davy (1778 – 1829) in 1812 (cited by Hermann, 1865) and Hoppe-Seyler (1864) was the first to note the action of nitric oxide upon haemoglobin. (Hoagland, R.; 1914: 213)
HERMANN
Hermann studied the properties of the compound formed in the reaction between haemoglobin and nitric oxide. He discovered the compound Nitric Oxide-Hemoglobin (NO-Hemoglobin) in 1865 and it was supposed that it existed only in a laboratory. Until the work of Haldane, the compound has not attracted much attention. (Haldane, J. 1901)
Hermann showed the spectrum of oxyhemoglobin and NO-hemoglobin. “The blood saturated with nitric oxide was found to be darker in colour than either arterial blood or that saturated with carbon monoxide.” (Hoagland, R.; 1914: 213)
T. LAUDER BRUNTON
In 1867, Brunton identifies nitrite as a treatment for angina, the first nitrovasodilator. His story is interesting and I quote a section edited by Hurst, J. W. from a 1989 article that appeared in Clinical Cardiology.
“Brunton learned of amyl nitrite from faculty members at Edinburgh who were interested in this substance that had been synthesised in 1844 by the French chemist Antoine Balard.” (Hurst, J. W.; 1989) Antoine-Jerome Balard achieved this when he passed nitrogen fumes through amyl-alcohol. An interesting liquid was formed. It had a pungent smell and when he inhaled it, it made him blush. He told a friend that he is a shameless character and nothing makes him blush. He speculated that the compound dilated the blood vessels and caused a drop in blood pressure. Bruton thought that anything that dilated the blood vessels of the skin may have the same effect on the heart. (Dormandy, 2006)
“London physician Benjamin Ward Richardson discussed possible medical uses of amyl nitrite at meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science between 1863 and 1865. Arthur Gamgee, a recent Edinburgh graduate, also studied the physiological effects of amyl nitrite and encouraged Brunton to continue these investigations when he discovered that inhalation of the substance reduced arterial tension as measured by the sphygmograph.” (Hurst, J. W.; 1989)
“While a house physician at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, Brunton became impressed with the lack of effective treatment for angina pectoris. Although the popularity of therapeutic bleeding had declined by the late 1860s, it was still advocated for the treatment of angina by some authors. When Brunton bled patients with angina some of them seemed to improve. He explained, “As I believe the relief produced by the bleeding to be due to the diminution it occasioned in the arterial tension, it occurred to me that a substance which possesses the power of lessening it in such an eminent degree as nitrite of amyl would probably produce the same effect, and might be repeated as often as necessary without detriment to the patient’s health.” Brunton began to study the effects of amyl nitrite on patients in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. When it was administered to patients with chest pain thought to represent angina, the discomfort usually disappeared in less than a minute. This was accompanied by facial flushing – an outward sign of the effect of amyl nitrite on the vascular system. Brunton published his observations on the value of amyl nitrite in angina in Lancet in 1867. Amyl nitrite was rapidly accepted by practitioners as an effective agent for angina pectoris.” (Hurst, J. W.; 1989)
The reason for this inclusion is the fact that amyl nitrite, like alkyl nitrites, as discovered by Brunton, is a very effective vasodilator. How it achieves this is that alkyl nitrite is a source of nitric oxide, which signals for relaxation of the involuntary muscles. Some of the physical effects are a decrease in blood pressure, headache, flushing of the face, increased heart rate, dizziness, and relaxation of involuntary muscles.
It has been discovered that nitrites and nitric oxide perform this function in the human body as a normal course of physiology. The reduction step of nitrite to nitric oxide which is the final step in meat curing turns out to be an essential mechanism in the human body that makes life possible. The full effect of Brunton’s discovery and the link with NO formation would not be realised until 1987 (Salt – 7000 years of meat curing).
There is another interesting reason. A friend of mine, Gero Lütge, a 3rd generation German Master Butcher grew up in the German town of Braunschweig in Lower Saxony, Germany.
Apprenticeship book of Otto Lütge, qualified butcher in 1927.
If anyone can tell you anything about meat, it is Gero and as someone who inherited his trade from his father and grandfather, he is a rich source of historical anecdotes, illustrations, and information! He tells the story of his grandfather, Otto Lütge, who used to buy nitrite for meat curing, from the pharmacy. That would have been somewhere between the years 1950 and 1970 before it actually was regulated by law.
He confirmed that it was indeed nitrite and not nitrate that his grandfather added. The colour was more intense and stable, but health issues were a big concern, in particular, cancer from which he himself passed away.
Butchers could have bought nitrate also from the pharmacy. Following Bruton’s application of amyl nitrite for chest pains, William Murrell experimented with glyceryl nitrate to treat angina pectoris and to reduce blood pressure. After Murrell published on it in 1879, it became widely available as a remedy. It was officially known as glyceryl trinitrate, but due to a longer curing time, butchers would have preferred nitrite and in all likelihood, if they bought it through pharmacies, it would have been amyl nitrite. Fascinatingly, this indicates that there is a possibility that amyl nitrite was used in meat curing.
ARTHUR GAMGEE
On 7 May 1868, Dr. Arthur Gamgee, who studied the physiological effects of amyl nitrite along with Brunton at the University of Edinburgh, brother of the famous veterinarian, Professor John Gamgee (who contributed to the attempt to find ways to preserve whole carcasses during a voyage between Australia and Britain), published a groundbreaking article entitled, “On the action of nitrites on the blood.” He observed the colour change brought about by nitrite. He wrote, “The addition of … nitrites to blood … causes the red colour to return…” Over the next 30 years, it would be discovered that it is indeed nitrites responsible for curing and not the nitrates added as saltpetre.
MEUSEL, GAYON, AND DUPETIT
The important reduction process of nitrate to nitrite was identified by E. Meusel (1875) who was the first to associate microorganisms with nitrogen losses. He noted that antiseptic-sensitive agents identified as mixed populations of bacteria in soil and natural waters reduced nitrates to nitrites and even further. (Meusel, E. 1875) Gayon and Dupetit coined the term denitrification in 1882. (Gayon, U., and G. Dupetit; 1883) It was this knowledge that was the basis of Polenske’s speculation about the source of nitrite in curing brine and cured meat. (See Saltpeter: A Concise History and the Discovery of Dr Ed Polenske)
POLENSKE
Dr. Ed Polenske (1849-1911), working for the Imperial Health Office in Germany, made the first discovery that would lead to a full understanding of the curing action. He prepared a brine to cure meat and used only salt and saltpetre (nitrates). When he tested it a week later, it tested positive for nitrites.
The question is where did the nitrites come from if he did not add it to the brine to begin with. He correctly speculated that this was due to nitrate being converted by microbial action into nitrite. He published in 1891. For a full discussion on this landmark article, see Saltpeter: A Concise History and the Discovery of Dr Ed Polenske
NOTHWANG
Following Dr. Polenski’s observation, the German scientist, Nothwang confirmed the presence of nitrite in curing brines in 1892 but attributed the reduction from nitrate to nitrite to the meat tissue itself. The link between nitrite and cured meat colour was finally established in 1899 by another German scientist, K. B. Lehmann in a simple but important experiment.
LEHMANN
Karl Bernhard Lehmann (1858 – 1940) was a German hygienist and bacteriologist born in Zurich.
In an experiment, he boiled fresh meat with nitrite and a little bit of acid. A red colour resulted, similar to the red of cured meat. He repeated the experiment with nitrates and no such reddening occurred, thus establishing the link between nitrite and the formation of a stable red meat colour in meat.
K. B. Lehmann made another important observation that must be noted when he found the colour to be soluble in alcohol and ether and to give a spectrum showing an absorption band just at the right of the D line, and a second band, often poorly defined, at the left of the E line. On standing, the colour of the solution changed to brown and gave the spectrum of alkaline hematin, the colouring group.
KIßKALT
In the same year, another German hygienist, one of Lehmann’s assistants at the Institute of Hygiene in Würzburg, Karl Kißkalt (1875 – 1962), confirmed Lehmann’s observations and showed that the same red colour resulted if the meat was left in saltpetre (potassium nitrate) for several days before it was cooked.
HALDANE
The brilliant British physiologist and philosopher, John Scott Haldane weighed in on the topic. He was born in 1860 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was part of a lineage of important and influential scientists. Haldane contributed immensely to the application of science across many fields of life. This formidable scientist was for example responsible for developing decompression tables for deep-sea diving used to this day.
“Haldane was an observer and an experimentalist, who always pointed out that careful observation and experiments had to be the basis of any theoretical analysis. “Why think when you can experiment” and “Exhaust experiments and then think.” (Lang, M. A., and Brubakk, A. O. 2009. The Haldane Effect)
S. J. Haldane applied the same rigour to cured meat and became the first person to demonstrate that the addition of nitrite to haemoglobin produce a nitric oxide (NO)-heme bond, called iron-nitrosyl-hemoglobin (HbFeIINO). He showed that nitrite is further reduced to nitric oxide (NO) in the presence of muscle myoglobin and forms iron-nitrosyl-myoglobin. It is nitrosylated myoglobin that gives cured meat, including bacon and hot dogs, their distinctive red colour and protects the meat from oxidation and spoiling. This is how he discovered it. Remember the observation made by K. B. Lehmann that the colour of fresh meat cooked in water with nitrites and free acid to give a spectrum showing an absorption band just at the right of the D line, and a second band, often poorly defined, at the left of the E line.
Haldane found the same colour to be present in cured meat. That it is soluble in water and giving a spectrum characteristic of NO-hemoglobin. The formation of the red colour in uncooked salted meats is explained by the action of nitrites in the presence of a reducing agent and in the absence of oxygen upon haemoglobin, the normal colouring matter of fresh meats. He showed that the redox reaction occurs in meat during curing (1901).
Haldane finally showed the formation of nitrosylhemochromogen from nitrosylhemoglobin (nitrite added to haemoglobin) when thermal processing has been applied and identified this as the pigment responsible for the cooked cured meat colour. He attributed this formation to NO-hemoglobin denaturing into two parts namely hemin (the colouring group) and the denatured protein (1901).
HOAGLAND
Ralph Hoagland was the Senior Biochemist, Biochemie Division, Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture in Chicago. Prior to this appointment, Hoagland was the department head of the Minnesota College of Agriculture (part of the University of Minnesota), appointed in 1909. Presently, the College of Agriculture is the College of Biological Sciences. (http://cbs.umn.edu/ and The Bismarck Tribune; 1912)
In 1908 he published results obtained upon studying the action of saltpetre upon the colour of meat and “found that the value of this agent in the curing of meats depends upon its reduction to nitrites and nitric oxide, with the consequent production of NO-hemoglobin, to which compound the red colour of salted meats is due.” He found that “saltpetre, as such, [had] no value as a flesh-colour preservative.” (Hoagland, R. 1914.)
The results of his 1914 publication are summarised by himself as follows:
a. The colour of uncooked salted meats cured with potassium nitrate, or saltpetre, is generally due, in large part at least, to the presence of NO-hemoglobin, although the colour of certain kinds of such meats may be due in part or in whole to NO-hemochromogen. (Hoagland, R. 1914.)
b. The NO-hemoglobin is produced by the action of the nitric oxide resulting from the reduction of the saltpetre used in salting upon the haemoglobin of the meat. (Hoagland, R. 1914.)
c. The colour of cooked salted meats cured with saltpetre is due to the presence of NO-hemochromogen resulting from the reduction of the colour of the raw salted meat on cooking. (Hoagland, R. 1914.)
BARCROFT AND MULLER
They did not discover the link between nitrite and methaemoglobin, but they were the first to venture an opinion in 1911 on the quantitative relationship that exists between nitrite added and the formation of methaemoglobin. (reported by Greenberg, L. A. et al.; 1943) This is a form of haemoglobin where the iron in the heme group is in the ferrous () state and not in the ferric () state. In this state, it can not bind oxygen and in the body, an enzymic action is required to convert it back to haemoglobin.
The reason why haemoglobin turns brown is that nitrite is a very strong heme oxidant. It is the same reason why meat (in particular comminuted meat) that has been injected or tumbled with nitrite also turns brown. This capacity of nitrite increases as the pH decreases. Nitrite itself may be partially oxidised to nitrate during the process of curing and during storage. (Pegg and Shahodi, 2000)
LADISLAV NACHMÜLLNER
In 1915, at age 19, Ladislav Nachmüllner invents Praganda, the first legal commercial curing brine containing sodium nitrite in the city of Prague. He says that he discovered the power of sodium nitrite through “modern-day professional and scientific investigation.” He probably actively sought an application of the work of Haldane. He quotes the exact discovery that Haldane was credited for in 1901 that nitrite interacts with the meat’s “haemoglobin, which is changing to red nitro-oxy-haemoglobin.” (The Naming of Prague Salt)
MITCHELL AND COLLABORATORS
In February 1916, H. H. Mitchell, H. A. Shonle and H. H. Grindley from the Department of Animal Husbandry at the University of Illinois, Urbana, published “The Origin of the Nitrates in the Urine,” showing that mammals produce nitrate.
LEWIS AND MORAN
In 1928, these researchers suggested that nitrite had antimicrobial efficacy. This was later confirmed by others. (example Evans and Tanner, 1934; Tarr, 1941, 1942, 1944). This becomes one of the great examples of the discovery and continued re-discovery of the same fact by successive civilisations. Beginning with Lewis and Morgan, the antimicrobial efficacy of nitrite was now being subjected to a modern scientific scrutiny despite thousands of years of evidence to the facts. (Peter, F. M. (Editor), 1981)
BROOKS
The reaction of nitrite through the formation of nitrous acid and “its reaction with deoxyhemoglobin to form nitric oxide (NO) and methemoglobin was more fully described by Brooks in 1937. (Gladwin, M. T., et al.; 2008)
DOYLE
The mechanism and unusual behaviour of the reaction of nitrite with deoxyhemoglobin and nitric oxide formation are further described by Doyle and colleagues in 1981.” (Gladwin, M. T., et al.; 2008)
STEINKE AND FOSTER
In 1951 they became the first to demonstrate conclusively the antimicrobial efficacy of nitrite in meat products when added at the levels in use today by commercial curing operations. (Peter, F. M. (Editor), 1981)
H. C. HORNSEY
In 1956 he demonstrated that the characteristic red pigment of cooked cured meat could be extracted completely by an 80% acetone-water mixture. This made the collection of data on the electronic absorbance and reflectance of the cooked cured meat pigment possible and provided an invaluable tool for future researchers. (Hornsey, 1956)
JOHN KENDREW AND MAX PERUTZ
“In 1958 and 1960 molecular biologist John Kendrew published “A Three-Dimensional Model of the Myoglobin Molecule Obtained by X-ray Analysis” (with G. Bodo, H. M. Dintzis, R. G. Parrish, H. Wyckoff,) Nature 181 (1958) 662-666, and “Structure of Myoglobin: A Three-Dimensional Fourier synthesis at 2 Å Resolution” (with R. E. Dickerson, B. E. Strandberg, R. G. Hart, D. R. Davies, D. C. Phillips, V. C. Shore). Nature 185 (1960) 422-27). These papers reported the first solution of the three-dimensional molecular structure of a protein, for which Kendrew received the 1962 Nobel Prize in chemistry, together with his friend and colleague Max Perutz, who solved the structure of the related and more complex protein, haemoglobin, two years after Kendrew’s achievement.” (www.historyofinformation.com) This becomes a crucial tool to progress our understanding of the interaction of nitrite and nitric oxide with the meat protein.
SALVADOR MONCADA AND LOUIS IGNARRO
A phenomenal discovery was made when nitric oxide was identified as a key signalling molecule in human physiology, showing that meat curing is a “natural process”. “Lining almost all blood vessels on the inside is a layer of cells known as the endothelium. A very important function of the endothelium was first reported in 1890 by Furchgott and Zawadzki. The presence of acetylcholine (a small biologically active molecule) in the bloodstream affects vasodilation and it was generally assumed that acetylcholine acted directly upon vascular muscle. However, this was found not to be the case. Furchgott and Zawadzki showed convincingly that that acetylcholine acted, not upon the muscle of the artery, but upon the endothelium and the endothelium produces a “second messenger” which then acts upon the muscles to effect relaxation. This second messenger was christened “the endothelium-derived relaxing factor” (EDRF).” (Cullen, C, Lo, V.; 2005)
During the 1980’s, an intense effort was effected to identify the EDRF. It was initially assumed that it would turn out to be a complex molecule like a hormone. This speculation enhanced the surprise when the chemical nature of the molecule was finally determined. It turned out to be a small diatomic molecule called Nitric Oxide (NO). “That it had a physiological role, in a process as important as vasodilation, came as a complete surprise.” (Cullen, C, Lo, V.; 2005)
“The discovery was made simultaneously by a group at the Wellcome Research Laboratories in Beckenham led by Professor Salvador Moncada and by a group in the USA led by Professor Louis Ignarro. The 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded for this discovery. Once nitric oxide had been detected in one physiological process it was found to have roles in many others, from inflammation to crying.” (Cullen, C, Lo, V.; 2005)
The debate on the safety of nitrites and nitrates in meat curing is not settled by these developments. What it does is to bring to bear much greater interest upon nitrite and nitric oxide and their role in human physiology, including the health risks associated with their intake. It is nevertheless an astounding fact that meat curing has, through the ages, kept so close to natural physiological processes.
On the Shoulders of Giants
These formidable scientists laid the scientific foundation for the full understanding of the mechanism behind curing. All questions have still not been answered, but we continue to build on their work. It shapes our understanding of the action of nitric oxide on blood and muscle protein. Meat curing is, in the end, a natural process that has been practised for thousands of years.
This is a remarkable fact, Tristan, which I can not over-emphasize. What we realise in meat curing is that it follows the most natural reactions in meat, so important that without those exact same reactions taking place in our bodies continually, life would not be possible! Early man discovered that the most perfect dish is one that is cured with a process that exactly mimics physiological processes in our bodies. How remarkable is that! The men listed above, each made a vital contribution to the discovery of the complete process and without these many lifetimes of scientific work, we would not have understood meat curing. Almost in parallel with these men, many countless butchers have done countless small experiments in the form of trials in their individual butcheries and contributed to the full scientific understanding by the diligent application of their trade!
There is a fundamental lesson here. We do not live in isolation. We stand on the shoulders of many diligent students of life and nature before us and we do well to go back to the origin of every important discovery. The most basic understanding of anything is fundamental to every subsequent discovery. This is true about bacon as well as the art of living.
It is June in Cape Town and the storms lash the Cape. It is impressive to see the power of the ocean. I enjoyed putting this list of men and their contributions together as it gave me a chance to review much of their work. This remains on of the most exciting projects I can dedicate my time to.
Cole, Morton Sylvan, “Relation of sulfhydryl groups to the fading of cured meat ” (1961). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2402
Cullen, C, Lo, V.. 2005. Medieval Chinese Medicine: The Dunhuang Medical Manuscripts. Routledge Curzon.
Dormandy, T.. 2006. The Worst of Evils: The Fight Against Pain. Yale University Press.
Ferry, R. M.. 1923. STUDIES IN THE CHEMISTRY OF HEMOGLOBIN. Department of Physical Chemistry, in the Laboratory of Physiology; Harvard Medical School, Boston Gladwin, M. T., Grubina, R., Doyle, M. P.. 2008. The New Chemical Biology of Nitrite Reactions with Hemoglobin: R-State Catalysis, Oxidative Denitrosylation, and Nitrite Reductase/Anhydrase. Acc. Chem. Res., 2009, 42 (1), pp 157–167, DOI: 10.1021/ar800089j, Publication Date (Web): September 11, 2008, American Chemical Society
Greenberg, L. A. Lester, D., Haggard, H. W., 1943. THE REACTION OF HEMOGLOBIN WITH NITRITE, From the Laboratory of Applied Physiology, Yale University, New Haven, Received for publication, September 10, 1943.
Gayon, U., and G. Dupetit. 1883. La fermentation des nitrates. Mem. Sot. Sci. Phys. Nat. Bordeaux Ser. 2. 5:35-36.
Haldane, J. 1901. The Red Colour of Salted Meat.
Hoagland, R. 1914. Cloring matter of raw and cooked salted meats. Laboratory Inspector, Biochemie Division, Bureau of Animal Industry. Journal of Agricultural Research, Vol. Ill, No. 3 Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. Dec. 15, 1914.
Hornsey, H. C. “The Colour of Cooked Cured Pork. I. Estimation of the Nitric oxide-Haem Pigments”. J. Sci. Food Agric. 1956, 7, 534-540.
Hurst, J. W., 1989. M. D., T. Lauder Brunton, 1844- 19 16, w. B. FYE, M.D Cardiology Department, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wisconsin, USA. Clin. Cardiol. 12, 675-676 (1989)
Lavoisier, A. 1965. Elements of Chemistry. Dover Publications, Inc. A republication of a 1790 publication
Mitchell, H. H.., Shonle, H. A., Grindley, H. S.. 1916. THE ORIGIN OF THE NITRATES IN THE URINE, From the Department of Animal Husbandry, University of Illinois, Urbana
Morton, I. D. and Lenges. J. 1992. Education and Training in Food Science: A Changing Scene. Ellis Hornwood Limited.
Meusel, E. 1875. De la putrefaction produite par les batteries, en presence des nitrates alcalins. C. R. Hebd. Seances Acad. Sci. 81:533-534.
Peter, F. M. (Editor), 1981. The Health Effects of Nitrate, Nitrite, and N- Nitroso Compounds. Part 1. National Acadamy Press
Pegg, R. B. and Shahidi, F.. 2000. Nitrite curing of meat. Food & Nutrition Press, Inc.
Péligot E. 1841. Sur l’acide hypoazotique et sur l’acide azoteux. Ann Chim Phys.; 2: 58–68.
Scheele CW. 1777. Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer. Upsala, Sweden: M. Swederus.
T. LAUDER BRUNTON: Hurst, J. W., 1989. M. D., T. Lauder Brunton, 1844- 19 16, w. B. FYE, M.D Cardiology Department, Marshfield Clinic, Marshfield, Wisconsin, USA. Clin. Cardiol. 12, 675-676 (1989)
The story of bacon is set in the late 1800s and early 1900s when most of the important developments in bacon took place. The plotline takes place in the 2000s with each character referring to a real person and actual events. The theme is a kind of “steampunk” where modern mannerisms, speech, clothes and practices are superimposed on a historical setting. Modern people interact with old historical figures with all the historical and cultural bias that goes with this.
The Union Letters
Sea Point, Cape Town, 1959
The quest to understand Bacon and the Art of Living has by 1959 consumed 66 years of my time on earth. I lived through three major wars. The second Anglo Boer War was fought between 11 October 1899 and 31 May 1902 and the First and the Second World War which occurred respectively between 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918 and 1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945.
When the sun sets over the Atlantic, Minette and I sit in our Seapoint apartment, watching it cast its deep orange cloak over our world. We play chess or cards on the balcony which has been turned into a sunroom when we enclosed it with glass a few years ago. We slowly sip on Gyn and remiss about the old days. In the morning we walk along the Sea Point promenade to stay active. We still regularly hike on Table Mountain but not as often as we should. At night we stay home and enjoy each other’s company.
Tristan and Lauren
Tristan and Lauren during the construction of our first factory.
Tristan and Lauren have each gone their own way. Tristan followed his own passion when he joined a travel firm based in Australia. Lauren studies B Com. Tristan completed B Com which he did part-time. They both outgrew the difficulties associated with ones childhood and have their own amazing families to take care of.
Woody’s Bacon
The new Woodys logo. Willem Klynveld managed its creation.
Oscar and I grew Woodys into the largest supplier to retail in South Africa of own branded products for outlets like Pick ‘n Pay and Checkers producing 15 tonnes of the best bacon on earth every day. We both decided its time to bid our baby farewell when Oom Koos and Duncan took the company over during the depression years and we both decided to follow other meat-related ambitions.
Letters from the Union – Therapy for an Old Man
The kids kept asking me for years to write down my memories from 1893 to 1959 and together with the letters I wrote them, Dawie Hyman, David de Villiers Graaff, and Oscar when I was abroad, learning the art of producing the best bacon on earth compile it into a book. After many years of dragging my feet, I finally decided to take them up on the request. The final idea came together at a time when both Tristan and Lauren were both living in Europe and New Zealand. This time it was not me on a quest around the world to unravel the secrets of bacon curing. It was the two kids travelling and I could write to them, not from Europe but now from home while they are living abroad. I find it difficult to make small talk on the telephone. Writing them about events following 1893 was the perfect structure I was looking for to build my letters around. So I picked the story up where I left off in 1893 when I wrote them my last letter about bacon from New Zealand. They were both pleased with the suggestion since it gives us regular contact and I fulfil their request for completing my work on bacon.
Imperial Cold Storage & Supply Co.
The prospectus of the company replacing Combrink & Co. in 1899.
David de Villiers Graaff ultimately changed the name of Combrinck & Co. to the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Co. He made his fortune at least three times. The one time was when the city wanted to expand the railway station at the bottom of Adderly Street and needed to relocated Combrink & Co.. The location where they wanted to move the butchery business to as well as the money in compensation were both in dispute. After a process of arbitration, an astronomical amount of £55 000 was awarded to them on 2 March 1895. David approached the high court to endorse the outcome of the arbitration process. The matter was heard on 9 March 1895 by the chief justice John Henry de Villiers and Justice Thomas Upington who found for Combrink & Co. and the £55 000 was endorsed and made an order of the court. This provided the initial financial basis for the development of their consumer goods empire.
The old railway entrance at the Cape Town Headquarters of the ICS.
The second instance was the outbreak of rinderpest, a dreaded disease afflicting cattle that annihilated an estimated 2,500,000 cattle and untold numbers of game across southern Africa. Its spread into South Africa started around 1895. David’s answer was to import frozen meat from Australia and to distribute it to cold storage facilities to be erected throughout the region. In order to finance this elaborate scheme, early on in 1897, David and his one brother, Jacobus Graaff started thinking of floating a limited liabilities company. On 4 May 1899, the South African Supply & Cold Storage Co. Ltd. was registered with a nominal capital of £450 000.
Oxen being slaughtered “roughly” in the field. They were then hoisted up with slaughter poles and cut into joints for cooking. (From Ice Cold In Africa)
It allowed David to erect cold storage facilities across Southern Africa and the chance to import vast quantities of meat into the Colony and later into the Union of South Africa. During the Anglo Boer War, the Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company won the tender to supply the British forces with meat. With the refrigerated railway cars that David saw in Chicago when he visited Philip Armour’s packing plant, he was the only firm that had the capacity to take on such an enterprise. Apart from this, the company became one of the largest meat processing companies in the world. Our friend eventually sold his shares and the name of the company was changed to ICS during the Great Depression.
The company was in financial trouble by 1934 due to hardship that probably goes back to 1925. Anglo-American corporation became its biggest shareholder with the total share capital of the company increased to GB£2.2 million (equivalent to £436,000,000 in 2010). The company worked closer and closer with Tiger Oats which was, back then, also a subsidiary of Anglo-American corporation. (1)
Dawie Hyman
Eben, Dawie and Tristan at Truth Coffee.
Dawie Hyman returned to America where he transitioned from working for the Community Chess in Los Angeles and the Twin Cities of St Paul and Minneapolis to establish his own company supplying solutions in the manipulation of data. After Minette and my visit to New Zealand, we never made it to America as our partners in Cape Town needed our urgent participation in setting up the bacon company and its processing plant. We did eventually make it to Los Angeles many years later, but the objective of the visit was related to further training in areas outside the narrow scope of bacon which consumed me for so many years.
Family
My mom and dad both passed away. My dad passed away after a motor accident on the way home from a vacation in Natal and my mom, after a long sickbed where she struggled with dementia. My brother, Elmar, became a lawyer and later turned his attention to real estate and the retirement industry. Juanita, his wife, kept working as an optometrist, raising Pieter Willem and Handre, their beautiful two boys. Andre, our older brother left the forestry business and entered the personal protection industry. Fanie and Luani, Minette’s brother-in-law and her twin sister, continue to live in Cape Town and their two kids, Liam and Luan went on to have successful careers in their own right.
Union of South Africa
The Times, London, England, 11 October 1910
South Africa became a Union in 1910 and there is talk right now that it will sever its ties with Brittain and form a fully independent Republic. I have my own mixed feelings about it and see the attitude of many white people as desiring nothing more than to have independence in order to secure a continuation of slavery just in another disguise. I remember how this happened with the institution of a system of indenture after slavery was abolished and the Transvaal Republic looked for ways to continue the diabolical practice. There were reports of slave markets, now in a new form, but effectively the same thing continues to exist in Southern Africa right up to the end of the 1800s. The English waged the First Anglo Boer war based on an assertion that this system was nothing less than slavery by another name.
I insert the opening paragraph of Louis Botha’s speech when we became a Union. It shows the deeply embedded racist undertones that existed even in the thinking of people even of the statue of General Louis Botha.
The Buffalo Sunday Morning, 14 August 1910, the opening paragraph of a speech by Louis Botha.
While the Black people got a raw deal, the Union gave unprecedented power to former foes of the British Empire, the Boers.
The Guardian, London, 1 June 1910, a day after the Union was proclaimed. Celebrating the new political power now largely in the hands of the Afrikaners.
The achievement of the Boer nation was remarkable and this fact should never be underestimated. Here are two more extracts from the newspaper article quoted above, from the Manchester Guardian. It deals with the fact that a Union was a better option than a Federation and how this gave greater autonomy to the former Boer republics. It highlights another remarkable fact of the Union of South Africa in the following clipping from the paper.
This unification of the Afrikaner and English South Africa became a focal point for both Botha and Smuts. The respect from the British that became the basis of their new approach to the Boer nation was built upon respect gained in the Anglo Boer war. In December 1889, in a piece I wrote from Johannesburg entitled, Seeds of War, I recount my meeting of a Boer called Daniel Jacobs. One night at a dry riverbed outside Kimberly, he asked me if we could camp together for the night. He was travelling alone and our transport party provided him with the security in numbers for the night which lone travellers lack. He was on his way to Johannesburg on government business. I kept in contact with Daniel and after the Boer War, he shared the following fascinating account with me which illustrates my point.
He told me the story of one Gustav Baumann who was born on 21 November 1858 in Bloemfontein. His dad immigrated from Germany and was one of the first residents of Bloemfontein. Gustav was a land surveyor in the Free State and later became Chief Surveyor General. His daughter published a book on her father’s memories after his passing, The Lost Republic: The Biography of a Land Surveyor by Gustav Baumann and Elfrieda Bright. He was a very compassionate person.
He matriculated from Grey College and even though his mother tongue was Afrikaans, he learned English while in school. During the War with England, he fought on the side of the Boers and was captured when Bloemfontain fell in English hands. Pres. Steyn, the president of the Boer Republic of the Free State instructed him to stay behind and to hand the Free State land title deeds to the English forces.
After the war, he met the Boer warrior and folk hero, General de Wet. He told Daniel, (2) “Meeting old General de Wet after the war, I asked him why, after Bloemfontein and Pretoria had been captured and we knew we could never win the war, he still went on fighting: ‘Mr. Baumann,’ he said, ‘we kept on because we had to knock respect for our people into the British!’ This is exactly the point I am making about the basis for the English treatment of the Boer nations following the war. It was predicated on respect. His daughter later wrote about her father (2), “Gustav Baumann, who was an old friend of de Wet’s, and who had the greatest admiration for the old warrior…”
He also made another point of something that my great grandfather, JW Kok referred to which I wrote about in October 1960 where I celebrate The Castlemain Bacon Company from Australia as a producer of some of the finest bacon on earth. Here, he makes mention of the fact that some of the Boers who were captured early on in the war were accused of “ill-discipline.”
Nico Moolamn describes this as “surely… one of the classiest photos in my collection. As dyed by friend Tinus le Roux. For my book “Thank you, general.” Commandant Flip de Vos, Genl De Wet and Veldkornet Alfred Thring at Kroonstad. ABO era.
Gustav Baumann recounts the following about the ill-discipline of the Boers early on in the campaign. “The lack of discipline, especially in the early stages of the war, was appalling. My brother Herbert was a veld-kornet with the forces investing Kimberley. He was visited by a veld-kornet of the Transvaal Forces. While they were drinking coffee together, a messenger arrived from the Hoft-Commandant (Highest Commandant) for the Transvaler: Commandant Cronje wants to see you at once.” “And who the devil is Cronje to order me about?’ he demanded. ‘Tell him I’ll come when I am ready.’ He finished his coffee and left at his leisure.” He later writes that “…after three years of fighting the men still in the field had learned the art of war.”
Irrespective of the achievements of the Boer, the separation of races and the exploitation of black people and their exclusion from decisionmaking and government never stopped in South Africa but things went from bad to worse when the National Party came to power in 1924 for a short time and again in 1948 which lasted to 1994. It was in 1948 when a new word was coined to describe the policies of the new government – “apartheid”. I can see no positive outcome to the scheme and fail to understand how the white population can continue to think that a future is possible that is built upon the exploitation of our fellow human beings and excluding them from determining their own future. On the other hand, the Boers got a deal, pretty close to what they were fighting for over many years. South Africa remains a deeply divided land with great opportunities as was proven by David de Villiers Graaff, despite tremendous personal challenges and the diabolical system instituted by the National Government which kept the black man in bondage.
I believe that the unequal distribution of the resources of this great land will come home to haunt every people living here. The English will lose their “little England” and the Boers their “God-given independence” and little Holland with its straight and orderly lines, their language and their church. The peoples from whom they have taken so much by force and illegitimately will grow up to be united and strong enough to fight back. They will leave their care-free existence to forge peoples organised like the superpowers who lord it over them right now and will one day throw the joke off with no regard for Brittain or Holland or the ideal of “self-preservation to the exclusion of all others,” so well exemplified by the Afrikaner. They are training generations of people to hate with a burning fire! Will they ever be able to withstand what is coming their way?
Bacon Curing and the first Union Cabinet.
It is remarkable that beacon curing and the meat trade featured very prominently in the first Union Cabinet.
Louis Botha’s 1910 cabinet. Supplied by Linda Fouché.
Gen Louis Botha was the man who championed the course for the development of the meat industry in South Africa. He had a great ally in David de Villiers Graaff who created ICS which became Tiger Brands. FR Moor is 3rd from the left, back row, looking to his right. His younger brother, JW Moor was the chairman of the farmers cooperative that became Eskort. Botha opened the Eskort factory in Estcourt, Natal shortly before he passed away. The first curing system that Eskort used was the Wiltshire cure associated with Tank Curing.
Through the presence of Botha, De Villiers Graaff and Moor one can see the two South African cold meat giants, Enterprise and Eskort, the largest bacon producer in South Africa represented in the first cabinet.
Meat Curing Focus
Photograph from L V Praagh, The Transvaal, and its Mines, 1906, p.321, of the curing room of a cold storage and butcher’s shop in Fordsburg, Johannesburg.
My focus remained steadfastly on understanding the chemistry of meat curing to aim Woodys in the right direction. In recent years I became intensely interested in the development of meat curing and preservation in Africa during pre-colonial times. This is a project on its own to reduce to writing at a future time. When I am done with my work on bacon and the good Lord grants me health and a few more years, I will take this project up for there are amazing tales related to it that have never been told!
Unie van Suid-Afrika, Departement van Landbou en Bosbou, Hulpboek vir Boere in Suid-Africa, 3de en uitgebreide uitgawe, saamgestel deur D. J. Seymore (Redakteur)
Unie van Suid-Afrika, Departement van Landbou en Bosbou, Hulpboek vir Boere in Suid-Africa, 3de en uitgebreide uitgawe, saamgestel deur D. J. Seymore (Redakteur)
Bacon & the Art of Living
The letters that follow tell the rest of the story of Bacon & the Art of Living written from South Africa to my children who are living abroad.
When I’m not working (curing meat) or exploring with Minette, this is my life!
(1) In March 1982 Barlow bought a large interest in Tiger Oats and the controlling share in Imperial Cold Storage. In October 1998 Tiger Brands (Tiger Oats Limited) bought out Imperial Cold Storage. It swallowed up ICS in its own portfolio of brands and subsidiaries.
(2) The quotes and references all came from The Lost Republic The Biography of a Land Surveyor by Gustav Baumann and Elfrieda Bright which was brought to my attention and quoted by Daniel Jacobs.
References
Brooke Simons, Phillida (2000). Ice Cold in Africa: The History of Imperial Cold Storage & Supply Company Limited. Cape Town: Fernwood Press.
Gustav Baumann, Elfrieda Baumann. 1940. The Lost Republic: The Biography of a Land-surveyor. Bright Faber & Faber, Free State (South Africa)
) with any one of a number of commonly available metals. Nitric acid was, for example, known in the 13th century Europe and was known as aqua fortis. A known way of making it was was to react sulphuric acid and potassium nitrate as was developed by Johann Glauber (1604 – 1670). It was observed that a gas was formed when nitric acid was poured over copper, iron, or silver by a number of natural philosophers including Johannes van Helmont (1579 – 1644), Robert Boyle (1627 – 1691) and Georg Stahl (1660 – 1734). The last two noticed that this gas forms brown fumes when it comes in contact with the atmosphere.
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