Book Description

"A thorough overview, with illustrations, of the cottonseed byproduct industry emerging at the time of publication. The cottonseed industry stood at the center of what would become several storms over food adulteration, substitute products, and the industrialization of food in general. Excerpt: ' ...but there are independent manufacturers of oleomargarine located near the packing centres who prefer to buy the fat as it is taken from the animal and work it into neutral by their own process. In the packing plants the leaf fat is taken from the animal immediately after killing, hung on mounted racks, and wheeled into refrigerators to remove as quickly as possible all animal heat. It is next chopped finely or reduced to pulp by machinery and melted in jacketed kettles exactly similar to those used for oleo-oil. When the melting process is complete it is allowed to settle, the precipitation of the fibre being accelerated by the addition of salt as in the case of oleo-oil. After the settling process the clear oil is siphoned to a receiving-tank, and what is not used in oleomargarine is tierced for shipment. A good quality of leaf fat will produce by careful handling about 90 per cent. of its weight in neutral, and each animal will yield an average of eight or nine pounds. Comparatively little neutral is made from back fat. The amount used, however, depends much on the relative demand for neutral and ordinary lard products, as it is sometimes more advantageous to work fats into one form than another. The oil made from back fat retains more of the flavor peculiar to lard and, like the lower grades of oleo-oil, is less free from stearin or other undesirable constituents. Some packing-houses mix a small per cent, of back fat with the leaf in making their highest grade of neutral, and oleomargarine manufacturers sometimes use both grades of the finished oil in combination. The difference in price between the two is usually slight, and neutral made exclusively from leaf is generally sought...'"--Antiquarian bookseller's description, 2017.