Ear on Chicago; Chicago Sun Times

The sound you just heard was out of a peeling machine, which is peeling the skin from a winner at the Oscar Mayer Company in Chicago. Today we are doing the story of the manufacturer of winners. Our guide is Mr. Chris Lambert, who is the sales manager for the Chicago Company. Our first stop will be the receiving platform on Goathees Street. The plant is located on division and seduic in Chicago. Oh, we've come out of the loading dock where Oscar Mayer Company receives all their meat. Chris, suppose you start telling us a little bit about this place. Well, here I think at this time I'd like to introduce you to Jim Miles, who is our plant superintendent. I think that can help you out very much along these lines. Jim, there are some very interesting sites along this loading dock. First of all, a large number of trucks have backed up in here. And down at the far end, we see some big, I guess you'd call them meat hooks. Why don't you just tell us from beginning to end what happens at this particular

location? Well, you as you see, we receive all practically everything here by a truck. In fact, everything is received by a truck. We have no railhead whatsoever. And this plant is primarily a processing plant, so that all the raw materials that we use in manufacture has to be shipped to us by truck. Just what raw materials do you receive here? What sort of meat? Pork and beef items of all types. And as you see there on the end of the dock is carcass beef, which will be used for retail sales. Now Jim, where do these trucks come from? Normally from almost everywhere you, although we receive most of our raw materials from our own supplying plants in Davenport and Madison, where they have large support and beef slaughtering operations. Well, we're right at the beginning of your operation here in Chicago. Is that right Jim? Yes, that's right. You everything has to start here at the unloading dock. Well, I wonder if we could just take a step before this particular operation and ask you about the buying of the meat. Where does that

take place? Well, speaking of our own plants, you, Madison and Davenport, they have buying stations throughout the neighboring communities, farming communities, and these stations are staffed by our own men who deal directly with the farmer and buy his pork and beef on the hoof. I see. And then it's sent to your plant at Madison or Davenport from where it's brought over to here. That's right. And there the slaughtering is done and the meat is processed for our use, and for our other plants in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. I assume Jim that all these trucks are refrigerated, aren't they? Absolutely. You have to be, of course, to preserve the freshness and quality of these raw materials. Do you ever have any problems in that way? For example, it's cold today, but in the summertime, in the summertime, of course, a much more care has to be taken to keep the trucks in the proper condition and refrigerating units on at all times. Okay, Jim, thanks a million for talking to us here at the loading docks. We'll

go back to Chris now and find out what our next stop is going to be. Well, I think our next stop, which would be of interest to you here, is to go up and see just how these winters are actually made. We've come now to a room where there's a lot of activity and a lot of meat. Chris what happens in here? Well, here this is called a meat preparation room where the meat is actually prepared before going into the stuffing of winters. And I think somebody better to tell you about this room than me is our plant superintendent again Jim Miles. Well Jim, I've seen a lot of meat grinders in my day. My mother used to have one in her kitchen many years ago. I think they're kind of out of style now, but this is the largest man -sized meat grinder I've ever seen. And I suppose that's just exactly what it is a meat grinder. You're right, you and surprisingly enough, this grinder is exactly the same construction that your mother used to have in a kitchen. Only it's on a much larger scale,

consists of a warm gear and a knife and a plate through which the meat is forced. It runs on electricity, you don't have to crank it. Yes, it has a 45 horsepower motor on it and of course it develops a lot of power as necessary. Well now what sort of meat is going in there right now Jim? That particular tub of meat, you is regular pork, it's one of the items that makes the wiener very palatable when it's chopped and ground finally to make our yellow band winters. Now let's look around at some of the other things in this particular room. What about over there? Is that just another grinder? That's another grinder, you. We have more than one room of this nature. Of course this one is used mainly for the preparation of wieners. As you see the room is refrigerated very thoroughly with that large unit over in a corner. What about this mechanism over here with all the chains hanging down from it? That's a large scale, you can weigh up to two or three thousand pounds. We use that of course to control the ingredients that go into the wieners so that each batch is the same. Well now we notice that

your ground meat already is over here. What's going to happen to that? That will be transferred to the chopping machine which will blend and come in it the beef and pork to make the finished product. These large containers contain a certain amount of meat. Not all the same you as you see their different sizes, although normally a thousand pounds is about what they hold. What about that room through the swinging doors back there Jim? What happens back there? That is a cooler of 32 to 34 degrees held that way constantly for the holding, temporary holding of these meats you see now ground. What do you keep the temperature of this room the same? 38 to 40 degrees. Here it's not so important to keep it quite that cold because the meat passes through here rather rapidly. Jim what about those boys over there cutting the meat? What are they doing? Those fellows are experienced knife men. They are working up some beef cuts for trimmings and taking the bones out and so on. That's part of our fabrication department and the beef cooler. There's nothing to do with the manufacturer of wieners. Well I see well we're doing the story of wieners so we don't have

to talk too much about them but you said an interesting thing. Experience knife men. Just exactly what do you mean by experience knife men? Well it takes a long time to train a man to be able to handle a knife and cut meat successfully without cutting up his hand and every entering himself some other way. These men have been working for us for 10 to 20 years and it takes probably about six months to really teach a man to be as good as they are with a knife. All right Jim thanks a million for talking to us about this particular department. I think we're going to move into another one now and we'll say goodbye to you here. Okay thanks very much. Chris wants our next stop. Well here our next stop will be the chopping and stuffing rooms which is right through this door down here. Chris there's a lot of noise and a lot more meat in here and finally we've arrived at a spot where we can see wieners being made. What about this room? Well this room which is our stuffing

and chopping room you you certainly can see wieners made. You can really see them turning out over there and I think at this point you I'd like to introduce you to our operations manager who is Fred Alexander who I think can better tell you about this room than I can. Well Fred first of all let me ask you about the chopping operation we've heard a lot about that before we got to this room suppose you explained it for us. Well the chopping operation is probably the most important step in the preparation of fine wieners. Now here is where we blend the veal and pork together and cut it mechanically to a very fine consistency or what we call texture. Here also is where the selected spices are added to the meat and thoroughly and evenly mixed during this chopping operation. This operation requires a lot of skill and our chopper men who have had a lot of experience are experts in their field. All right Fred let's walk over here towards the chopping machine and I'll

describe it just briefly and then you tell us about it. First of all Fred that those machines are large round revolving mats and inside of them we can see all the meat that we saw being delivered to this particular department turning and being chopped up. But you tell us just exactly how that machine operates. Well that is right as you said you it's a very large machine as a matter of fact it holds between 500 and 600 pounds of meat. There is a bowl as you could see which turns at approximately 1 ,200 RPM and the machine is equipped with a series of very very sharp knives and these knives cut the meat up into very small particles. What's that umbrella shaped thing that's sticking out of that machine there? That is used to transfer the meat from the bowl to the sausage truck after the

product is finished in so far as chopping goes. What about the are the other machines the same there's one down further that looks about the same Fred what is that? No that is what we call a vacuum mixer. That is another step in the preparation of sausage. This is done in another machine and eliminates the air in the meat. But you have the same end result is that it? Well the operation is somewhat different and again the purpose is to eliminate air in meat. Fred what about the scale over here there's a man weighing a lot of meat what's happening over there? This operator is scaling the meat, meat, veal and pork. You see all of our weeners are all meat we do not use extenders such as flour or milk powder. So he's going a certain amount of veal certain amount of pork and so on is that it? That is right. All right now Fred we finished with that particular operation. What happens now to the meat once it comes out of that large revolving bat? Well the next operation in the preparation of

weeners is a stuffing operation and if you will follow me that's right over on this side of the room. Just a few feet away as Fred told you is the stuffing machine and the stuffing operation. Fred let's step right up here and look out over this operation. For the first time we've come to a spot where the weeners are finally taking form. Here's a man stuffing something in this particular machine and then pulling out a long string of what must be the weeners. Is that right? Well not exactly. You see this operation is also done by our experienced employees. These men operate machines which stuff the meat mechanically into 55 foot long cellulose casings. These casings are fed as you can see into automatic linking machines which produce about 120 weeners per casing and all of uniform size and diameter. Each linking machine incidentally produces up to

1 ,600 pounds per hour or about 16 ,000 weeners per hour. The linked weeners are transferred from the linking machines on to stainless steel smoke sticks and then hung hung onto cages or smoke trays. After this operation the weeners are ready to be smoked. We're standing right next to one of the men operating this machine that Fred just told you about. It's one of the really strange operations that we've seen in covering here on Chicago and many of the industries around. Meat continues to fill up this cellulose heart and our container. Is all the meat put in that large container back there? That is right. It holds approximately 500 pounds of meat at one filling and she takes what he gives out and puts into that machine over there. That is right. She feeds the casing into the linking machine. Now inside that machine revolves this large wrapping of meat and how does that work in there? How does it operate?

Well as you can see there is a drum which is part of the linking machine and the linking operation itself takes place in the drum. You have something to tie each link together. It's a twisting operation. It's a mechanical twisting operation. No string or anything like that. Oh sir we do not use string. And where did you say we go next Fred? The next operation is a smoking of weeners which is done in another section of the sausage department. All right let's walk over there Fred thank you very much. Fred we've come to the smoke house now and this is like the smoke house in the old days back on the farm I guess I can remember them when I was a child looking at seeing some of the smoke houses but not so much beautiful red meat as we see here as we came down through was kind of difficult going through because smoke getting in your eyes and you went past a lot of lockers and I guess this hallway is a good

150 feet long. Fred tell us about this department. Well first you there has been a lot of change in smoke house construction and design since the days of which you have spoken out on the farm. Our smoke houses are of the finest construction and design. Let me show you and let's you and I go into one of these houses. All right Fred I might describe it just a bit as we walk in. Can we walk right on in? Yes we can. We're walking over an iron grating and all around us of course is a brick side wall and above us there's some iron grating and some metal work. What happens in here Fred? Well of course the iron part that you referred to are the rails and some of the instruments. Now these houses are as I've already mentioned of the finest construction and design that is to say that they are air conditioned and the temperature, humidity and air

velocities are controlled throughout the entire smoking process. The hickory smoke itself enhances the fine taste and flavor. Fred let me ask you this how do you produce the smoke? We have individual smoking machines which generate smoke throughout the entire process of the winters. Well Fred beside the smoke inside that machine I see a lot of red liquid coming out. What is that? That is coloring used of course to add color to the winters. The winters are colored as well as smoked in this process inside of that machine. Well yes and in our particular state here the majority of the winters are colored. However we do manufacture both colored and colored. For that matter certain state laws prohibit

the use of color on saucy but that would be for instance Pennsylvania and Michigan for example and in the state of Wisconsin at this time. Well now Fred here's a stack of winters and they have tags on them saying uncolored. Well they don't look a lot different to me than the colored ones do. Well that is true. The colors brought out by proper control during the smokehouse operation. However you will notice on the opposite rail another of cage of similar winners which have been colored and there is a very desirable orange color to those winners on that cage. Fred you mentioned orange I always thought winters were red and all our preference is towards an orange color rather rather than red. Well then in Wisconsin and Michigan and what was the other

state Pennsylvania they eat to uncolored winters. That is true. When our Fred after the winters are smoked and colored what happens to them? Well you after the smoking and cooking process winters are transferred to coolers where they remain until chilled to specific internal temperatures. Suppose we go down and see the cooler. Fine if you'll follow me I like to show them to you. Well Fred we've come into the cooler now and tell us about this operation what happens here. Well you the next operation is the skinning and packaging of winters. Very important factors in the feelability of winters are proper temperature and humidity conditions in these coolers and packing rooms. Well Chris we go back to you now you're our guide and we better pick up the next operation. What happens now? Well I think you and I will go into our wrap and pack and first of all check our skinning machine where the winters are skinned and ready for packing and wrapping. That's right next

door isn't it Chris? That's right come right through here you. Well let's walk in here where we're leaving the cooling room now and coming into the skinning at the opening of the program we gave you the sound of the skinner. Now Chris how does this machine operate and so on? Well here before we get into that I see a man over there taking some of these winters and taking them up the laboratory to check. Now here as you probably know we have a product control department here too and Tom Brandell who is in charge of our product control department at our Chicago plant. I think he better say a few words about the rigid controls that we have on our meat products before they are actually put out into the stores for the consumer to purchase. Oh Tom would tell us a little bit of something about product control. Well you are a department is of course very much concerned with the quality. You'll note that you can see a lot of cages here and I think they're all pretty consistent in the coloring now that's one of our responsible abilities to aid production to produce a good uniform product. Now

since color is a little easier to see than some of the other attributes I think you can see that they are very consistent and you'll also note that there is not a definite heavy color to own but we use just a conservative amount in order to give us just a color that will be appetizing and appealing to the customer. Doesn't that any taste or anything it just provides an appetizing color that's correct there is no no taste to this coloring it's an approved FD &C color. That's similar to the type of coloring they use in other food products such as margarine and so on very much similar yes sir. Oh we've heard about color now Tom what getting back to the original question just exactly what is product control. Well we're concerned as I stated before primarily with quality to maintain our quality standard requires quite a staff of technical people and this staff then gives the information to the necessary people so that only product that does meet quality is shipped out of here. We have people in every department you've probably seen them in your tour that are checking

product constantly and actually checking raw materials and the shopping procedures and the finished product but under no circumstance does anything get out of this plant knowingly that does not meet standards there is only one quality level. Right Tom thanks a million. Stay here come over here I'd like to have you meet the supervisor of this department Joe Einstein who's been with Oscar Martin company quite a number of years you and he's our supervisor in the rap and pack and I'd like to have him tell you a few things about this department. Okay Joe first of all let's walk over here to this peeling machine this is something that I've been extremely interested in to see this orange paper coming off of those winters. Now why do you take the skins off? Well those skins are not edible they are a whisking casing and they have to be peeled off the meat weener the all meat weener. Now we saw the operation where the skins were originally put on and I suppose that the purpose of putting them on is just so that they can go through this entire process that we saw so that they can finally get to this point and be taken off and make

into the skinless winner you speak so much about is that that is right that is right that skinless tweeters are mighty successful products isn't Joe very very much so now let's get into a little more detail is just exactly how this machine works Joe we see a long string of winters coming along of conveyor belt and up into this machine which revolve now what happens inside of there there is a little knife that cuts a little opening into the skin itself and then there's an air vent that blows into it and this revolving head on there peels the skin right off the weener itself does not revolve only the skin itself is revolve and thus removing the removing the casing and it drops the weener into onto a little shoot where it goes to the girls for further processing. All right now let's talk about that further processing for the moment as you said it goes off the shoot into a little conveyor belt and over into a large container over here what happens there that is also one of our inventions of our cartridge pack company and that that puts a little yellow band on on each weener

and it puts 10 into a pack into a one complete unit and then they are packed into a six pound box and getting back to boxes there's a box right here full of winters what about this they're throwing them out here those are rejects that are not suitable for for our yellow band product this is one more check in the process of making sure that a bad product does not go out is that right that is right all right Jonah we've got the stamps on them and they're going into boxes over there and there's a girl over there apparently putting them on a scale what is that that is to put six pound net weight into that box you want to make sure each box has six every box of scale exact weight Joe I can't see quite down the list a long distance down there but I assume that the rest of those machines along the assembly line are the same as is being operated right here for us they are the same with the exception of the other side there there we package a one pound weener there every every

package is weighed into a one pound unit and then packed into a 12 pound box this is a loose item we call that this a loose item the other is a self -service item this is the weener we find it the ballpark and out on the picnics Joe what do you use the one pound weener for well therefore the self -service counters all over the all over Chicago land and they're a little bit easier to handle for the housewife she picks them up in a one -pound unit rather than buying them in a loose in a loose form like this all right Joe we've seen this particular thing here and suppose we walk down and see the packaging into this room all right let's go well we've come now Joe to the packaging department we saw how the winters were being put in boxes down there and moved along the conveyor line here and there was something about an electric eye well is that this machine over here that's called our selectoral machine how does that operate that accepts all packages that are exactly a pound

or slightly over and we'll reject anything that is underweight how does the thing like that operate on an electric eye Joe I never heard of anything like this it's a fine machine it sits probably wanted a few and in the industry and it's very very sensitive but what's this right in front of us Joe this is a little bit of a different operation you have how many eight weeners in a package of covered with cellophane what is that those are our sheep casing weeners that is a natural casing weener and we still make some of those in the old days all weeners were made like this in an in an actual casing now there's no casing or skin there's no casing or skin on any except the fuel that we still make in the natural casing well now let's go back to the skin of the tweeners in the boxes as they move along the conveyor line what about these machines down over here and first of all the scale tell us about that that scale area is for any weeners that are underweight they are rejected by this machine and then the girl will will

readjust that package to make that package weigh a pound and as it gets down here is that the completion of your operation that is a completion of the operation there's a wrapping machine honor that takes each package individually and wraps it and sends it out at the end where it is put into boxes and sent down then it's ready to ship delivery to the stores right all right Joe thanks a million for telling us about your department it's been very interesting thank you let's go back to our guide Chris now Chris I guess we're about ready to go down to where the weeners are being shipped out to the stores looks like we've completed the operation up here well Chris we've come now to the place where the final step in the manufacturer process and distributing of the weeners is concerned and that's of course transportation and distribution we might ask just a few questions about this operation and then draw some concluding statements out of you first of all what are these trucks going out Chris now

these trucks here are being all loaded now for delivery throughout Chicago land and other parts of our country how many well let me put it this way what is the consumption of weeners well here the weener consumption is up about 20 % in the last five years and if you were to ask me the question of how many weeners are produced a year I would tell you that we not we but the meat industry as a whole produces enough weeners to reach from here to the moon and not only that but go around the world about five times that's a lot of weeners Chris that is a lot of weeners you well listen Chris we want to thank you very much for guiding us on our tour of the Oscar Meyer company and telling us about the production of weeners well thanks you it's been a pleasure to have you over with us