This Is Hormel (ca 1964)

field. [Music] Introducing Brad and Greg, sons of Dale Rug, a typical Minnesota farmer. Minnesota annually ships large quantities of meat and other agricultural products to consumers throughout the United States and in foreign countries. Gee whiz, look at all them cars. Yeah. Wonder what's in them and where they're going. Hey, I know what. Let's write a letter and ask if we can visit the plant. That'll take us, I bet. [Music] Adventurous boys, curiosity, and dreams all lead to something very special that dad would enjoy, too. began on this site in 1891 and today is the largest of nine company slaughtering operations. Tours are available at the Austin, Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Fremont, Nebraska locations. As the Rug family registers, Hormell Guide Tony Corina arrives to show them through the plant. [Music] Hormemell has 15 processing plants, six distribution centers, and licensing arrangements for the manufacturer of special products in Canada, Ireland, England, and Venezuela. [Music] One of the initial sites on tour is the old engine first used by George A. Hormemell in 1892. [Music] A display of popular Hormemell products. More than 750 different items are produced here. Some of which are spam, cure 81 ham, Ormell chili, Dymore beef stew, range brand bacon, and dry sausage. From balconies, you can look across entire rooms of assembly, or rather disassembly activity. The rug boys watch as hog carcasses are broken down into primal cuts. After chilling, the carcass passes over a firmly anchored knife which separates the two sides. This is the first step in the disassembly of the pork side. This large saw wheel then cuts the shoulder from the side. So much automation enters the industrial picture today that it is not surprising to see the start of meat processing begin in this fashion. [Applause] Let's watch the development of the ham, one of the first meat cuts to receive attention. Painstaking care is given to ensure uniform removal of skin and fat. A close inspection of the ham follows. The hams slide down a chute to the floor below where they are fed onto the automatic scaling line. [Music] Each bin holds a given weight ham. The pans are individual scales that automatically drop the weighed ham into the correct bin. Skillfully removing the bone of hams before processing the famous Hormeell cure 81 ham, canned ham, cooked ham, or ingredient meat for spam. [Music] Very choice hams are saved for the production of the cure 81s. Precise trimming of external and internal fat takes place. [Music] Smoking of the Cure 81 hams is also done with care. Appealing color and unmatched flavor is developed in the smoking process. [Music] Here's what the finished product looks like inside. The real test of quality. Back to the pork cut. The story of bacon. First, spare ribs are removed. Bacon comes from the side meat next to the ribs. In meat processing, we strive to make good use of everything. Side skins, for example, are sold for leather. The initial step is the removal of the skin from the bacon side. The skins are dropped to the fleshing machine, which in turn takes off all excess fat. The bacon sides are mechanically trimmed as they move along the production line. Skilled craftsmen at this point trim bacon sides to proper size and shape. The meat trimmings are saved for other products. Once again, automation. Here we see a curing solution being injected by needles into the bacon sides. Nothing in bacon processing is more eyeappealing or mouthwatering than a view of bacon as it emerges from the stainless steel smoke chambers. A beautiful sight, isn't it? After it comes out of the smokehouse, the bacon is chilled and then formed into just the right shape so that the slices come out nice and even the way you see them in your store. [Music] A high-speed circular knife cleanly slices the bacon to uniform thickness, about 20 slices per second. After exact portions of bacon slices are handscaled, a special saran wrap machine vacuum seals the packages for longer keeping and better appearance. Hormemell bacon stays fresh longer when saran wrapped. The attractive packages are now ready to appear in retail counters across the country for selection by discriminating consumers. Another phase of the disassembly process is the separation of the shoulder and front feet from the carcass. [Music] Hormemell pigs feet are delicacy items. The front feet from all the pigs Hormell buys are used in the manufacturer of this product. Pickled pig's feet are very tasty and attractively packaged too. [Music] The shoulders supply the skins used in the production of gelatin. [Music] The skins are fed into a grinder and are shown emerging here. A series of cooking, filtering, and chilling operations occur before the gelatin is extruded onto a conveyor belt in this spaghetti-like form. [Music] A moving arm now spreads the gelatin evenly on another belt conveyor. This mattress of gelatin will travel through two dryers. The dried gelatin is now broken down into small particles and conveyed by augur to a grinder for final granulation. The finished product is weighed and packaged in both containers. Many hours are spent in research laboratories at Hormeell in an effort to discover new food formulas. Gelatin is one of the many Hormemell products that has been constantly researched and tested. Hormemell gelatin is sold to candy and other food manufacturers for among other things colorful and wholesome desserts. [Music] Pork shoulder and ham meat are taken from this picnic bon line and used for the manufacturer of spam, the most popular lunch and meat in the country. The picnic and ham meat is first ground through a mediumc course plate. A lab technician then takes a sample of the spam mixture for a lean percentage test. The meat is carefully tamped and the canister is sealed. The dials are standardized and the sample is placed in the electronic analy unit for analysis. Within seconds, this machine accurately reads the lean percentage of the sample. The results are recorded by the lab technician and adjustments, if necessary, are made. Mixer blades stir ground spam meat under vacuum and refrigeration until it becomes thoroughly blended. The raw material is then pumped to the can filling machines where the tins are automatically filled and vacuum sealed. The cans are then fed to the massive 65- ft hydrostatic cooking tower. This huge unit is equipped with a conveyorized chain of trays that carry the cans through processing cycles of cooking, chilling, sterilizing, and drying. When fully loaded, this towering structure can hold 38,512 oz cans. Well over 350 spam cans per minute are discharged from this cooker, the only one in the United States capable of handling oblong tins. The conveyor lines leaving the cooker carry the cans directly to automated equipment for orderly assembly and packaging. The formation and packing of spam boxes is an impressive site in itself. The box is first formed. The bottom is closed and the empty carton is positioned for filling. The case is sealed and the product moves by elevator to the storage cooler. Another area of the Horell plant to be visited. The rug family is directed to beef operations. A modern on the rail dressing system moves the cattle to the mechanical skinner. Two long arms move outward and are affixed to the beef hide. This operation pulls the hide away from the rib area without scoring it or chipping into the meat. The remainder of the hide removal process is accomplished with a motorized chain that is fastened to the hide and which pulls the hide from the animal in a clean and efficient manner. [Music] The hides are then dropped to the hide cellar. At the fleshing machine, all residue of fat and impurities are removed. [Music] Next, the hides are stretched out on a table for final trimming. Salt, a valued preservative, is then added to make certain that the hides can be shipped to distant tanneries without spoilage. The hides are folded, tied, and are now ready for shipment. The beef coolers at the Austin plant have a holding capacity of well over 2 million pounds of choice beef. Almost all Hormell beef is sold to retail and wholesale markets as quarters or sides. The Hormell Institutional Department selects top quality meat from the beef coolers for filling the special orders received from hotels and restaurants, hospitals, colleges and universities. The dining rooms of these food service institutions have precise requirements as to size, shape, weight, and quality of their meat guts. It takes special care at Horell to meet these very rigid specifications. Here you see choice boneless New York cut steaks being individually wrapped for a customer intent on serving the finest quality meats. A rapid freezing of the meat aids in retaining all the natural juices. Choice tenderloin steaks, boneless top sirloins, and New York cut steaks. Ah, there's plenty of good eating on this table. These steaks are shown in portions ready for the broiler or grill. Now you see the end result of controlled, scientifically aged beef. Imagine yourself enjoying this meat. The Horell Institutional Department has a challenging assignment to fulfill that of selecting just the right kind of meat which will appeal to the discriminating diner. The Hormell feed mill is the next area to be visited by the Rug family. This 90 ft structure has automated facilities to make a correct feed mixture. Hormemell feeds are designed to produce a pound of pork or beef at lowest cost when combined with farm-raised forages and grains. Thousands of pounds of wieners are produced daily at Hormell. Boneless beef and pork are the selected meats used in the manufacturer of Horell wieners. All raw materials are kept under constant cold temperatures. The meat is dumped into this huge grinder which is capable of handling loads up to 1,000 lb. Freshly ground meat arrives from the grinder. The operator handles the grinding, scaling and conveying of meat to the blender. Blending is now taking place. The Hormel batchmaster at the electronic control panel sets the standard formula on the dials. The feed augers are activated and the exact amounts of meat needed to make the prescribed batch are now brought together. Meat ingredients are weighed on this scale belt on route to Spices formulated in our own flavoring department are bagged for each particular batch. The blended ingredients are now vacuum mixed. It is next transported to the emulsifier hopper. The ingredients are completely emulsified and the meat moves to the hopper of the stuffing machines. These ingenious machines automatically stuff and link the 84 ft strands of wieners. Artificial casings give them shape and form. Transferred to a conveyorized chain, the wieners pass through a spray wash and pre-tempering room, travel through two smokehouse units, a steam cooking and water shower, and then undergo a blast chill where the temperature is reduced to lock in all the juices and flavor. The wieners are now lifted from the chain and placed on supply tables for the stripping machine operators. This is where the artificial casings are removed. Skinless horers leave the stripping machines and fall onto a conveyor belt system. [Music] The wieners are next discharged onto a much wider conveyor belt for even distribution to four high-speed takeaway belts. [Music] The wieners hurried to a slotted stainless steel belt where free swinging deflectors arrange them into a single layer. [Music] [Music] Girls wearing plastic gloves do some manual alignment. The Hormell Wiiers are vacuum packaged and then move over an electronic check wear which rejects all underweight packages. Test servings of many new and wellestablished Hormell products are set up to check texture, flavor, tenderness, and color. Among the many considerations when marketing a product is, will people like it? Taste panels are effective in controlling quality and determining whether new products will meet consumer acceptance. The wieners are packed in cartons, placed on a conveyor, and headed for the loading dock. [Music] After loading in refrigerated railroad cars and Horell trucks, the Wiiers are rushed to customers across the country. The tour takes the Rug family to some production lines that can be viewed from this ideal location. Carefully selected choice beef and plump red Idaho beans are used when making Horell chili. This automatic sorting machine throws away imperfect beans. for great chili, lean beef, beans, tomatoes, and exotic spices. The rich blend of ingredients are placed in the containers. They're then sealed and slowly cooked, bringing out the real chili flavor. Or mel chili piping hot and ready to eat. M good. Just imagine the zesty aroma and tangy taste in this bowl. Research is moving forward at a rapid pace in the meat industry. At Hormell, this laboratory is where new products are born and repeatedly tested. After passing rigid examinations, the new products are placed in consumer test markets across the country. Quality chemical and bacteriological tests are the main services of the control laboratory. Quality control in Hormell products for example is maintained by keeping a constant running analytic history of each product. This ensures that the product is being produced to exact specifications. Control laboratory personnel are like detectives on the alert for harmful bacteria. Careful inspection of plant departments is constantly made to assure cleanliness. Only one word correctly describes the ingredients that go into America's favorite ready to serve stew and that word is fresh. A key to the palatability of Dentymore beef stew is the use of potatoes and carrots which are grown in neighboring states. Electronic scales verify that the proper amount of meat has been placed in each can. The ingredients simmer together inside the can. Cooking begins after sealing of cans to save all the flavor and freshness. One of the largest producers of quality dry sausage in the world, Ormemell was the first to use this roto cut machine. 20 sharp blades quickly cut the meat and blend in spices. Strings were wrapped around dry sausage products for reinforcement many years ago. The practice continued and has since become a trademark. This woman is an expert at tying the filled casings. Dry sausage products are hung here for drying. Some remain as long as 4 months. The average is 70 days. Magnificico. Backwards or forwards? This attractive eye appealing banner calls attention to Hormel Genoa Salami. A famous Italian favorite. These dectable sausages have been prepared from oldworld recipes that have been handed down from father to son since before America was discovered. Over the years, many varieties of dry sausage have been developed by Hormell. Distinctive spices, excellent flavor, and color are all found in the Horell family of dry sausage products. The Hormel General office houses 120 people working in different administrative capacities. Plaques of George A and J. Hormemell grace the walls of the lobby. Some 8,000 Hormeell employees are responsible for a variety of duties. sales and livestock personnel, accountants and attorneys, physicians and engineers, a broad spectrum of jobs. The latest in computers and electronic data processing is an integral part of the everyday operation, providing information in seconds that once took many hours to compile. These units are capable of printing and reading, can calculate and compare numbers, and store data for future reference. Payroll checks with their accounting of earnings and deductions are printed in less than a half hour. Enormous quantities of power are used to generate steam for heat, refrigeration, and electricity. Trained personnel are needed to oversee, control, and maintain these complex systems. The sheet metal shop, a busy, noisy place. Galvanized metal and stainless steel are constantly being shaped into ducts and shoots. Improvements and replacements of existing facilities are made. Craftsmen with ingenuity, imagination, and skilled hands are necessary in this highly mechanized plant. Even the most modern machinery requires some personal attention. [Music] This power break is used to shape large or small pieces of metal into proper sizes for a variety of applications. Spot welding. A quick method of tacking two pieces of lightweight metal together. Highly skilled machinists make many repairs. Hard steel knives cut and shape various metals required to make necessary replacement parts. Implant repairs can conveniently and quickly be made. Controlling and recording instruments like these keep humidity and temperatures constant. New recording discs are installed daily. These eye appealing products are manufacturers [Music] acceptance of these various Hormeell products. This tour was designed to acquaint the Rug family with many features of the Hormell Company's everyday operation. Why not plan on visiting us soon? You're always welcome at Hormell, the home of fine food products. [Music]