middlings

Etymology

middling + -s.

noun

1. (business) Commodities that are of intermediate price, quality, or size.
2. (business) Partially refined ore or petroleum.
   The product described in the earlier contract is: 'All the zinc sulphide crude ore, zinc sulphide concentrates and zinc sulphide middlings, shipped from Midvale, Utah, Kennett, Cal., or any other point by or under the control of the seller during the period of this agreement.' 1924, Supreme Court of the United States, Miller v. Robertson/Opinion of the Court
   The bitumen floats to the top of the separation cell and is largely recovered in this top-layer froth[…], while sand is discarded at the bottom and the middlings of intermediate density are partly returned to the separator for recycling and partly forwarded to a scavenger separation cell […] for separate treatment in a froth settler[…]. 1982, S. S. Penner et al., “Assessment of Research Needs for Oil Recovery from Heavy-oil Sources and Tar Sands”, in New Sources of Oil & Gas: Gases from Coal; Liquid Fuels from Coal, Shale Tar Sands, and Heavy Oil Sources, Oxford: Pergamon Press, page 75
3. (milling) Low-grade or coarse flour; coarse wheat mixed with bran.
   Buckwheat middlings is a fairly good feed for dairy cows, being far superior to buckwheat bran. 1917, Carl William Larson, Fred Silver Putney, Dairy cattle feeding and management, page 95
   More or lesser amounts of middlings are always formed, and must be reprocessed to salvage the good seed it contains. The middlings fraction can be re-separated over the gravity separator to salvage the good seed. […] To salvage its good seed, middlings are re-separated over the gravity. This spreads the middlings out further over the deck, and produces a closer separation of good seed from the undesirable material. 2009, Bill (B. R.) Greg, Gary L. Billups, “Gravity Separator”, in Seed Conditioning, volume 2 (Technology Part-A; Advanced-level Information for Managers, Technical Specialists, Professionals), Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press; Enfield, N.H.: Science Publishers, page 518
4. (cooking, chiefly Southern US) The part of a pig between the shoulder and the ham.

noun

1. plural of middling