Page:Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management.djvu/494

430 Tainted Meat.—If meat is clammy or musty from being kept, it should be washed in water containing vinegar or some such non-poisonous disinfectant as permanganate of potash. Powdered borax dissolved in water is the best to use. Another plan is to powder the joint with charcoal, and then wash it. In any case it should be roasted, not boiled or stewed, if the meat is really tainted ed [sic] enough to give it a flavour. It is much better to half-roast or parboil a joint a day or two before it is eaten than to hang it too long, for it is really not hurt by so doing if it is put down to a very hot fire.

The General Mode of Slaughtering Oxen in this country is by striking them a smart blow with a hammer or poleaxe on the head, a little above the eyes. By this means, when the blow is skilfully given, the beast is brought down at one blow, and, to prevent recovery, a cane is generally inserted, by which the spinal cord is perforated, instantly depriving the ox of all sensation of pain. In Spain, and some other countries on the Continent, and also in some parts of England, it is usual to deprive oxen of life by the operation of pithing or dividing the spinal cord in the neck, close to the back part of the head. This is, in effect, the same mode as is practised in the celebrated Spanish bull-fights by the matador, and it is instantaneous in depriving the animal of sensation, if the operator be skilful.

The Manner in which a Side of Beef is cut up in London is shown in the accompanying engraving. The custom varies in different parts of the country, and in some places no difference is made in price between one joint and another. This, however, is of rare occurrence. Meat is sold wholesale at per stone of 8 lb.

In the Metropolis, on account of the large number of its population possessing the means to indulge in the "best of everything," the demand for the most delicate joints of meat is great; the price, at the same time, being much higher for these than for the other parts. The consequence is that in London the carcass is there divided so as to obtain the greatest quantity of meat on the most esteemed joints. But in many places, owing to a greater equality in the social condition and habits of the inhabitants, the demand and prices for the different parts of the carcase are more equalized, there is not the same reason for the butcher to cut the best joints so large.

The meat on those parts of the animal in which the muscles are least called into action is most tender and succulent; as, for instance, along the back, from the rump to the hinder part of the shoulder; whilst the limbs, shoulder and neck are the toughest, driest, and least esteemed.

Amongst the illustrations is given an engraving of the animal, with the parts indicated from whence the different joints are cut, followed by a list of their names.