Page:The Boston cooking-school cook book (1910).djvu/237

 manner of feeding. The best beef is obtained from a steer of four or five years. Good beef should be firm and of fine-grained texture, bright red in color, and well mottled and coated with fat. The fat should be firm and of a yellowish color. Suet should be dry, and crumble easily. Beef should not be eaten as soon as killed, but allowed to hang and ripen,—from two to three weeks in winter, and two weeks in summer.

Meat should be removed from paper as soon as it comes from market, otherwise paper absorbs some of the juices.

Meat should be kept in a cool place. In winter, beef may be bought in large quantities and cut as needed. If one chooses, a loin or rump may be bought and kept by the butcher, who sends cuts as ordered.

Always wipe beef, before cooking, with a cheese-cloth wrung out of cold water, but never allow it to stand in a pan of cold water, as juices will be drawn out.

DIVISION AND WAYS OF COOKING A SIDE OF BEEF

HIND-QUARTER

Flank (thick and boneless)       Stuffed, rolled and braised, or corned and boiled

{Aitchbone      Cheap roast, beef stew, or braised {Top            Steaks, best cuts for beef tea Round           { {Lower Part     Hamburg steaks, curry of                 {                  beef, and cecils {Vein           Steaks

{Back           Choicest large roasts and {                 cross-cut steaks Rump            {Middle          Roasts {Face           Inferior roasts and stews

{Tip            Extra fine roasts {Middle         Sirloin and porterhouse steaks Loin            { {First Cut      Steaks and roast

{Sold as a}     Larded and roasted, or broiled The Tenderloin  {Fillet or} {cut in Steaks} Hind-shin                        Cheap stew or soup stock