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beef, &c. This fact is clearly evinced in the superior qualities that venison, and the flesh of all wild animals possess over that of tame ones.

Buttocks of beef, fillets of veal, and legs of mutton and lamb, as they have most solid meat and least bone, in proportion, are best for large families. The most economical way for marketing, is to buy what roasting and boiling pieces you want in one lot. Butchers will sell quantities, thus assorted, much cheaper than they will sell single joints; and prime roasting joints, when bought alone, are always charged extravagantly.

Beef and mutton, of a proper age, is more easy of digestion, and more nutritious, than veal and lamb. The same remark holds with respect to pork; for though young pigs are fat and luscious, yet they are not so nutritive as those of more mature age. The heart and other viscera of animals are nutritious, but hard to digest. Pork is a strong meat, but that which is fed at dairies, is mildest and best. Fat neat is not so easy of digestion as the flesh of well fed animals, though not so fat. The flesh of old animals is dry and hard of digestion, and affords but little nourishment.

BEEF.

Instructions for choosing it.

An ox is in its prime, for food, at five or six years old.

BEEF is never out of season, but it is in the greatest perfection in November, December, and January.

The lean of the finest ox-beef, if of a proper age, has a fine smooth grain, it is of a bright or carnation red, feels tender, and appears to be marled or intermixed with fat. The fat parts are firm, of a cream colour, and rather white than yellow. This latter distinction is of importance, because, if the beef be old, the fat will be yellow and skinny;

and if the ox has been unnaturally fed, or in a confined place, and particularly if it has been fed with oil-cake, it will be very yellow, soft, flabby, and greasy. On the other hand, if the beef be too young, the fat will be white, almost like mutton fat, and the lean will be of a pale colour.

The grain of cow-beef is closer than that of the ox, and the lean is of a darker red.

Heifer-beef has all the appearances and qua lities of good ox-beef, except that the grain of the lean is of a finer texture,

Bull-beef is coarser and redder than any other, the fat hard and skinny, and it has a strong, rank smell.

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The JOINTS OF BEEF, according to the London method of cutting.

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The best joints are the sirloin, rump, edge-bone, buttock, and the five or six fore-ribs; and the thinflank, the sticking-piece, the leg, shin, and cheek, are the worst.

VEAL.

Instructions for choosing it.

VEAL is best and cheapest from March to July. Veal ought to be fine in the grain, firm, white, and fat. The leg bone should be small. If fresh, the eyes will be full and bright, the flesh not clammy but dry, and the large vein of the shoulder of a bright red. The kidney taints soonest, and if that be sweet, and neither soft nor slimy, the whole calf is fresh. On the contrary, if any part of the flesh be green or yellow, or feels flabby, it is stale. The fillet of a cow-calf is preferable on account of the udder, but the meat of the bull-calf is generally firmest, whitest, and best, when dressed. The finest calves have the smallest kidneys.

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A shoulder is the fore-knuckle and blade-bone together; and a leg is the fillet and hind-knuckle together.

The best end of the loin, the fillet, and the best end of the breast, are the choicest pieces: the knuckle, and scrag end of the neck, are the worst.

MUTTON.

Instructions for choosing it.

MUTTON is best from Christmas to Midsummer. When, if in its prime, (that is about four years of age,) it will feel tender when pinched with the finger and thumb, but if older, it will feel harder and fibrous. The grain of the lean should be a fine deep red, the colour bright, and the fat firm and white. Wether mutton is the best flavoured, and may be known by a prominent lump of fat at the edge of the broadest part. Ewe mutton is paler than wether mutton, is of a finer texture and of less value; ram mutton is strong flavoured, high coloured, and its fat is spungy.

The mutton of the small Welch sheep, which are driven up, and fatted on Banstead Heath, and the mutton bred and fed on the South Downs, in Sussex, are the most esteemed in London. At Bath, the short-shanked Dorsetshire, and the Lansdown mutton are most in request; in Yorkshire and the nothern counties, the Moor mutton; and in Norfolk and Suffolk the long-shanked is most approved; but the sheep bred in the Fens and deep lands of Lincolnshire, and that neighbourhood, are large, coarsegrained, and ill-flavoured.-Mutton tastes strong of the coat in May and June, or just before shearing,

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A Chine is the two loins together; and a Saddle is the two necks together.

LAMB.

Instructions for choosing it.

Lamb, like veal, is fresh when the eyes are full and bright, and the vein in the neck is of a fine blue colour; but if it be green or yellow, or if there be a faint smell about the kidney, it is stale. The earliest house-lamb, in London, is from the Dorsetshire ewes, which are sold in great numbers at Weyhill-Fair, on the 10th of October, whence they are driven towards London, quite forward, frequently dropping their lambs on the road. This comes in at or before Christmas, and is generally cut into quarters. Grass-lamb comes into season about Easter, and when large and plentiful is cut up in joints, like mutton.

PORK.

Directions for choosing it.

The rind of all pork should be thin, and if young

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