Beef

Beef, is without doubt, the most valuable kind of meat; it is nutritious, of excellent flavor, and comparatively easy of digestion.

Test For Good Beef

The flesh is firm and fine grained in texture; bright red in color when first cut and upon exposure to air; looks juicy and well-mottled and coated with fat, and the fat is of yellowish color and firm.

The best beef is obtained from the steer of four to six years of age. After killing, the animal should hang for two to three weeks.

Veal

The flesh of the calf is difficult of digestion and should only be used in the sick room for making broth. It should never be eaten by those of weak digestion. It contains less albuminous substances, and more gelatin than beef.

Test For Good Veal

It should be of a pinkish color, with clear, firm, white fat, fine grained and tender. The cut most used for broth and soup is the lower part of the leg known as the knuckle.

Mutton

Next to beef, mutton is considered the most nutritious of meats, and by some considered as easily digested; but it is known that fat of mutton, which consists largely of stearin, is not as easily digested.

The best quality of mutton comes from a sheep from three to five years old; after killing it should be allowed to hang to ripen and to develop the flavor.

Test For Good Mutton

The flesh is fine grained, bright pink in color, the fat is white, hard and flaky, and the skin comes off easily. The bones of mutton are white and smooth and round at the joints.

Lamb

Lamb of the right age is as nutritious as beef or mutton but the flesh is milder in flavor.

Lamb is sold as "spring lamb" when killed at six weeks to three months old. It is very expensive and comes into the market early in the year - February and March. Lamb is usually killed when a year old, and should be sold immediately after killing; in this respect it differs from beef and mutton, which should hang after killing to ripen and develop the flavor.

Test For Lamb

Lamb can be distinguished from mutton by the pinkish color of the bone, and the serrated joints.

Pork

The flesh of the pig is the most indigestible of all meats on account of the large percentage of fat which it contains, consequently it is not used in cookery for the sick, except sometimes a small amount of ham, salt pork or bacon, as the salty taste occasionally acts as a stimulant to the lost appetite of the convalescent. Ham and bacon are more easily digested than other cuts of pork, and when thin strips of bacon are cooked crisp they are easily digested. Bacon is from the flank of pork and is salted and smoked. Next to butter and cream, bacon fat is the most easily assimilated of ordinary food fats.