“By buying meat in large quantities, beef by the quarter, mutton by the half sheep; my family is too small to make such a way of buying wise, but you have several mouths to feed, and none would go to waste.”
Mrs. Lennox looked dubious and said:
“I used to think about it. Mr. Lennox suggested he should buy a quarter of beef, as he knew some one who did so all through the winter and found it profitable, but a lady who had also tried the plan told me there was no profit in it, for there was so much waste,—so much coarse meat that she could make no use of.”
“In that case there would be no real economy, but there need be no waste, and should be none, and no one need eat coarse food. I mean, properly prepared no part of beef need be coarse; if a piece of brisket or flank were served up as a roast, or the leg broiled, that would indeed be coarse; but each cooked in its appropriate way, they would be far from being so.”
“But the fat,—there is so much of it!”
“But what more useful than beef fat, or more wholesome? It is next to butter, I think.”
“That is true; but my friend, I know, could not use it, and said she was so thankful to see the last of that beef.”
“The only objection usually urged against it, and I think a very reasonable one, is that the family must eat beef or mutton, whichever is in the house, constantly till it is gone; but I do not see even that necessity, for in cold weather the meat will keep so well that some change can be had, and then in winter, even for my small use, I would not fear to buy half a sheep; I could make it keep a month, unless the weather broke; then I would manage to preserve it; but if I had mutton and you had beef, we could certainly change sometimes; though half a sheep used during a month would not necessitate monotony, for one could have many things between.”
“What would you do with mutton fat?”
“That, I grant, is not so available; but there is less of it, and I should try it out and make soup. The actual saving is considerable, especially in mutton. It is rare to get chops under twenty cents a pound; leg fourteen, if you buy them separately, which is the frequent way, while the half sheep can be bought in Washington Market for ten or eleven cents a pound; the latter is an outside price (a butcher would buy for less) for prime mutton, while beef hind quarter would be for buyers like ourselves thirteen or fourteen cents a pound, unless there is some temporary rise in the market, when of course one need not buy; but that is the average price in New York.”