Good veal is slightly reddish or pink, and the fat should be white and clear. Avoid veal without fat, as such is apt to be too young to be wholesome.
Good mutton should be firm and compact, the flesh, fine-grained and bright-red, with an accumulation of very hard and clear white fat along the borders of the muscles.
Meat should not be kept until decomposition sets in, as by the putrefaction of the albuminous elements certain organic poisons are generated, and flesh partaken of in this condition is liable to result in serious illness. Meat containing white specks is probably infested by parasites and should not be used as food.
Preservation of Meat.—The tendency of flesh foods to rapid decomposition has led to the use of various antiseptic agents and other methods for its preservation.
One of the most common methods is that of immersion in a brine made of a solution of common salt to which a small portion of saltpeter has been added. This abstracts the juice from the meat and also lessens the tendency to putrefaction. Salt is used in various other ways for preserving meat. It should be remarked, however, that cured and dried meats are much more difficult to digest than fresh meat, and the nature of the meat itself is so changed by the process as to render its nutritive value much less.
Meat is sometimes packed in salt and afterward dried, either in the sun or in a current of dry air. Both salting and smoking are sometimes employed. By these means the juices are abstracted by the salt, and at the same time the flesh is contracted and hardened by the action of creosote and pyroligneous acid from the smoke.
What is termed "jerked" beef is prepared by drying in a current of warm air at about 140°. This dried meat, when reduced to a powder and packed in air-tight cans, may be preserved for a long time. When mixed with fat, it forms the pemmican used by explorers in Arctic voyages.
Meat is also preserved by cooking and inclosing in air-tight cans after the manner of canning fruit. This process is varied in a number of ways.
The application of cold has great influence in retarding decomposition, and refrigeration and freezing are often employed for the preservation of flesh foods.