The best roasting-piece is the sirloin; then the first three ribs—if kept till they are quite tender, and boned, they are nearly equal to the sirloin, and better for a family dinner.
The round is used for alamode beef, and is the best piece for corning.
The best beef steak is cut from the inner part of the sirloin. Good steak may be cut from the ribs.
If you wish to practise economy, buy the chuck, or piece between the shoulder and the neck; it makes a good roast or steak, and is excellent for stewing or baking. The thick part of the flank is also a profitable piece; good to bake or boil, or even roast.
The leg and shin of beef make the best soup—the heart is profitable meat, and good broiled or roasted. The leg rand is used for mince pies—it needs to be boiled till it is very tender. The tongue, when fresh, is a rich part for mince pies. If eaten by itself, it should be pickled and smoked.
1335.—Of Pork as Food.—Pork, that is fed from the dairy, and fattened on corn, is the best—potatoes do very well for part of the feeding. But pork fattened from the still-house is all but poisonous; it should never be eaten by those who wish to preserve their health.
The offals, &c., with which pork in the vicinity of a city is fattened, make it unsavory and unwholesome. Such stuff should be used for manure, and never given as food to animals, whose flesh is to be eaten by man.
When pork is good, the flesh looks very white and smooth, and the fat white and fine. Hogs two years old make the best—older than that, their flesh is apt to be rank. Measly pork is very unwholesome, and never should be eaten. It may be known, as the fat is filled with small kernels.