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 qualities 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.
The Joints of Beef, according to the London method of cutting.
| The Hind Quarter. | The Fore Quarter. |
| 1 Sirloin | 11 Middle-ribs |
| 2 Rump | 12 Chuck-ribs |
| 3 Edge-bone | 13 Leg-of-mutton-piece |
| 4 Buttock | 14 Brisket or Breast-cut |
| 5 Mouse-buttock | 15 Clod |
| 6 Veiny-piece | 16 Neck or sticking-piece |
| 7 Thick-flank | 17 Shin |
| 8 Thin-flank | 18 Cheek |
| 9 Leg | A Baron of beef is the |
| 10 Fore-ribs | two sirloins cut together. |