Pork.—This meat when fresh has a fat that is solid and pure white; if yellow and soft it should be rejected; the lean is pink and the skin like white translucent parchment.
Poultry.—Good poultry is firm to the touch, pink or yellowish in color, is fairly plump, and has a strong skin showing an unbroken surface. It has a fresh odor.
Stale poultry is flabby and shows a bluish color; it becomes green over the crop and abdomen, and the skin is already broken or easily pulled apart in handling. The odor of such a bird is disagreeable and may even be putrid.
Fish.—With the exception of the salted or preserved varieties fish should always be perfectly fresh when eaten. Probably no other article of food is more dangerous to health than fish when it shows even the slightest traces of decomposition. The ability to recognize the earliest signs of staleness is of the utmost importance. Fish deteriorate rapidly and should always be carefully inspected before purchasing.
Fresh fish are firm to the touch, the scales moist and bright, the gills red, and the eyes clear and slightly prominent. When held flat in the hand the fish should remain rigid and the head and tail droop slightly, if at all.
Stale fish are soft and flabby, the skin is dull and the eyes sunken and often covered with a film. The tendency of the head and tail to droop is marked and the fish has a characteristic disagreeable odor. This odor of decomposition is best detected in the gills.
Lobsters and Crabs.—These shellfish should always be alive when purchased. This condition is easily demonstrated by their movements, and the rule should never be disregarded.
Oysters and Clams.—Oysters should not be eaten during the months of May, June, July, and August; these are their breeding months and they are unwholesome during that period. That oysters sometimes contain the germs of typhoid fever is an assured fact; these germs are acquired not from the natural habitat of the oyster in salt water but from the fresh-water, so-called "fattening beds," where the oysters are placed for a season to remove the brackish and salty taste of the sea and to render them more plump. These beds are frequently subject to pollution, and the housekeeper should only purchase oysters from reliable dealers where the purity of the source of the supply is unquestioned.
Clams are in season and may be eaten throughout the year.
All shellfish when fresh have an agreeable fresh odor. The shells should be firmly closed or should close when immersed in water and touched with the finger. If they have been removed from their shells when purchased, the flesh of the fish itself should be firm, clean in appearance and not covered with slime or scum; the odor should be fresh. The odor of dead or decomposed oysters and clams is pungent and disagreeable.