Manual of military cooking / prepared at the Army School of Cookery.

Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Manual of military cooking / prepared at the Army School of Cookery. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    white, the flesh is dark and coarse, the pelvic cavity is wide and distended, and the udder is brown, spongy and pendulous. In mutton, the same characteristics obtain to a rather more modified extent. Quality—Beef.—A carcase should be healthy and well-fed, and should externally have a well rounded, well-filled appearance. There should be waves of fat on the chest cavity, and plenty of fat on the pelvic cavity and kidneys ; the lean, when freshly cut, should be soft and silky to the touch, full of juice, bright cherry-red in colour and well marbled with fat. The fat itself should be moderately abundant, and usually of a pale straw colour. The internal organs should be sound and fi'ee from disease, and there should be no signs of tuberculous growth or adhesion in the chest and abdominal cavities. Mutton.—A carcase of mutton should be well-fed and healthy, and should be mackerel backed —i.e., should have alternate red and white bars over the loins. The fat should be fairly abundant, firm and white. The flesh should present the same general characteristics as that of beef, except that the marbling of fat is seldom present. Sweetness.—To decide whether meat is sweet or tainted, the senses of taste and smell must be employed. Fresh meat is slightly acid to the taste, while stale meat is distinctly alkaline. If there is any doubt, the meat should be probed at its thickest portion, with a clean, woode^i skewer, well thrust in, if possible close to a bone, and the skewer quickly withdrawn and smelt. In beef, the best place to probe a fore and hind quarter is at the chuck rib and pelvic bone respectively, while a caixase of mutton should be cut down between the hind legs, separating the two portions of the pelvic bone. Br easing.—The method of dressing beef and mutton under the terms of contract has already been alluded to—some of the commoner endeavours to infringe these terms may, however, be hei'e mentioned. Short forequarters,—i.e. those containing only seven ribs, should not be accepted, except in the case of imported meat. Stripped forequarters—i.e. those in which any portion of the lining of the chest cavity has been removed, should not be accepted. If the pizzle, cod fat, erector muscle, udder or crest, has been tampered with, the quarter or carcase concerned should be rejected. Special characteristics of frozen meat.—The meat is cold to the touch, and particles of ice may be seen on cutting into it with a saw. Its colour is not so bright as that of home-killed meat. When still frozen, the carcase has, externally, a white appearance, the fat is also white, distinct from the lean, and rather crumbly. There are generally signs of rough handling, and the outside is dirty and untidy. , j j When thawed, the meat looks sodden, the fat is discoloured, and the exterior of the carcase sweats considerably. In carcases of frozen mutton, the forelegs are invariably bent towards the body, and as much of the pizzle as can be cut away from the outside, is removed. The conditions of contract as regards dressing do not apply to frozen meat.