Now this includes, besides the thick, fleshy portions, a
quantity of bone, sinew, and thin fibrous substance, constituting full
one third of the whole weight. If we put it into the oven entire, in
the usual manner, we have the thin parts over-done, and the skinny
and fibrous parts utterly dried up, by the application of the amount
of heat necessary to cook the thick portion. Supposing the joint to
weigh six pounds, at thirty cents, and that one third of the weight
is so treated as to become perfectly useless, we throw away sixty
cents. Of a piece of beef at twenty-five cents a pound, fifty cents'
worth is often lost in bone, fat, and burnt skin.
The fact is, this way of selling and cooking meat in large,
gross portions is of English origin, and belongs to a country where all
the customs of society spring from a class who have no particular
occasion for economy. The practice of minute and delicate division
comes from a nation which acknowledges the need of economy, and has
made it a study. A quarter of lamb in this mode of division would be
sold in three nicely prepared portions. The thick part would be sold
by itself, for a neat, compact little roast; the rib-bones would be
artistically separated, and all the edible matter would form those
delicate dishes of lamb-chop, which, fried in bread-crumbs to a golden
brown, are so ornamental and palatable a side-dish; the trimmings which
remain after this division would be destined to the soup-kettle or
stew-pan.
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