GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CALF.
845. ANY REMARKS MADE ON THE CALF OR THE LAMB must naturally be in a
measure supplementary to the more copious observations made on the
parent stock of either. As the calf, at least as far as it is identified
with veal, is destined to die young,--to be, indeed, cut off in its
comparative infancy,--it may, at first sight, appear of little or no
consequence to inquire to what particular variety, or breed of the
general stock, his sire or dam may belong. The great art, however, in
the modern science of husbandry has been to obtain an animal that shall
not only have the utmost beauty of form of which the species is capable,
but, at the same time, a constitution free from all taint, a frame that
shall rapidly attain bulk and stature, and a disposition so kindly that
every _quantum_ of food it takes shall, without drawback or
procrastination, be eliminated into fat and muscle. The breed, then, is
of very considerable consequence in determining, not only the quality of
the meat to the consumer, but its commercial value to the breeder and
butcher.
846. UNDER THE ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM adopted in the rearing of domestic
cattle, and stock in general, to gratify the arbitrary mandates of
luxury and fashion, we can have veal, like lamb, at all seasons in the
market, though the usual time in the metropolis for veal to make its
appearance is about the beginning of February.
847. THE COW GOES WITH YOUNG FOR NINE MONTHS, and the affection and
solicitude she evinces for her offspring is more human in its tenderness
mid intensity than is displayed by any other animal; and her distress
when she hears its bleating, and is not allowed to reach it with her
distended udders, is often painful to witness, and when the calf has
died, or been accidentally killed, her grief frequently makes her refuse
to give down her milk. At such times, the breeder has adopted the
expedient of flaying the dead carcase, and, distending the skin with
hay, lays the effigy before her, and then taking advantage of her
solicitude, milks her while she is caressing the skin with her tongue.
848. IN A STATE OF NATURE, the cow, like the deer, hides her young in
the tall ferns and brakes, and the most secret places; and only at
stated times, twice or thrice a day, quits the herd, and, hastening to
the secret cover, gives suck to her calf, and with the same,
circumspection returns to the community.
849. IN SOME COUNTRIES, to please the epicurean taste of vitiated
appetites, it is the custom to kill the calf for food almost immediately
after birth, and any accident that forestalls that event, is considered
to enhance its value. We are happy to say, however, that in this
country, as far as England and Scotland are concerned, the taste for
very young veal has entirely gone out, and "Staggering Bob," as the poor
little animal was called in the language of the shambles, is no longer
to be met with in such a place.
850. THE WEANING OF CALVES is a process that requires a great amount of
care and judgment; for though they are in reality not weaned till
between the eighth and the twelfth week, the process of rearing them by
hand commences in fact from the birth, the calf never being allowed to
suck its dam. As the rearing of calves for the market is a very
important and lucrative business, the breeder generally arranges his
stock so that ten or a dozen of his cows shall calve about the same
time; and then, by setting aside one or two, to find food for the entire
family, gets the remaining eight or ten with their full fountains of
milk, to carry on the operations of his dairy. Some people have an idea
that skimmed milk, if given in sufficient quantity, is good enough for
the weaning period of calf-feeding; but this is a very serious mistake,
for the cream, of which it has been deprived, contained nearly all the
oleaginous principles, and the azote or nitrogen, on which the vivifying
properties of that fluid depends. Indeed, so remarkably correct has this
fact proved to be, that a calf reared on one part of new milk mixed with
five of water, will thrive and look well; while another, treated with
unlimited skimmed milk, will be poor, thin, and miserable.
851. IT IS SOMETIMES A MATTER OF CONSIDERABLE TROUBLE to induce the
blundering calf--whose instinct only teaches him to suck, and that he
will do at anything and with anything--acquire the knowledge of
imbibition, that for the first few days it is often necessary to fill a
bottle with milk, and, opening his mouth, pour the contents down his
throat. The manner, however, by which he is finally educated into the
mystery of suction, is by putting his allowance of milk into a large
wooden bowl; the nurse then puts her hand into the milk, and, by bending
her fingers upwards, makes a rude teat for the calf to grasp in his
lips, when the vacuum caused by his suction of the fingers, causes the
milk to rise along them into his mouth. In this manner one by one the
whole family are to be fed three times a day; care being taken, that
new-born calves are not, at first, fed on milk from a cow who has some
days calved.
852. AS THE CALF PROGRESSES TOWARDS HIS TENTH WEEK, his diet requires to
be increased in quantity and quality; for these objects, his milk can be
thickened with flour or meal, and small pieces of softened oil-cake are
to be slipped into his mouth after sucking, that they may dissolve
there, till he grows familiar with, and to like the taste, when it may
be softened and scraped down into his milk-and-water. After a time,
sliced turnips softened by steam are to be given to him in tolerable
quantities; then succulent grasses; and finally, hay may be added to the
others. Some farmers, desirous of rendering their calves fat for the
butcher in as short a time as possible, forget both the natural weakness
of the digestive powers, and the contracted volume of the stomach, and
allow the animals either to suck _ad libitum_, or give them, if brought
up at the pail or by hand, a larger quantity of milk than they can
digest. The idea of overloading the stomach never suggests itself to
their minds. They suppose that the more food the young creature
consumes, the sooner it will be fat, and they allow it no exercise
whatever, for fear it should denude its very bones of their flesh. Under
such circumstances, the stomach soon becomes deranged; its functions are
no longer capable of acting; the milk, subjected to the acid of the
stomach, coagulates, and forms a hardened mass of curd, when the muscles
become affected with spasms, and death frequently ensues.
853. THERE WAS NO SPECIES OF SLAUGHTERING practised in this country so
inhuman and disgraceful as that, till very lately, employed in killing
this poor animal; when, under the plea of making the flesh _white_, the
calf was bled day by day, till, when the final hour came, the animal was
unable to stand. This inhumanity is, we believe, now everywhere
abolished, and the calf is at once killed, and with the least amount of
pain; a sharp-pointed knife is run through the neck, severing all the
large veins and arteries up to the vertebrae. The skin is then taken off
to the knee, which is disjointed, and to the head, which is removed; it
is then reflected backwards, and the carcase having been opened and
dressed, is kept apart by stretchers, and the thin membrane, the caul,
extended over the organs left in the carcase, as the kidneys and
sweet-bread; some melted fat is then scattered suddenly over the whole
interior, giving that white and frosted appearance to the meat, that is
thought to add to its beauty; the whole is then hung up to cool and
harden.
854. THE MANNER OF CUTTING UP VEAL for the English market is to divide
the carcase into four quarters, with eleven ribs to each fore quarter;
which are again subdivided into joints as exemplified on the cut.
[Illustration: SIDE OF A CALF, SHOWING THE SEVERAL JOINTS.]
_Hind quarter_:--
1. The loin.
2. The chump, consisting of the rump
and hock-bone.
3. The fillet.
4. The hock, or hind knuckle.
_Fore quarter_:--
5. The shoulder.
6. The neck.
7. The breast.
8. The fore knuckle.
855. THE SEVERAL PARTS OF A MODERATELY-SIZED WELL-FED CALF, about eight
weeks old, are nearly of the following weights:--loin and chump 18 lbs.,
fillet 12-1/2 lbs., hind knuckle 5-1/2 lbs., shoulder 11 lbs, neck 11
lbs., breast 9 lbs., and fore knuckle 5 lbs.; making a total of 144 lbs.
weight. The London mode of cutting the carcase is considered better than
that pursued in Edinburgh, as giving three roasting joints, and one
boiling, in each quarter; besides the pieces being more equally divided,
as regards flesh, and from the handsomer appearance they make on the
table.
RECIPES.