_Meat and Fish._
The Butcher has his arts and sophistications. To make meat weigh
as heavy as possible he checks the full bleeding of the victim of
his knife, and to make it appear plump and white and glistening,
particularly joints of veal and lamb, he inflates the cellular
membrane, by blowing into it with all his might, the breath respired
from his lungs: by means of which practice, should he be infected with
any loathsome disease, his customers stand a very good chance of being
inoculated with “the blessing.” The distension of the cellular membrane
is the sign of meat having received the benefit of this operation.
Among other deceits in use among the “knights of the cleaver” is,
the doctoring of joints of animals which have died of disease, by
the skilful introduction of slips of fat into different parts of the
joint, so as to give it the appearance of meat which had been killed
in a healthy state. A recent occurrence at Guildhall has proved this
practice in all its enormity, and shown that it is carried on to no
trifling extent. From the same transaction it came out in evidence
that the art is sufficiently extensive to employ a certain part of the
“butchering craft” in its distinct mysteries. Probably by “professors
of the knife and cleaver” it is considered as the _ne plus ultra_ of
butcher-skill, and has its appropriate honours and rewards. But this is
known only to the initiated in the “_profession_.”
While discoursing of this feat of butcher-ingenuity, it seems not
misplaced to observe that the sausages in London are often made out
of the carcases of animals that have died. This fact, also, was
brought to Mr. Bull’s knowledge, in the course of the evidence in the
before-mentioned case. And I can assure my readers, that even when they
are not favoured with sausages made of this savoury food, they do not
often get meat in sausages better than carrion; and that more than one
half of all sausage-meat consists of bone, gristle, and bread, reduced
to almost an impalpable powder by means of the machine, and then worked
up with a due modicum of water. Nor is this the least part of the evil.
From accidental causes and the frauds of the vender, they are often
poisonous. Dr. Paris has well observed, in his useful work on diet,
that the viscera and intestines of animals, and also their livers, are
often poisonous, while the meat of the animal is perfectly wholesome.
This proves, as that gentleman well observes, that sausages are not
deserving of that general use in which they are held in London: for
the integument which encloses the sausage is often highly injurious to
health, while the meat possesses no deleterious quality whatever. The
poisonous nature of sausages arising from fraud is partly occasioned by
the carelessness of the manufacturer in regard of the vessels in which
he keeps his meat, but more generally from the quality of the meat
which he uses. Some years ago a German chemist discovered, on analysing
German sausages, that they contained a portion of prussic acid (the
most potent poison known); from the eating of which several persons
died. Could the exact cause have been ascertained, it would probably
have been found that they were made from the meat of dead animals.
The goodness of meat depends much on the season of the year. Thus the
flesh of most full grown quadrupeds is in the highest season during the
first months of winter. Beef and mutton are in the greatest perfection
in the months of November, December, and January. Pork is only good in
winter; during the summer months it is not wholesome. Venison is in the
highest season from the middle of June to the beginning of September.
Lamb and veal during the summer months.
The distinguishing sign of young and old meat is, that in the latter
the fat is chiefly collected in masses, or layers external to the
muscles; while in the former it is more interspersed among the muscular
fibres, giving the flesh a marbled appearance.
The quality of animal food is also considerably influenced by the sex;
that of the female (which sooner attains perfection) being always more
delicate and finer grained than that of the male, whose fibres and
flavour are stronger and more rank. But this rule prevails only during
the early age of the female; for, as it grows older, it gets tougher,
instead of mellowing by age as the male does.
Over fat meat should not be chosen; as sheep in the first stage of the
rot, or about four weeks after becoming tainted, feed inordinately, and
are much disposed to fatten; which propensity graziers and butchers
omit no opportunity to promote, in order to increase their profits.
Excessive fatness is, therefore, no bad sign for judging of the
unwholesomeness, or rather rottenness of mutton, as it is generally
produced artificially.
Meat that has been over driven, and killed, as the butchers term it,
_on the drift_, should be always rejected as unwholesome; besides,
it weighs heavier than if the animal had been killed while its blood
was in a healthy state; for, by the over-driving the blood has been
so diffused in the cellular membrane, that it cannot be drawn off by
bleeding; and the meat is heavier to the benefit of the butcher, but to
the loss of the consumer. The florid colour of meat is a sign of the
blood not having been properly drawn away.
The whiteness of the flesh of lamb and veal is often produced by
feeding the animal with milk in which chalk is mingled, or by tying
it up in a stall with a piece of chalk covered with salt constantly
before it to lick. Sometimes calves are suspended by their hind legs
with the head downwards for hours together, and then bled to death
slowly, for the purpose of whitening the flesh. And, among the other
complicated and lengthened acts of cruelty, to which avarice resorts
to extract the largest possible price from the sufferings of a poor
harmless creature, is the tying of calves together by the hind legs,
and suffering them to remain suspended across the back of a horse, with
their heads downwards, for hours together, in their way from market; a
practice adopted by butchers for the purpose of rendering the meat of
the body as white as possible.
Nor are fishmongers less crafty and dishonest than the other dealers
in the necessaries of life. Sea-fish, particularly cod, haddock,
and whiting, are subject to the operation of inflating the cellular
membrane, in order to make them look plump, and increase the bulk of
the fish. The imposition is detected by pressing each side of the
orifice at the belly of the fish between the thumb and finger, when the
air will be perceived to escape.
The signs that fish are fresh are the firmness or stiffness of the
fish, the redness of its gills, and the brightness of the eyes.
Whiteness of muscle and the absence of oiliness and viscidity are also
signs of wholesomeness of this species of food. Flakiness and opaque
appearance, with a layer of white curdy matter interspersed between the
flakes, after the fish has been cooked, are signs of the goodness of
turbot, cod, whiting, haddock, flounder, and sole.
The gills should also smell sweet, the fins be tight up, and the eyes
not sunk. The reverse of any of these signs shows that it is stale.
Thickness of flesh generally shows the good condition of fish.
Fish out of season, that is after spawning, are unwholesome; and for
this reason the legislature has found it necessary to fix the periods
at which the fishing of salmon and the dredging of oysters shall be
lawful.