Meats
In regard to meat more than any other food, it pays the housewife to do her own marketing. A study of the cuts laid out on a butcher's stall often reveals something good and cheap, which would not have been thought of if one were giving her orders to a clerk or over the telephone. During the past ten years meat has risen so steadily in price that roasts, chops, and steaks, on which the average housekeeper was wont to rely, make a food bill appallingly high.
But there are other pieces which produce very savory dishes by careful cooking.
The good marketer ought, first of all, to know at a glance not only the various cuts but the appearance of good, wholesome meat. When first killed, a side of beef is reddish purple, but it changes fast to a brightred tint, while the fat is a creamywhite color, not in chunks by itself but threaded, as it were, through the red. It ought to have a fresh, juicy appearance that tells it has hung long enough to become well ripened and fit for human food.
Before beginning to consider cuts of meat, their price, their tenderness or toughness, try to imagine the animal on its feet wandering about a grassy field in search of food. Like every other creature, it has a wonderful network of muscles. Some of these muscles work overtime, others get little usage. Therefore we find the tenderest portions where the body has had little exercise-the flesh on top of the back, that long strip we call the tenderloin lying alongside of the spine, the porterhouse, the seven prime ribs, as a butcher calls the thick sirloin, all cuts which are best adapted for broiling or roasting.
Near the neck are the chuck ribs and shoulder, besides the tail and rump; then we come down to the round and the leg, portions of all creatures that abound in muscle. Where sinews are abundant and the flesh has a coarsegrained appearance, different methods of cooking must be resorted to; if it were broiled or roasted, it would be almost impossible to chew.
It should be subjected to slow cooking, such as braising, pot roasting, or simmering just below the boiling point or to the moderate heat of a casserole.
The nearer one approaches the hoof of the animal, the better is the meat adapted for soup making. The tendons of the shin are rich in gelatin, and when dissolved by long, slow cooking, give flavor and consistency to a soup.
Beginning at the hoof of a creature, there is a piece which makes excellent soup. As we go farther up the loin, the meat begins to be of better flavor and the bone contains finer marrow. Then comes the round; from the top of it can be cut a really good steak. With a slight amount of pounding and marinating, it can be made almost as tender as a more expensive cut. By marinating is meant laying it in a mixture of oil and vinegar in the coldest corner of the refrigerator.
Next comes the rump, from which stews and roasts are cut. Then the sirloin, which contains the best steaks and roasts. From this portion is cut the tenderloin, a fine strip of tender meat that lies inside the bone.
This bit of the creature does not receive the slightest exercise. It is a MEATS delicate morsel, which sells from fifty to eighty cents a pound, according to the demand for it. I have bought it in country places as cheap as twenty-five cents a pound, while in New York it often brings ninety cents. Although deliciously tender, it does not possess the flavor and nourishment of a cheaper piece of steak.