Part 14
After the carcass has hung for twenty-four hours, it should be cut down by the back-bone, or chine, into two _sides_. This is done either with the saw, or chopper; the saw making the neatest job in the hands of an inexperienced butcher, though it is the most laborious; and with the chopper is the quickest, but by no means the neatest plan, especially in the hands of a careless workman. In London, the chine is equally divided between both sides; while in Scotland, one side of a carcass of beef has a great deal more bone than the other, all the spinous processes of the vertebræ being left upon it. The bony is called the _lying_ side of the meat. In London, the divided processes in the fore-quarters are broken in the middle when warm, and chopped back with the flat side of the chopper, which has the effect of thickening the fore and middle ribs considerably when cut up. The London butcher also cuts the joints above the hind knee, and, by making some incisions with a sharp knife, cuts the tendons there, and drops the flesh of the hind-quarter on the flank and loins, which causes it to cut up thicker than in the Scotch mode. In opening the hind-quarter he also cuts the aitch bone, or pelvis through the centre, which makes the rump look better. Some butchers in the north of England score the fat of the _closing_ of the hind-quarter, which has the effect of making that part of both heifer and ox look like the udder of an old cow. There is far too much of this scoring practised in Scotland, which prevents the pieces from retaining--which they should, as nearly as possible--their natural appearance.
In cutting up a carcass of beef the London butcher displays great expertness; he not only discriminates between the qualities of its different parts, but can cut out any piece to gratify the taste of his customers. In this way he makes the best use of the carcass and realizes the largest value for it, while he gratifies the taste of every grade of customers. A figure of the Scotch and English modes of cutting up a carcass of beef will at once show the difference; and upon being informed where the valuable pieces lie, an opinion can be formed as to whether the oxen the farmer is breeding or feeding possess the properties which will enable him to demand the highest price for them.
[Illustration: SCOTCH MODE OF CUTTING UP BEEF.]
The sirloin is the principal roasting-piece, making a very handsome dish, and is a universal favorite. It consists of two portions, the Scotch and English sides; the former is above the lumbar bones, and is somewhat hard in ill-fed cattle; the latter consists of the muscles under these bones, which are generally covered with fine fat, and are exceedingly tender. The better the beast is fed, the larger is the under muscle, better covered with fat, and more tender to eat. The hook-bone and the buttock are cut up for steaks, beefsteak pie, or minced collops, and both these, together with the sirloin, bring the highest price. The large round and the small round are both well known as excellent pieces for salting and boiling, and are eaten cold with great relish. The hough is peculiarly suited for boiling down for soup, having a large proportion of gelatinous matter. Brown soup is the principal dish made of the hough, but its decoction forms an excellent _stock_ for various dishes, and will keep in a state of jelly for a considerable time. The thick and the thin flank are both admirable pieces for salting and boiling. The tail, insignificant as it may seem, makes a soup of a very fine flavor. Hotel-keepers have a trick of seasoning brown soup or rather beef-tea, with a few joints of tail, and passing it off for genuine ox-tail soup. These are all the pieces which constitute the hind-quarter; and it will be seen that they are valuable both for roasting and boiling, not containing a single coarse piece.
In the fore-quarter, is the spare rib, the six ribs of the back end of which make an excellent roast, and when taken from the side opposite to the _lying_ one, being free of the bones of the spine, it makes a large one; and it also makes excellent beefsteaks and beefsteak pie. The two runners and the nineholes make salting and boiling pieces; but, of these, the nineholes is much the best, as it consists of layers of fat and lean without any bone; whereas the fore parts of the runners have a piece of shoulder-blade in them, and every piece connected with that bone is more or less coarse-grained. The brisket eats very well boiled fresh in broth, and may be cooked and eaten with boiled greens or carrots. The shoulder-lyar is a coarse piece, and fit only for boiling fresh to make into broth or beef-tea. The nap, or shin, is analogous to the hough of the hind-leg, but not so rich and fine, there being much less gelatinous matter in it. The neck makes good broth; and the sticking-piece is a great favorite with some epicures, on account of the pieces of rich fat in it. It makes an excellent stew, as also sweet barley-broth, and the meat eats well when boiled in it.
These are all the pieces of the fore-quarter; and it will be seen that they consist chiefly of boiling-pieces, and some of them none of the finest--the roasting-piece being confined to the six ribs of the spare rib, and the finest boiling-piece, corned, only to be found in the nineholes.
[Illustration: ENGLISH MODE OF CUTTING UP BEEF.]
The loin is the principal roasting-piece; the rump is the favorite steak-piece; the aitch-bone, the favorite stew; the buttock, the thick flank, and the thin flank are all excellent boiling-pieces when corned; the hock and the shin make soup and afford stock for the various requirements of the culinary art; and the tail furnishes ox-tail soup--a favorite English luncheon. These are all the pieces of the hind-quarter, and they are valuable of their respective kinds.
In the fore-quarter, the fore-rib, middle-rib, and chuckle-rib are all roasting-pieces, not alike good; but in removing the part of the shoulder-blade in the middle-rib, the spare-ribs below make a good broil or roast; the neck makes soup, being used fresh, boiled; the back end of the brisket is boiled, corned, or stewed; the leg-of-mutton piece is coarse, but is as frequently stewed as boiled; the shin is put to the same use as the shin and hock of the hind-quarter.
On comparing the two modes of cutting-up, it will be observed that in the English there are more roasting-pieces than in the Scotch, a large proportion of the fore-quarter being used in that way. The plan, too, of cutting the loin between the rump and aitch-bone in the hind-quarter, lays open the steak-pieces to better advantage than in the Scotch bullock. Extending the comparison from one part of the carcass to the other, in both methods, it will be seen that the most valuable pieces--the roasting--occupy its upper, and the less valuable--the boiling--its lower part. Every beast, therefore, that lays on beef more upon the upper part of its body is more valuable than one that lays the same quantity of flesh on its lower parts.
It is deemed unnecessary to enter into details as to the modes of cutting-up most in vogue in this country, as there is a needlessly great want of uniformity.
Of the qualities of beef obtained from the different breeds of cattle in England, there is no better meat than from the West Highlanders for fineness of grain and cutting up into convenient pieces for family use. The Galloways and Angus, when fattened in English pastures, are great favorites in the London market. The Short Horns afford excellent steaks, being thick of flesh, and the slice deep, large and juicy, and their covered flanks and nineholes are always thick, juicy, and well-mixed. The Herefords are somewhat similar to the Short Horns, and the Devons, may, perhaps, be classed among the Galloways and Angus, while the Welsh cannot be compared to the West Highlanders. Taking, then, the breeds of Scotland as suppliers of good beef, they seem to be more valuable for the table than those of England.
There are, perhaps, not sufficient data in existence to determine the true proportion of offal of all kinds to the beef of any given fat ox; but approximations have been made, which may serve the purpose until the matter is investigated by direct experiment, under various circumstances. The dead weight bears to the live weight a ratio varying between .571 and .605 to 1; and on applying one or the other multiplier to the cases of the live weight, a pretty correct approximation is reached. The tallow is supposed to be eight one-hundredths of the live weight; so that the multiplier is the decimal .08. The hide is supposed to be five one-hundredths of the live weight; so to obtain its weight, a multiplier, .05, is used. The other offals are supposed to be in a proportion of about one-fourth of the live weight; so that the multiplier, .28, is as near as can be proposed under existing experience.
Beef is the staple animal food of this country, and it is used in various states--fresh, salted, smoked, roasted, and boiled. When intended to be eaten fresh, the _ribs_ will keep the best, and with care will keep five or six days in summer, and in winter ten days. The middle of the _loin_ is the next best, and the _rump_ the next. The _round_ will not keep long, unless it is salted. The _brisket_ is the worst, and will not keep more than three days in summer, and in winter a week.
In regard to the power of the stomach to digest beef, that which is eaten boiled with salt only, is digested in two hours and forty-five minutes. Beef, fresh, lean, and rarely-roasted, and a beefsteak broiled, takes three hours to digest; that fresh, and dry-roasted, and boiled, eaten with mustard, is digested in three and a half hours. Lean fresh beef fried, requires four hours, and old hard salted beef boiled, does not digest in less than four and a quarter hours. Fresh beef-suet boiled takes five and a half hours.
The usual mode of preserving beef is by salting; and, when intended to keep for a long time, such as for the use of shipping, it is always salted with brine; but for family use it should be salted only with good salt; for brine dispels the juice of meat, and saltpetre only serves to make the meat dry, and give it a disagreeable and unnatural red color. Various experiments have been made in curing beef with salt otherwise than by hand-rubbing, and in a short space of time, and also to preserve it from putrefaction by other means than salt. Some packers put meat in a copper which is rendered air-tight, and an air-pump then creates a vacuum within it, thereby extracting all the air out of the meat; then brine is pumped in by pressure, which, entering into every pore of the meat formerly occupied by the air, is said to place it in a state of preservation in a few minutes. The carcass of an ox was preserved, in France, for two years from putrefaction by injecting four pounds of saline mixture into the carotid artery. Whether any such contrivance can be made available for family purposes, seems doubtful.
Cattle, when slaughtered, are useful to man in various other ways than by affording food from their flesh,--their offal of tallow, hides, and horns, forming extensive articles of commerce. Of the _hide_, the characteristics of a good one for strong purposes are strength in its middle, or _butt_, as it called, and lightness in the edges, or _offal_. A bad hide is the opposite of this--thick in the edges and thin in the middle. A good hide has a firm texture; a bad one, loose and soft. A hide improves as the summer advances, and it continues to improve after the new coat of hair in autumn until November or December, when the coat gets rough from the coldness of the season, and the hide is then in its best state. It is surprising how a hide improves in thickness after the cold weather has set in. The sort of food does not seem to affect the quality of the hide; but the better it is, and the better cattle have been fed, and the longer they have been well fed, even from a calf, the better the hide. From what has been said of the effect of weather upon the hide, it seems a natural conclusion that a hide is better from an ox that has been fed in the open air, than from one that has been kept in the barn. Dirt adhering to a hide injures it, particularly in stall-fed animals; and any thing that punctures a hide, such as warbles arising from certain insects, is also injurious. The best hides are obtained from the West Highlanders. The Short Horns produce the thinnest hides, the Aberdeenshire the next, and then the Angus. Of the same breed, the ox affords the strongest hide; but, as hides are applied to various uses, the cow's, provided it be large, may be as valuable as that of the ox. The bull's hide is the least valuable. Hides are imported from Russia and South America.
Hides, when deprived of their hair, are converted into _leather_ by an infusion of the astringent property of bark. The old plan of tanning used to occupy a long time; but, such was the value of the process, that the old tanners used to pride themselves upon producing a substantial article--which is more than can be said in many instances under modern improved modes, which hasten the process, much to the injury of the article produced. Strong infusions of bark make leather brittle; one hundred pounds of skin, quickly tanned in a strong infusion, produce one hundred and thirty-seven pounds of leather; while a weak infusion produces only one hundred and seventeen and a half,--the additional nineteen and a half pounds serving only to deteriorate the leather, and causing it to contain much less textile animal solid. Leather thus highly charged with tanning is so spongy as to allow moisture to pass readily through its pores, to the great discomfort and injury of those who wear shoes made of it. The proper mode of tanning lasts a year, or a year and a half, according to the quality of the leather wanted and the nature of the hides. A perfect leather can be recognized by its section, which should have a glistening marbled appearance, without any white streaks in the middle. The hair which is taken off hides in tanning, is employed to mix with plaster, and is often surreptitiously put into hair-mattresses.
The principal substances of which _glue_ is made are the parings of ox and other thick hides, which form the strongest article and the refuse of the leather-dresser. Both afford from forty-five to fifty-five per cent. of glue. The tendons, and many other offals of slaughter-houses, also afford materials, though of an inferior quality, for this purpose. The refuse of tanneries--such as the ears of oxen and calves--are better articles. Animal skins also, in any form, uncombined with tannin, may be worked into glue.
_Ox-tallow_ is of great importance in the arts. Candles and soap are made of it, and it enters largely into the dressing of leather and the use of machinery. Large quantities are annually exported from Russia. Ox-tallow consists of seventy-six parts of stearine and twenty-four of oleine, out of one hundred parts.
The _horns_ of oxen are used for many purposes. The horn consists of two parts: an outward horny case, and an inward conical-shaped substance, somewhat intermediate between indurated hair and bone, called the _fluid_ of the horn. These two parts are separated by means of a blow upon a block of wood. The horny exterior is then cut into three portions by means of a frame saw. The lowest of these, next the root of the horn, after undergoing several processes by which it is rendered flat, is made into combs.
The middle of the horn, after having been flattened by heat, and its transparency improved by oil, is split into thin layers, and forms a substitute for glass in lanterns of the commonest kind. The tip of the horns is used by makers of knife-handles and of the tops of whips, and for other similar purposes. The interior, or core of the horn, is boiled down in water. A large quantity of fat rises to the surface; this is put aside, and sold to the makers of yellow soap. The itself is used as a kind of glue, and is purchased by the cloth-draper for stiffening. The bony substance remaining behind is then sent to the mill, and, after having been ground down, is sold to farmers for manure.
Besides these various purposes to which the different parts of the horn are applied, the clippings which arise in comb-making are sold to the farmer for manure, as well as the shavings which form the refuse of the lantern-makers. Horn, as is well known, is easily rendered soft and pliant in warm water; and by this peculiarity and its property of adhering like glue, large plates of horn can be made by cementing together the edges of small pieces rendered flat by a peculiar process, as a substitute for glass. Imitation of tortoise-shell can be given to horn by means of various metallic solutions. Horn, also, when softened, can be imprinted with any pattern, by means of dies.
[Illustration]
Diseases and their Remedies
Under this head it is proposed to notice such diseases as are most common among cattle, together with their symptoms, and to suggest such treatment of the same as has been found in the practice of the author, in the main, effective. He is aware that much more space might have been appropriated to this head, as has been the case in other treatises of this class; but he doubts the propriety of multiplying words about diseases which are of very rare occurrence, deeming it more fitting to leave such instances exclusively to the intelligent consideration of the reliable veterinary practitioner.
For convenience of reference, the diseases here noticed have been arranged in alphabetical order; the whole concluding with information as to two or three operations which cannot be uninteresting to, or unprofitable for, the reader.
ABORTION.
The cow is, more than any other animal, subject to abortion, or slinking, which takes place at different periods of pregnancy, from half of the usual time to the seventh, or almost to the eighth month. The symptoms of the approach of abortion, unless the breeder is very much among his stock, are not often perceived; or, if perceived, they are concealed by the person in charge, lest he should be accused of neglect or improper treatment.
The cow is somewhat off her feed--rumination ceases--she is listless and dull--the milk diminishes or dries up--the motions of the foetus become more feeble, and at length cease altogether--there is a slight degree of enlargement of the belly--there is a little staggering in her walk--when she is down she lies longer than usual, and when she gets up she stands for a longer time motionless.
As the abortion approaches, a yellow or red glairy fluid runs from the vagina (this is a symptom, which rarely, or never, deceives) her breathing becomes laborious and slightly convulsive. The belly has for several days lost its natural rotundity, and has been evidently falling,--she begins to moan,--the pulse becomes small, wiry, and intermittent. At length labor comes on, and is often attended with much difficulty and danger.
If the abortion has been caused by blows or violence, whether from brutality, or the animal's having been teased by other cows in season, or by oxen, the symptoms are more intense. The animal suddenly ceases to eat and to ruminate--is uneasy, paws the ground, rests her head on the manger while she is standing, and on her flank when she is lying down--hemorrhage frequently comes on from the uterus, or when this is not the case the mouth of that organ is spasmodically contracted. The throes come on, are distressingly violent, and continue until the womb is ruptured. If all these circumstances be not observed, still the labor is protracted and dangerous.
Abortion is sometimes singularly frequent in particular districts, or on particular farms, appearing to assume an epizoötic or epidemic form. This has been accounted for in various ways. Some have imagined it to be contagious. It is, indeed, destructively propagated among the cows, but this is probably to be explained on a different principle from that of contagion. The cow is a considerably imaginative animal, and highly irritable during the period of pregnancy. In abortion, the foetus is often putrid before it is discharged; and the placenta, or after-birth, rarely or never follows it, but becomes decomposed, and, as it drops away in fragments, emits a peculiar and most noisome smell. This smell seems to be peculiarly annoying to the other cows: they sniff at it and then run bellowing about. Some sympathetic influence is exercised on their uterine organs, and in a few days a greater or less number of those that had pastured together likewise abort. Hence arises the rapidity with which the foetus is usually taken away and buried deeply, and far from the cows; and hence the more effectual preventive of smearing the parts of the cow with tar or stinking oils, in order to conceal or subdue the smell; and hence, too, the inefficacy, as a preventive, of removing her to a far-distant pasture.
The pastures on which the blood or inflammatory fever is most prevalent are those on which the cows oftenest slink their calves. Whatever can become a source of general excitation and fever is likely, during pregnancy, to produce inflammation of the womb; or whatever would, under other circumstances, excite inflammation of almost any organ, has at that time its injurious effect determined to this particular one.
Every farmer is aware of the injurious effect of the coarse, rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he regards these districts as the chosen residence of red water; it may be added, that they are also the chosen residence of abortion. Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the foundation of many diseases among cattle, and of abortion among the rest.
Some careful observers have occasionally attributed abortion to disproportion in size between the male and the female. Farmers were formerly too fond of selecting a great overgrown bull to serve their dairy or breeding cows, and many a heifer, or little cow, was seriously injured; and she either cast her calf, or was lost in parturition. The breeders of cattle in later years are beginning to act more wisely in this matter.