A WORD FOR FROZEN MEAT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 507, 2 December 1881, Page 2

A WORD FOR FROZEN MEAT.

A correspondent of the Times states his experience with rega-d to the consumption of frozen meat. He says : “ I bought a carcase of the. mutton that was imported in January last by the Protos and hung it up in a larder with a temperature some degrees above freezing. After two days, during which it * sweated ’ pretty freely, I had a shoulder and part of the ribs roasted. The result was not satisfactory. The meat, though perfectly good and sweet, was hard, tough, and imperfectly cooked, though it had been longer at the fire than is usual with Home mutton. After the lapse of another two days I had some chops cooked from the Join,, and they were very good and sweet, though still rather hard. I how determined to let the remainder hang until the frost was quite out of it, and this was not fully accomplished until the end of four more days, the weather at the time being very cold. At the end of that time the leg and remainder of loin were roasted, and the meat was extremely good, though rather dry, as it had unfortunately been overdone. From these experiments I was led ,to infer that on the first two occasions the frost had not sufficiently melted to allow the fibre to resume its natural state, and that Australian, like Home meat, must be hung sufficiently long to impart toil the mellowness that is indispensable in any meat to command a ready sale in this market. That this inference is the correct one has been confirmed by my recent experience with some of the mutton by the Cuzco. A friend and I divided a hind quarter, the leg falling to my share. I kept it through the late close, thundery weather until quite certain that the frost bad been expelled. By this time the appearance of the meat was not attractive. It was damp, and looked flabby in consequence of the melting process it had undergone. When roasted, however, and placed on the table, the result was that more excellent mutton I never tasted. It was firm under the knife, and yet mellow and tender and the flavor reminded me qf the highly-prized Welsh and Scotch mutton, while an ample flow of gravy filled the ‘ well ’ in a few seconds after the first rut. My friend’s experience with the loin was quite as favorable as. mine with the leg. The truth is that the ‘ hanging,’ which for climatic reasons cannot be given the meat at the other end, should be given at this.”