Cutting up Beef.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 409, 9 October 1889, Page 3

Cutting up Beef.

As very little is understood in regard to the manner of cutting up a carcass by many people having no other connection with the trade than that of consuming what is prepared for them, it may not be unwise to give a brief discription of the dissected animal as given by an expert. The slaughtered ox is first " quartered," that is, cut in four parts after the hide has been removed, each quarter comprising a leg and that portion of the flesh immediately connected with it. The fore quarter is divided into the " rattle," the better part of the fore-quarter, and the back ; and the " chuck," the neck flesh of the animal, and the poorest beef, used frequently for stews and pie-meat, is cut from the back. The rattle is much better than the back on account of its not having the coarse tissue and toughness of that part, and is near the belly of the animal. The hind-quarter, which is sometimes very incorrectly called the "hind shoulder," 13 the mealiest portion of the flesh. It is divided into the round, furtherest down the leg, the rump just abovo it, and the loin'or sirloin, extending from the hip to the ribs and including, and covering by a slightly coarser grade of meat, the precious tonderloin, the pride of luxury, and considered the finest bit of beef. The round is, of course, much less tender than the rump, being turther down the limb, and the rump is yet less delicate than the loin. The weight of the various parts differ, according to the size of the ox, the rattle for example, varying in weight from fitty to 1 one hundred and fifty pounds.