How to chuse Butchers Meat.
To chuse Lamb.
In a fore-quarter of lamb, mind the neck vein; if it be an azure blue it is new and good, but if greenish or yellowish, it is near tainting, if not tainted already. In the hinder-quarter, smell under the kidney and try the knuckle; if you meet with a faint scent, and the knuckle be limber, it is stale killed. For a lamb's head, mind if the eyes be funk or wrinkled, it is stale; if plump and lively, it is new and sweet.
Veal.
If the bloody vein in the shoulder looks blue, or a bright red, it is new killed; but if blackish, greenish, or yellowish, it is flabby and stale; if wrapped in wet cloths, smell whether it be musty or not. The loin first taints under the kidney, and the flesh, if stale killed, will be soft and slimy.
The breast and neck taints first at the upper-end, and you will perceive some dusky yellow, or greenish appearance; the sweet-bread on the breast will be clammy, otherwise it is fresh and good. The leg is known to be new by the stiffness of the joint; if limber, and the flesh seems clammy, and has green or yellowish specks, 'tis stale. The head is known as the lamb's. The flesh of a bull-calf is more red and firm than that of a cow-calf, and the fat more hard and curdled.
Mutton.
If the mutton be young, the flesh will pinch tender; if old, it will wrinkle, and rise again; if young, the fat will easily part from the lean; if old, it will stick by strings and skins. If ram-mutton, the fat feels spungy, the flesh close grained and tough, not rising again, when dented by your finger; if ewe-mutton, the flesh is paler than wether-mutton, a closer-grain, and easily parting. If there be a rot, the flesh will be palish, and the fat faint whitish, inclining to yellow, and the flesh be loose at the bone. If you squeeze it hard, some drops of water will stand up like sweat; as to newness and staleness, the same is to be observed as by lamb.
Beef.
If it be right ox-beef, it will have an open grain; if young, a tender and oily smoothness; if rough and spungy, it is old, or inclining to be so, except neck, brisket, and such parts as are very fibrous, which in young meat will be more tough than in other parts. A carnation pleasant colour betokens good spending meat; the fatter a curious white, yellowish is not so good.
Cow-beef is soft bound and closer grained than the ox, the fat whiter, but the lean somewhat paler; if young, the dent you make with your finger will rise again in a little time.
Bull-beef is of a closer grain, a deep dusky red, tough in pinching, the fat skinny, hard, and has a ramish rank smell; and for newness or staleness, this flesh bought fresh has but few signs, the more material is its clamminess, and the rest your smell will inform you. If it be bruised, these places will look more dusky or blackish than the rest.
Pork.
If it be young, the lean will break in pinching between your fingers, and if you nip the skin with your nails, it will make a dent; also if the fat be soft and pulpy, in a manner like lard: If the lean be tough, and the fat flabby and spungy, feeling tough, it