Money can be spent to infinitely better advantage in the store, than
by giving orders at the door, by phone or mail. Every housekeeper
knows how large a proportion of the housekeeping money is swallowed up
by the butcher's bill, so that with the meat item careful selection is
most necessary in order to keep the bills within bounds.

In choosing meat of any kind the eye, the nose and the touch really
are required, although it is not appetizing to see the purchaser use
more than the eye.


Beef

In choosing meat it should be remembered that without being actually
unwholesome, it varies greatly in quality, and often an inferior joint
is to be preferred from a first class beast to a more popular cut from
a second class animal. To be perfect the animal should be five or six
years old, the flesh of a close even grain, bright red in color and
well mixed with creamy white fat, the suet being firm and a clear
white. Heifer meat is smaller in the bone and lighter in color than
ox beef. Cow beef is much the same to look at as ox beef, though being
older it is both coarser in the grain and tougher; bull beef, which
is never seen however, in a first class butcher's may be recognized by
the coarseness and dark color of the flesh, and also by a strong and
almost rank smell.


Mutton

To be in perfection, mutton should be at least four, or better five