nd
kidneys are depurating organs, and their use as food is not only
unwholesome but often exceedingly poisonous.

Meat pies, scallops, sauces, fricassees, _pates_, and other fancy dishes
composed of a mixture of animal foods, rich pastry, fats, strong
condiments, etc., are by no means to be recommended as hygienic, and
will receive no notice in these pages.

In comparative nutritive value, beef ranks first among the flesh foods.
Mutton, though less nutritive, is more easily digested than beef. This
is not appreciable to a healthy person, but one whose digestive powers
are weak will often find that mutton taxes the stomach less than beef.

Veal or lamb is neither so nutritious nor so easily digested as beef or
mutton. Flesh from different animals, and that from various parts of the
same animal, varies in flavor, composition, and digestibility. The mode
of life and the food of animals influence in a marked manner the quality
of the meat. Turnips give a distinctly recognizable flavor to mutton.
The same is true of many fragrant herbs found by cattle feeding in
pastures.

THE SELECTION OF MEAT.--Good beef is of a reddish-brown color and
contains no clots of blood. A pale-pink color indicates that the animal
was diseased; a dark-purple color that the animal has suffered from some
acute febrile affection or was not slaughtered, but died with the blood
in its body.

Good beef is firm and elastic to the touch; when pressed with the
finger, no impression is left. It should be so dry upon the surface as
scarcely to moisten the fingers. Meat that is wet, sodden, and flabby
should not be eaten. Good beef is marbled with spots of white fat. The
suet should be dry and crumble easily. If the fat has the appearance of
wet parchment or is jelly-like, the beef is not good. Yellow fat is an
indication of old, lean animals.

Good beef has little or no odor. If any odor is perceptible, it is not
disagreeable. Diseased meat has a sickly odor, resembling the breath of
feverish persons. When such meat is roasted, it emits a strong,
offensive smell. The condition of a piece of beef may be ascertained by
dipping a knife in hot water, drying it, and passing it through the
meat. Apply to the nose on withdrawal, and if the meat is not good, a
disagreeable odor will be quite perceptible.

Good beef will not shrink greatly in cooking. In boiling or stewing, the
shrinkage is computed to be about one pound in four; in baking, one and
one fourt