s way he makes the best use of the carcass and realizes
the largest value for it, while he gratifies the taste of every grade of
customers. A figure of the Scotch and English modes of cutting up a
carcass of beef will at once show the difference; and upon being
informed where the valuable pieces lie, an opinion can be formed as to
whether the oxen the farmer is breeding or feeding possess the
properties which will enable him to demand the highest price for them.

[Illustration: SCOTCH MODE OF CUTTING UP BEEF.]

The sirloin is the principal roasting-piece, making a very handsome
dish, and is a universal favorite. It consists of two portions, the
Scotch and English sides; the former is above the lumbar bones, and is
somewhat hard in ill-fed cattle; the latter consists of the muscles
under these bones, which are generally covered with fine fat, and are
exceedingly tender. The better the beast is fed, the larger is the under
muscle, better covered with fat, and more tender to eat. The hook-bone
and the buttock are cut up for steaks, beefsteak pie, or minced
collops, and both these, together with the sirloin, bring the highest
price. The large round and the small round are both well known as
excellent pieces for salting and boiling, and are eaten cold with great
relish. The hough is peculiarly suited for boiling down for soup, having
a large proportion of gelatinous matter. Brown soup is the principal
dish made of the hough, but its decoction forms an excellent _stock_ for
various dishes, and will keep in a state of jelly for a considerable
time. The thick and the thin flank are both admirable pieces for salting
and boiling. The tail, insignificant as it may seem, makes a soup of a
very fine flavor. Hotel-keepers have a trick of seasoning brown soup or
rather beef-tea, with a few joints of tail, and passing it off for
genuine ox-tail soup. These are all the pieces which constitute the
hind-quarter; and it will be seen that they are valuable both for
roasting and boiling, not containing a single coarse piece.

In the fore-quarter, is the spare rib, the six ribs of the back end of
which make an excellent roast, and when taken from the side opposite to
the _lying_ one, being free of the bones of the spine, it makes a large
one; and it also makes excellent beefsteaks and beefsteak pie. The two
runners and the nineholes make salting and boiling pieces; but, of
these, the nineholes is much the best, as it consists of layers of fa