The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-19 00:00:00

THE POOR MAN'S MEAT.

In an article on the proposed establishment of a Metro.
politan Foreign Cattle Market, the Daily News furnishes
some particulars of the animal food consumed by the
poorer classes of the metropolis. The quantity of butcher's
meat consumed by the humbler classes of London is,
according to our contemporary, considerably greater than
is usually supposed. It must not, however, be hastily
assumed that this meat is eaten in the shape of beef,
pork, or mutton ; on the contrary, large numbers of
the poor have been flesh-eaters for years, without
once enjoying, unless at rare intervals, the luxury of
a bit of beef or mutton. The meat used by them is
procured wholly from what is technically termed
the " offal " of slaughtered animals, and which forms
a most important feature of the metropolitan
dead - meat trade, its sale generally constituting
the principal source from whence the profits of the whole-
sale butcher are derived. The offal consists of the head,
tail, kidneys, heart, tongue, liver, skirt, and similar por-
tions of the animal ; the feet generally going with the
skin or hide. The estimated value of the offal per animal
is about 50s. for a bullock, and from 10s. to 13s. for a
sheep. The offal, when fresh, generally forms in poet
neighbourhoods the most saleable portion of the animal.
Ia Whitechapel a pair of milts can be purchased
for a penny. As the two milts together weigh
nearly is pound, this forms the cheapest kind of
animal food within the reach of the poor, and as
such is eagerly sought after. The oxtails are generally
disposed of, at prices varying from is. 4d. to 25., to hotel
and dining-room proprietors, as are many of the kidneys,
which bring about is. 4d. Sheep kidneys are sold with
the portions of the animal to which they are attached.
The tripes of bullocks are purchased wholesale by the
tripe-dressers, who, after properly preparing them, either
retail the same themselves or else dispose of them
among the tripe-shops in Clare-market and other
poor neighbourhoods. The same class of dealers
also purchase from the hide and sheepskin tradesmen
the feet of sheep and oxen, which, after being duly
cleansed and dressed, arc retailed under the desig-
nation of " trotters" and " cowheels," the latter
being much in favour among the poor for making stew
and soup. The feet of swine, similarly prepared, are sold
principally Ly hawkers, who find their trade most brisk
towards evening in the various public-houses—a pint of
beer and a pig's foot or trotter often constituting the
evening meal of many of the poorer class of labourers.
The price of a sheep's foot or pig's foot thus dressed ranges
from a halfpenny to three halfpence, one penny being
the medium charge. A considerable portion of the
livers and skirts arc purchased wholesale by retail dealers
in low neighbourhoods. The general price of these
is ls. Bd. In Whitechapel some of the Petticoat-lane
Jews are good customers, the liver being retailed by them
in the same manner as fish, namely, in a cooked state
direct from the frying-pan, the purchasers generally being
the poorest of the poor, who seldom have the means of
procuring a fire. The hearts of oxen and sheep, in the
majority of instances, constitute the Sunday dinner of
the purchasers, who are generally working people.
Stuffed with a pennyworth of herbs, and baked with a
few potatoes, they afford a cheap substitute for the rib
of beef or shoulder of mutton which the poor so often find
themselves, from want of means, unable to purchase.
• A bullock's heart sells for about ls. 6d. Certain
portions of the entrails of animals are also used as food.
Calves' heads and sheep's heads are bought largely by a
certain class of dealers, who retail the same readily in a
baked state. They also find a quick sale among individual
purchasers, especially among Scottish artisans, who are
thus enabled to procure their favourite luxury at a lower
rate than in Edinburgh or Glasgow, where the great
demand, exceeding the supply, naturally leads to enhanced
prices. The ox-heads are largely used in the making of
soups, and form another staple article of food among the
poor. They are bought wholesale by the tripe-dressers.
An ox's tripe and head are valued at lls. Sheep's brains
are retailed almost solely to the dealers in baked sheep's
heads. The tongue, both of the ox and the sheep, is
generally sold by the tripe-dresser to the curer, and forms,
with the ox-tail, the dearest portions of the offal. Other
parts of the offal, such as the tripes of sheep, are disposed
of as food for cats and dogs. It is, however, a well-known
fact that sheep's tripe is largely used as an article of food
among the poor—necessity overcoming their natural dis-
taste. No part of the animal is lost. Even the blood is
valuable, being used first for calico-printing, and then for
manure. Other portions of animal matter find their way
into the hands of bone-boilers and people of a similar
class. ►'hen it is remembered that in 1868 no less than
20,751 head of oxen and 1,272,000 sheep, forming a
total of 1,737,754 animals exclusive of calves and swine,
were disposed of in the metropolitan market, some
aclegnate islea may be formed of the magnitude which
the trade in animal offal has attained, and the important
position occupied by it in the domestic economy of the
poor.