The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1883-10-25
Meats.

OF late years the 'tmeat question has
been fraught with deep perplexity to the
frugal housewife. That vegetarian theo-
ries have not grown in favor with the
American public in the same period is
presumptiYe evidence against their rea-
sOnableness. Doctors and health jour
nails, meanwhile, unite in declaring that
as flesh consumers we surpass even our
ancestral beef-eaters. If ''the scarcity
of beasts of meat is no longer draw
ing-roOm topic, even fashionists do not
disdain to disclaim against the eXtOr-
ton of butchers, while insisting upon
the necessity of having meat in some
form as part of each tri-daily meal.
/ remember better than the attack de-
serves to be recOllected, the structures
of a certain journal upon mild effort
on my part to lead popular favor
toward simple breakfasts of rolls, boiled
eggs, tea or coffee, or if more substan-
tial food were demanded, toward ONE
lette, fondu and porridge. "Such
trash,' the writer protested, might do
for lazy men and literary women, but
the brawny labOrer would not under
take a days work after breakfasting
upon a spOngy composition of cream,
bread-crumbs and eggs. He must
build up and sustain bone and muscle
with strong meat"
In this persuasion is rooted the rustic
devotion to salt pork, and the rustic
Indifference to fruits and other vegeta-
bles than cabbage, onions and potatoes.
Given the pork, the average cook knows
but two ways of preparing it for the
craving stOmachs of the ''men-fOlks."
When she does not boil, she fries it.
"a bit of butchers meat is a luxury,
and as such, appears on the farmhouse
board but seldom unless when served
for visitors. 1t is usually part of
''critter" slaughtered in the neighbor-
hood and peddled by the slayer from
door to door, and here again the meth
DDS of cooking it are primitive and
few. If ga piece" it is roasted, fast
and long. If steak or chop, it is fried
slowly and until no more fat can be abb
sorbed and no more juice exude. The
raw material is expensive; after the
second death-by fret is unmanage-
able alike by dental and digestive appa-
ratus.
We eat too much meat, and pay too
much for what we buy. What are
known to dealer and initiated purchaser
as the q best CUTS form so small pro-
portion of the whole animal that the
enterprising meat-Yender is thrown up
on his imagination to supply enough of
Lu6SG 1OE really 0OOu CuSlOllCIS. I1tuCb
the phenomenal porter-house and ten
derloin, the fillets and spring-lamb that
disgrace our housewifery as much as
they excruciate our pOcket-nerves. Our
merchant always fails to understand it.
He paid at wholesale within a cent-and-
a-half per pound of what he charges us.
Mrs Senator Toploft ordered the other
joint or companion-cut for a grand din
ner-party, and sent word to Mr.. Cleayer
how much delighted she was with it.
We are all towards in the face of
sounding statements of this kind, not
one word of which we believe, and we
avoid the speakers eye while we pay
"choice cut prices for chuck rib,
round steak and "ram-lamb.'
The lesson of this talk, which is in
danger of waxing into a TRADE, is
when YOU can not afford to pay for the
best, TASK boldly for the secOnd-best.
And out of this honest article, for which
you pay something like an honest sum,
make nourishing, savory food, by cook
ing 1t properly and ingeniously. Never
buy tainted meat or fowl, but bear in
mind that coarse and choice are
comparative terms, and that roast is,
| pen Sc, no more eleganU a term than
t'stewed.' Make a study of made
| dishes and cleft overs" and do not de-
4 spise scraps-always provided that
/ these preserve their individuality. and
| have not been huddled together into
| Illnesses. ''-MQri0n Harla0d, ia ~ Y
| Examiner.