Rams as Food

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 306, 22 September 1934, Page 9

Rams as Food

Sir, — 1 have rtot lhe slightest-idea who Old Country Butcher” may be, but his letter which appeared in your issue of September 19 seems very much to the point. The flesh of rams is used for food in many countries, and, though it may not be as palatable and tender as lamb, there is no reason to suppose that it is not wholesome and nutritious. From the earliest times, stags have been shot and the carcase used for food, and a haunch of venison has always been written of as a luxury. If stags, why not rams? Many years ago 1 resided for a considerable time in Mexico, where beef was the usual meat, and most of it was the flesh of bulls, no steers being slaughtered. Perhaps it is the same today. Some years ago there was a complaint: that more cows than bullocks, and more ewes than wethers, were being killed at the abattoirs of this town, but I defy anyone who is eating beef or mutton to say with any certainty what was the sex of the animal thht supplied it. The test is the quality of the meat. Provided the flesh of rams is not sold under a false description there seems to be no real objection to their slaughter as food.—l am, etc., H.N.W. Palmerston North, September 20.