NEW ZEALAND v. ENGLISH MUTTON.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10595, 12 September 1896, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND v. ENGLISH MUTTON.

Messrs W. Weddel and Oo.'s trade circular, dated London, 24th July, contains an extract from '.The Hospital (a journal whose title indicates its technical character) concerning experiments recently made with a view to ascertaining the relative economic and nutritive qualities of home-killed and frozen mutton for hospital use. The rtjsultsof the experiments, were most satisfactory fronv a colonial point of view, r For a trial as to the alleged wastefulness of the f rozsn mutton, two legs of mutton were carefully weighed, cooked, cirved, and tasted for yield of gravy, bone, and waste. TheEuglish leg weighed Sib 6oz wheu delivered, the frozen one (Canterbury) 71b 14-bz; the former weighed Sib 15oz after bakiug, tho ' latter s!b " 13oz. The hotne-growo gave 520z of slices for hospital use, the frozen 48oz. So that the Canterbury leg, which was Boz lighter on delivery, g»v» within 4oz as much good meat. Each gavu the same weight of bone and waste, 37uz. The New Zealand leg gave 15jz of. dripping to the Bnglisa one's lZoz - The statement that frozea mutton leaks mura gravy, thau fresh meat was not borne out by the experiment, for the home-growu yielded lOJoz, and; the frozen only 9Aoz of gravy. " Thus," says Tha Hospital, "coutrary to expectation, it was found that the English meat lost more in proportion, during bakiiig—viz., 21b 7oz, against 21b loz," and, "it is clear even from one experiment that the assertion that frozeu meat is essentially and invariably more wasteful than English c&nnoVbe supported. As it is desirable that hospital meat shall be easy of digestion and as rich as possible in food value, a comparison was made between homegrown and frozen mutton in this regard by means of artificial digestion experiments, conducted by Dr Kideal. Three samples of mutton were treated, in duplicate—Scotch, Canterbury crosobreri, and Australian merino. The percentagel! of water in the samples (in the above order) were 7425, 71-32, and 7245, the New Ze»ki:cl meat being the driest. The perctiuUges of nitrogen iv the dry meat were 12-38, 1V39, and 11/55. The percentages of dry meat digested iv one hour were, in the same order, and the average of the two experiments, 4225, 3725, and 380. The; Hospital remarks on thete results: " The "amount of digestion in thesa experiments is, therefore, very nearly the same for each kind of meat, and is proportional to the amount of matter capable of digestion present as measured by the quantity of nitrogen existing in each kind. The digestibility oc the meat is all important from an invalid's standpoint, and remembering that frozan meat ij very commonly indeed used for the patients' diet it is tery reassuring to-find that the freezing process does not to any extent render.it less easy of assimilation,'Or constitute a drawback to its use for persons of feeble digestive powers." Messrs Weddel remark that " although the foregoing experiments cannot be viewed as absolutely conclusive, they go a great way towards showing the unreasonableness of much of the prejudice still existing in this eounr try against the use of frozen imittoo, ami it is hoped that a judicious circulation of the foregoing facts may be found very useful in fostering the general demand."