HOME SCIENCE TALKS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21981, 16 June 1933, Page 14

HOME SCIENCE TALKS

ECONOMICAL PURCHASING AND USE OF MEAT. Deal’ “Phillida,” —At last I’ve found a spare minute to answer your letter. It isn’t that I haven’t been wanting to, but what with the Winter Show and so on, life seems to have developed into a positive whirlpool of things waiting to be done. However, here we are at last—and, after all, “ better late than . . The problem you write about in your letter is one which is common to most people—at least to town people—these days—the problem of “ keeping down the meat bill. But, honestly, it is really just a question of knowing how to buy and what to buy when we go meat shopping, and I’m afraid the majority of us go about it very blindly. We know the names of a few cuts of meat, and we go along week after week and order them with never a question whether there are any others loss expensive and yet just as tasty and just at nutritious. But if we really want to economise—and most of us do —we must set about learning a little about the meat that is there for us to buy; and that is my first advice to you.

Go along to your butcher and ask him to explain to you the different cuts of meat, their use and their price. You’ll find him only too willing to tell you because you are an interested customer, and just to show you that this is true 1 asked my butcher the other day to give mo a list of pieces himself. I explained that I wanted it to be of the cheaper cuts. Here is the list he gave me:— Veal. —Forequarter, 2d; loin, sd. Beef. —Boiling beef or brisket, 3d; chuck roast, '4d; stewing steak, 4d; corn roll, sd; gravy beef, 4d; shin beef, 24d. Mutton. —Forequarter, 3d; neck chops, 4d; neck of mutton, 4d; flap, IJd; rib loin, 4d. How’s that for a selection from which to choose the daily meat ration? If variety is the spice of life—then here’s variety in plenty for dinner anyway, my dear! Then there’s another point—don t torget that it is much cheaper to buy your meat iu quantity. For instance, it is cheaper per pound to buy a whole forequarter of mutton than a piece of it. “ How ever would you use it up? ” Buy it and then ask your butcher to keep it in cold storage for you and give you portions of it as you need it. He will do it all right. He may charge a small fee for doing it, but it won’t be nearly as expensive as if you bought it in small pieces at a time. And now, my dear, I must send this to the post immediately-if-not-sooner or I’ll miss it altogether; but I’m going to limit up some economical meat recipes for you and scud them along, so listen for the whistle! Write soon again.

Jane, Home Science Extension Service, University of Otago, Dunedin,