this head which I will here quote, as more to the point than anything I can say:—
AMERICAN BEEF.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.
Sir,—In consequence of the high price of provisions, the press has drawn the attention of the public to the American beef. As a great prejudice exists against it, resulting from the want of knowing how to prepare and cook it, I have thought that the following suggestions might be useful, if you would give them publicity.
The American salt beef comes to this country in pieces from 81b. to 121b. in weight; before being cooked they should be well washed, and soaked in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water three times.
For boiling it should be placed in a stewpan of cold water, and made to boil quickly; as soon as the water boils the meat must be taken out, the water thrown away, and fresh cold water placed in it, with the meat still warm; boil it the usual time, according to the description of joint.
Baked or Roasted Salt Ribs of Beef.—Prepare the meat as above; make a paste of flour and water, cover the meat with it (as hams are done in many parts of England), and bake it in a slow oven for 20 minutes for every pound of meat; do not cut it when hot, and it is fit for the breakfast tables of incomes of 1000l. a-year.
Stewed Salt Beef.—Prepare it as above, and cut it into steaks of the usual thickness; have some cabbage or other greens, ready boiled; chop them up, and, with the meat, place in a stewpan with a gill of water to every pound of meat, one teaspoonful of sugar to each pound, and a teaspoonful of pepper to every four pounds of meat; stew gently for two hours, and serve. The flavour of this may be varied by adding either carrots, potatoes, haricot beans, chesnuts, or boiled maccaroni, cut up into pieces about an inch long; and it may be flavoured with vinegar, mustard, or sauce, and, in fact, in many other ways, in order to give a change, and render it agreeable.
This beef contains much more nourishment than the majority of that which is now sold in the London market.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
G. Warriner.
Instructor of Cookery to the Army.
If the aristocracy and gentry would take the hint to try the American beef and pork, it would be a great benefit to their neighbours. Every joint of English meat which they dispense with will be left for others who may want it more; while the superior cookery of their kitchens would prove whether this food might not be made as agreeable as it is certainly nourishing. We ought to prepare immediately for the greatest possible economy of home-grown meat, and a large consumption of all good foreign meat, for many months to come. The speakers at the meetings are undoubtedly right in their recommendation, though not exactly for the reasons they assign. They will not find that the withdrawal of their custom for a month, or for two or more months, will compel the provision dealers or stock merchants to lower their prices; but it will economise the existing supply, and spread it over a longer time, for the benefit of all parties.
The next obvious resource is—fish. What can I say on this familiar subject, but that it is a bitter disgrace that anybody should suffer for the want of animal food while we live in the middle of the sea, and have winding coasts which might seem to invite us to live upon fish? At present, every citizen who has any authority or influence should exert himself for four objects: and, first, to see that the laws are observed all round the coasts, and along the rivers, for the protection of fish in spawn and young fry. Because the fishermen offend, and nobody looks after them, our supplies of herrings and other fish which come in shoals are perpetually dwindling away; and times and seasons and the meshes of nets must be looked to, if we are not to lose the resource altogether. Again, let our importation of fish be looked to at once. In April we heard complaints of the depreciation of British herrings by a vast importation of Norwegian herrings, while the high duties in France and Spain and other countries exclude our fish from their markets. There may be such a market at home this year as may make up for our exclusion from some foreign ones; and we ought to have every facility for importing. Again, let those of us who live on the coast see that an understanding is established between inland consumers and the fishermen, who are usually slow in hearing of public affairs. There ought to be no burying of tons of good fish in the sands, or rotting of them for manure, to keep up the price, under the notion that only gentry eat fish. Let every basket be sent by the nearest railway to some inland market. And, once more, let some pains be taken inland to get the fish under the notice and command of the classes who want it most. There are many small towns, villages, and populous road-sides, where the labourers never see or hear of fish, except as a luxury which comes to the squire’s. A little zeal and attention on the part of public-spirited men would easily have brought mackerel into ten thousand cottages this dear spring, and may yet bring shoals of herrings among the labourers during the yet dearer autumn which is to come. At best, we shall not have nearly the quantity of fish that we ought: but let us have as much as we can.
Why do we buy eighty millions of eggs annually from the continent? and why are chickens and ducks reckoned a luxury in England and Ireland, when there might be poultry reared on every common and in every lane, and housed at the end of every cottage? Working men’s wives and children manage to keep fowls in the alleys and yards of our great towns, finding them so profitable that they never eat eggs or chickens at home. If our rural labourers would take to this gainful enterprise at once, we might have a large addition made to our stock of animal food by this time next year. There are pigeons, again—not so substantial a resource, but well worth attention. Formerly, we should have been met by the objection that these creatures would consume more grain than could be spared in our present condition: but, besides that inferior grain answers for them, we are growing too wise to waste hard barley upon fowls while Indian corn-meal is to be had. It is not only a question of swelling the food before it is swallowed instead of after, but of the fowls getting the nourishment or going