It is more economical to bone a joint before it is cooked, as the bones help to make stock. One of the most wasteful joints is an ordinary loin of mutton, where the people who eat it are rather dainty. Very often the whole of the end of the chop is left on the plate, and also the bone is only half picked.

In boning any joint - that is, taking out the bone in a raw state - of course it is important to get the bone out as bare as possible. The great secret in boning is to keep the knife constantly against the bone. Ribs of beef are always best boned and rolled, unless you can afford a very large joint indeed. The butcher will generally bone a joint for you. To watch him do it is worth more by way of a lesson than twenty pages of any book. Boning a fowl or turkey without breaking the skin is an artistic operation, the description of which would be unsuited for the present work.