In buying beef, select that which is of a clear, cherry-red color after a fresh cut has been for a few moments exposed to the air. The fat should be of a light straw color, and the meat marbled throughout with fat. If the beef is immature, the color of the lean part will be pale and dull, the bones small, and the fat very white. High-colored, coarse-grained beef, with the fat a deep yellow, should be rejected. In corn-fed beef the fat is yellowish, while that fattened on grasses is whiter. In cow beef the fat is also whiter than in ox beef. Inferior meat from old or ill fed animals has a coarse, skinny fat and a dark red lean. Ox beef is the sweetest and most juicy, and the most economical.

In selecting veal, take that which is firm and dry, and the joints stiff, having the lean a delicate red, the kidneys covered with fat, and the fat very white. If you buy the head, see that the eyes are plump and lively, and not dull and sunk in the head.

In choosing mutton, take that which is bright red and close grained, with firm and white fat. The meat should feel tender and springy on pressure. Notice the vein in the neck of the fore quarter, which should be a fine blue.

Lamb is good at a year old, and more digestible than most immature meat. The meat should be light red and fat.

Great care should be taken in selecting pork. If ill fed or diseased, no meat is more injurious to the health. The lean must be fine-grained, and both fat and lean very white. The rind should be smooth and cool to the touch. If clammy, be sure the pork is stale and reject it. If the fat is full of small kernels, it is an indication of disease. In good bacon the rind is thin, the fat firm and the lean tender. Rusty bacon has yellow streaks in it. Hams are tried by sticking a knife in them. If when drawn out it has no bad odor, the ham is good.