stand up like sweat; as to the newest and staleness, the same is to be observed as by lamb.
Beef.
If it be right ox beef, it will have an open grain; if young, a tender and oily smoothness: if rough and spungy, it is old, or inclining to be so, except neck, briscuit, and such parts as are very fibrous, which in young meat will be more rough than in other parts. A carnation pleasant colour betokens good spending meat, the suet a curious wite, yellowish is not so good.
Cow-beef is less bound and closer grained than the ox, the fat whiter, but the lean somewhat paler; if young, the dent you make with your finger will rise again in a little time.
Bull-beef is of a close grain, deep dusky red, tough in pinching, the fat skinny, hard, and has a rammish rank smell; and for newness and staleness, this flesh bought fresh has but few signs, the more material is its clamminess, and the rest your smell will inform you. If it be bruised, these places will look more dusky or blackish than the rest.
Pork.
If it be young, the lean will break in pinching between your fingers, and if you nip the skin with your nails, it will make a dent; also if the fat be soft and pulpy, in a manner like lard; if the lean be tough, and if the fat flabby and pungy, feeling rough, it is old; especially if the rind be stubborn, and you cannot nip it with your nails.
If of a boar, though young, or of a hog gelded at full growth, the flesh will be hard, thogh, reddish, and rammish of smell; the fat skinny and hard; the skin very thick and tough, and pinched up will immediately fall again.
As for old and new killed, try the legs, hands, and springs, by putting your finger under the bone that comes out; for if it be tainted, you will there find it by smelling your finger; besides the skin will be sweaty and clammy when stale, but cool and smooth when new.
If you find little kernels in the fat of the pork, like hail-shot, if many it is measly, and dangerous to be eaten.
How to chuse brawn, venison, Westphalia hams, &c.
BRAWN is known to be old or young by the extraordinary or moderate thickness of the rind; the thick is old, the moderate is young. If the rind and fat be very tender, it is not boar-brawn, but barrow or sow.
