e in the
choice of lobsters. Crabs have an agreeable smell when fresh.

10. Prawns and Shrimps,

when fresh, are firm and crisp.

11. Oysters.

If fresh, the shell is firmly closed; when the shells of oysters are
open, they are dead, and unfit for food. The small-shelled oysters,
the Byfleet, Colchester, and Milford, are the finest in flavour.
Larger kinds, as the Torbay oysters, are generally considered only fit
for stewing and sauces, and as an addition to rump-steak puddings and
pies, though some persons prefer them to the smaller oysters, even
when not cooked. Of late years English oysters have become scarce and
dear; and in consequence the American Blue Point oysters find a ready
market.

12. Beef.

The grain of ox beef, when good, is loose, the meat red, and the fat
inclining to yellow. Cow beef, on the contrary, has a closer grain and
whiter fat, but the meat is scarcely as red as that of ox beef.
Inferior beef, which is meat obtained from ill-fed animals, or from
those which had become too old for food, may be known by a hard,
skinny fat, a dark red lean, and, in old animals, a line of horny
texture running through the meat of the ribs. When meat rises up
quickly, after being pressed by the finger, it may be considered as
being the flesh of an animal which was in its prime; but when the dent
made by pressure returns slowly, or remains visible, the animal had
probably passed its prime, and the meat consequently must be of
inferior quality.

13. Veal

should be delicately white, though it is often juicy and
well-flavoured when rather dark in colour. Butchers, it is said, bleed
calves purposely before killing them, with a view to make the flesh
white, but this also makes it dry and flavourless. On examining the
loin, if the fat enveloping the kidney be white and firm-looking, the
meat will probably be prime and recently killed. Veal will not keep so
long as an older meat, especially in hot or damp weather: when going,
the fat becomes soft and moist, the meat flabby and spotted, and
somewhat porous like sponge. Large, overgrown veal is inferior to
small, delicate, yet fat veal. The fillet of a cow-calf is known by
the udder attached to it, and by the softness of the skin; it is
preferable to the veal of a bull-calf.

14. Mutton.

The meat should be firm and close in grain, and red in colour, the fat
white and firm. Mut