The best kind of pork is fresh and pinkish in color, and the fat is firm and white. The second quality has rather hard, red flesh, and yellowish fat. The poorest kind has dark, coarse grained meat, soft fat, and discoloured kidneys. The flesh of stale pork is moist and clammy, and its smell betrays its condition. Measly pork has little kernels in the fat, and is unhealthy and dangerous food. After testing, as you would beef, so as to see if it is fresh, and making sure that it is not measly, we have still to dread the presence of trichina, a danger, ous parasite present in the flesh of some hogs. The surest preventive of danger from this cause is thorough cooking, which destroys any germs that may exist in the meat. Cook your pork until it is crisp and brown, by a good, steady fire, or in boiling water, at least twenty minutes to each pound. Pork eaten in cold weather, or moderately in summer, alternately with other meats, is a palatable and nutritious food. It has a hard fibre, and needs to be thoroughly chewed in order to be perfectly digested; for that reason it should be sparingly used by the young and the very old. The least fat is found in the leg, which contains an excess of flesh-forming elements, and resembles lean beef in composition; the most fat is in the face and belly. When cured as bacon it readily takes on the anti-septic action of salt and smoke, and becomes a valuable adjunct to vegetable food, as well as a pleasant relish; and in this shape it is one of the most important articles in general use.

How To Choose Poultry Or Game Birds

Both poultry and game are less nutritious than meat, but they are more digestible, and consequently are better food than meat for persons of weak digestive organs and sedentary habits. They are both excellent for persons who think or write much. Fresh poultry may be known by its full bright eyes, pliable feet, and soft moist skin; the best is plump, fat, and nearly white, and the grain of the flesh is fine. The feet and neck of a young fowl are large in proportion to its size, and the tip of the breast-bone is soft, and easily bent between the fingers; a young cock, has soft, loose spurs, and a long, full, bright red comb; old fowls have long, thin necks and feet, and the flesh on the legs and back has a purplish shade; chickens and fowls are always in season.

Turkeys are good when white and plump, have full breasts and smooth legs, generally black, with soft loose spurs; hen turkeys are smaller, fatter, and plumper, but of inferior flavor; full grown turkeys are the best for boiling, as they do not tear in dressing; old turkeys have long hairs, and the flesh is purplish where it shows under the skin on the legs and back. About March they deteriorate in quality.

Young ducks and geese are plump, with light, semi-transparent fat, soft breast-bone, tender flesh, leg joints which will break by the weight of the bird, fresh colored and brittle beaks, and windpipes that break when pressed between the thumb and forefinger. They are best in fall and winter.

Young pigeons have light red flesh upon the breast, and full, fresh colored legs; when the legs are thin, and the breast is very dark, the birds are old.

Game Birds

Fine game birds are always heavy for their size; the flesh of the breast is firm and plump, and the skin clear; and if a few feathers be plucked from the inside of the leg and around the vent, the flesh of freshly killed birds will be fat and fresh colored; if it is dark, and discolored, the game has been hung a long time. The wings of good ducks, geese, pheasants, and woodcock are tender to the touch; the tips of the long wing feathers of partridges are pointed in young birds, and round in old ones. Quail, snipe, and small birds should have full, tender breasts.