Our viands

eaten, with the singular exception that all the fat should be burnt, for the fat as well as the blood of sacrifices seems to have been forbidden to be eaten ; and, it may be remembered as one of the sins of the sons of Eli, that they sent their servant and demanded raw flesh with the fat, before it was burned according to the sacred law of sacrifices. The breast and the right shoulder of these sacrifices were allotted to the priests, and thus it came to pass that when Saul was sent to Samuel, the shoulder was set before him as the royal and priestly joint. As to the calf, that was not only offered in sacrifice, like the lamb, but it seems to have been set aside especially for family feasts. The fatted calf, killed to do honour to the returning prodigal, has passed into a proverb, and to 'kill the fatted calf is now synonymous with making a feast of joy. But the calf was' from the earliest times looked upon as a delicacy to set before an honoured guest ; hence we are told that when, in the days of Abraham, the three angels came to him as he sat in his tent- door on the plains of Mamre, in the heat of the day, he ' ran unto the herd and fetched a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them ; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.' What a vivid picture we have here of the hospitality of the patriarch, of his mode of life, and of the food he thought meet to place before his guests — the calf tender and good, eaten as at the present day, with butter and milk, the cake kneaded and baked upon the hearth by Sarah, to be eaten with it. It was no mean feast for hungry men in the wide plain, but the celerity with which it is prepared strikes one. 86 OUR VIANDS To kill a calf and skin it would take an English butcher a considerable time, and the cooking would not be attempted until the carcase was cold, but in hot climates this kind of rapid slaughtering and cooking is frequent and necessary. 1 Sudden death,' as it is called, overtakes poultry very often, even in England, and if cooked without being allowed to get cold, the meat is tender and well-flavoured, and probably the same holds good with regard to larger animals. In England the killing of calves was formerly attended with much cruelty, the poor animals being bled two or three times before they were killed, in order to make the meat white, which probably also made it hard and indigestible ; but this is happily now done away with, as is the mode in which they were conveyed to market — packed in a cart with their legs tied, and lying one over another, with their heads hanging down over the tail-board, and making the most piteous cries. Although veal is still eschewed by many in England as indigestible, we cannot imagine what our cooks would do without this savoury meat, which, above all others, is invaluable in the menu. What could supply the place of the delicate sweetbread, the ragout, the calf s head with its accompaniments, the hash, the stew, the mince, the veal olives and cutlets, and the roast fillet, with its stuffing and lemon-juice, beloved of Oliver Cromwell? All over the Continent of Europe the value of veal is recognised, and a cotelette dc veau is the one thing which may be safely ordered by the traveller.