437 



followed in tlie various seftlements ia South America. The Indians were early 

 taught hy Jesuit missionaries to milk the cow and use her milk and meat, and 

 ultimately to yoke oxen by the horns for hauling drift-wood and other burdens. 

 More than three hundred years ago cattle were taken from the coast of Brazil 

 to the grassy plains of Paraguay. Prior even to that Importation, it Is claimed 

 that herds were established m Peru, Introduced from the Pacific coast, which 

 soon spread Into the Pampas. 



The following facts concerning this Interest are from Rev. G. D. Carrow, who 

 furnished an essay on the subject for the agricultural report for 1865 : 



" In killing cattle for home consumption the butchers first hamstring them and 

 then cut their throats. In dressing them they are not suspended, but flayed ou 

 the ground. Some years ago the Buenos Ayrean city fathers prepared a slaughter- 

 house of the same style and conveniences as are common in other countries, but 

 the butchers refused to occupy It, and steadfastly adhered to the old custom of 

 hamstringing and throat cutting In an open pen. The carcass is divided in a 

 mode somewhat peculiar. The tenderloin Is taken out and sold by Itself Beef 

 is never weighed In market, nor even measured, except by the butcher's eye, Avho 

 acquires great exactness In subdividing the quarters of an animal so as to make 

 the pieces suit the daily, bi-weekly, or tri-weekly demands of his customers. 

 The beef market of the pampas was in former years probably the cheapest In 

 the civilized world. So recently as twenty years ago an ordinary cow or heifer 

 could be bought for one silver dollar, and a large fat steer for two dollars and a 

 half. Now, the prices of the same animals range from eight to twenty dollars. 

 In 1858 a piece of sirloin, weighing ten pounds, could be purchased in the market 

 of Buenos Ayres or Montevideo for fifty cents, and in the towns of the Interior 

 for half that sum. 



"The natives are very partial to roast beef, which they term asado ; but their 

 mode of preparing It Is peculiar to themselves. They take the best roasting 

 pieces and cut away the flesh till the rib is reduced to nearly the thinness of au 

 ordinary sparerib of pork, according to our method of butchering. This Is done 

 to suit their mode of roasting, which is never In accordance with that which ob- 

 tains in Paris, London, or New York. Instead of the oven, they still use the 

 more primitive spit. This Is a piece of iron about four feet long. It Is run 

 through the meat, and. If the meat be prepared in the open air. Is stuck into the 

 ground at such an angle as brings the meat Into contact with the tip of the flame ; 

 or, if the meat be prepared In the kitchen, the spit Is Inclined against the chimney 

 in about the same position. The fire is kindled with weeds or small dry faggots 

 cut from the paradise or peach tree. As this consumes very quickly, fresh fuel 

 is constantly supplied. When the fat of the flesh ignites and blazes, the cook 

 seizes the spit, blows out the flame, and then returns It to Its place. This Is 

 repeated till the meat Is nearly done, when the spit Is laid across two large bricks, 

 and the process of cooking Is completed by toasting a few minutes over the fresh 

 coals. Meat cooked In this way Is somewhat smoked and a good deal blackened, 

 but it has a juiciness and a peculiar flavor which could not fail to commend it to 

 the palate of a finished epicure, 



" Some travellers complain of the toughness of the native roast, but the 

 writer's experience is altogether In conflict with their statements, and his Impres- 

 sion is that they must have fallen into the hands of a very unskilful cook, or 

 upon the carcass of an animal that had been toughened by poverty and leanness 

 or unusual length of days. The qualities of the beef are very superior. English 

 residents, generally, do not esteem it; but this is owing to that intense national 

 egotism from which few even of travelled Englishmen ever entirely recover. 

 They will roundly assert that neither first-rate beef nor mutton can be found 

 beyond the limits of the Brltli^h isles. But many Americans, who have travelled 

 extensively on both continents, consider the best pampa beef fully equal, if not 

 a little superior, to the best beef ever brought to an English market. It has not 



