322 
HOW TO COOK AUSTR VT,TAN MEAT. 
not only of experimenting, but of testing and comparing 
results ; and these results, whether successful or unsuccessful, 
it has wisely treated as stepping-stones towards something 
better. In whatever form the meat comes from Australia 
and other places, it is at all events perfectly new, and unlike 
what we are accustomed to cook or eat. This will probably 
be the case for a considerable time; and, therefore, the ques- 
tion of treating it so as to make it most useful may very 
fairly claim our attention. Take for instance the tins of 
preserved beef or mutton, either roast or boiled, which con- 
tain good, wholesome, fresh meat free from bone, though 
generally with a superabundance of fat, or, to use a homely 
word, “dripping.” Now, this meat when turned out of the 
tin presents an appearance totally unlike anything of the 
kind in England. Though it is said to be ready cooked, and 
fit for immediate eating, it is a matter of doubt whether it is 
very appetising to anyone seeing it for the first time. 
Suppose that a working man, tempted by the idea of 
getting six pounds of cooked meat without bone at a 
cost of about sevenpence a pound, or about threehalfpence 
less than what meat bought in a butcher's shop would cost 
him, buys a tin for his Sunday dinner, what would be his 
feelings on his wife’s setting before him the contents of the 
tin as she would turn it out ? The first impression would 
be that he had been taken in, and his immediate resolve 
would be to buy home-fed meat for the future, even at a 
greater cost. Supposing, moreover, that scraping away the 
outside fat and glutinous matter, he musters up courage to 
attack the solid meat, he finds it, if his experience is the 
same as ours, pleasant and juicy to the taste, though stringy 
and fibrous, and having generally the characteristics of being 
overdone. His natural British prejudices will have been 
strengthened; he looks upon those who advised him to 
invest his money in Australian meat as little better than 
swindlers ; and is not slow to proclaim the fact that he has 
been “ humbugged.” His complaint would be by no means 
unjustifiable, for the meat out of the tins is undoubtedly 
stringy, greasy, and flat, if such a word can be applied. 
Two very important questions here present themselves, — 
first, can any improvement be made in the manner of pre- 
serving on the other side of the water ? and, secondly, can 
anything be done here , within the compass and capabilities of 
a working-man’s wife, to prepare the meat when taken out of 
the tin so as to make it palatable, and approaching what we 
are accustomed to see upon our tables? I have drawn my 
own conclusions as to the first point, but will leave them to 
