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.