Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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218 DÜSSELDORF. Meat. The Düsseldorf supply of fresh meat consists almost entirely of German produce. Oxen, cows and heifers are brought in from Rhineland, Westphalia and Berlin ; calves from Hanover and Westphalia ; sheep from the latter province chiefly, and pigs from Mecklenburg, Oldenburg and Holstein as well as from Westphalia. A considerable amount of dead meat was still being imported from Holland in October, 1905, but since March, 1906, the supply from that quarter has almost ceased owing to the increase in the import duties. The nearest estimate of the meat consumption of the town is the quantity which passes into the market through the public abattoir. This amounted in 1905 to 143’8 lb. per head, against 147’2 lb. in 1904, and 120 3 lb. in 1903, but owing to the reservation named these figures must be regarded as understating the actual consumption. On the other hand, the consumption by the working- classes as attested by 126 returns obtained for this enquiry, and representing 593 persons, of weekly expenditure on meat, only amounts to 25J oz. a head per week, or approximately 83 lb. per annum. Of this beef accounted for 35 per cent., sausage for 25 per cent., bacon and pork for 21 per cent., and mutton for 7 per cent. The last is a high proportion as compared with other German towns. The Düsseldorf workman rarely sees a joint of meat upon his table, small pieces weighing from half a pound to a pound being the usual quantities served over the counter. As will be seen from the foregoing figures, beef and pork are much more frequently eaten than mutton or veal. The meat is usually boiled in the first instance in order to make the indispensable soup. After that it is fried or otherwise browned on the surface, flavoured, and served with some kind of vegetable (very frequently beans) and potatoes. Steaks and chops are considered far too expensive, but it must be remembered that a mutton or pork chop is not the same thing in Germany as in the United Kingdom. Every vestige of the fat is carefully removed, so that it consists only of the bone and the lean part, frequently spoken of as the “ eye.” Such mutton as is eaten by the working classes usually comes from the neck or the breast. The same price is charged for any part of the neck, usually 6^d. to Id. per pound. Ko frozen or chilled meat is imported. Some 1,700 horses are slaughtered for consumption in the Düsseldorf abattoir in the course of a year and there are six butchers in the town who sell only this description of meat. The horses come from all parts of Germany, especially the East and South, but also from England. English horses are preferred. For an old worked-out horse £2 or £3 is given. Good horses, which happen to have been lamed, fetch as much as £7 and in exceptional cases £9. The carriage from England amounts to £4 and a duty of £2 10s. has to be paid ; an English horse costs the Düsseldorf butcher £10 on the average. Native horses can be got to the abattoir at a total cost of £4 to £5, or even less. The utmost care is taken that only healthy horses are offered as food. Both before and after killing, a horse is examined by the veterinary surgeon attached to the public slaughter-house and the butcher is required to keep a register, which is periodically examined, giving the following data : sex and colour, age, size, special characteristics, day of purchase, name of vendor and remarks as to its origin, certificate of veterinary surgeon as to condition on first and second examination respectively, day of slaughter and of sale elsewhere, and other remarks. One of the local restaurant proprietors, who sells only horse-flesh, cuts up two horses every Saturday and provides a dish of horse-flesh (stewed), including potatoes, at 35 pfennige (about 4d.). The usual retail prices of horseflesh per pound in Düsseldorf are as follows :— d. Fillet Steak Meat for boiling .. for roasting.. Liver Kidneys ... Sausage— From liver Hard (Plockwurst)

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