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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 workingclasses
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)
