The Butcher in Ancient Egypt

As totally the meat used was freshly mowed down, the kitchen and the butcher's department represented an active appearance for many hours early to the feast.

In butchering, it was customary to take the ox or other animal into a courtyard about the house, tie its legs together and throw it to the ground, to be held in that situation by one or more persons while the butcher spread to cut its throat, as nearly as potential from one ear to the other, sometimes extended the opening down along the neck, the blood being taken in a vase or basin to be utilized later in cooking. The head was then taken off and the animal skinned, the hustlers beginning with the leg and neck. The first joint taken was the right foremost leg or shoulder, the other starts following in sequence according to convenience. One of their most remarkable joints, still considered in Egypt was cut from the leg and comprised of the flesh covering the tibia, whose two appendages projected slightly beyond it, as seen in the illustration.


Butchers cutting up ox. Carrying trays of meat (Inside Thebes's Tombs)

The head of the animal was commonly given away in return for extra serves, such as the checking of the guests' sticks, but it was now and again eaten by the people of the higher classes, the assertion of Herodotus to the contrary notwithstanding.

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