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Asher Shinwell (Better Meat, December 24.) is certainly wrong in his
supposition that "one of the reasons for the high price of kosher
meat is that here in Britain we are unable to eat the hindquarters
of the animal".
Since, as he correctly observes, they contain the better cuts, for which there is considerable demand in the non-kosher market, it is relatively easy to dispose of them there without significant loss. On the other hand, the cost of removing the gid hanasheh (sciatic nerve) and forbidden fats from this part of the animal would be considerable and, in addition, leave the meat in a not particularly attractive state. When it was sold in this country prior to World War Two, there were many abuses of the system such as butchers selling such cuts inconspicuously marked as untreibered. This meant that the purchaser would have to remove the forbidden parts herself which, without the considerable training required, she would not be able to do. Most housewives were unaware of this, so the result was that they did not do so and thus served non-kosher meat at home. It was to prevent this sort of sharp practice by not-so-honest butchers that Dayan Abramsky banned the sale of hindquarter meat entirely. Martin Stern,
E-MAIL: letters@jewishtelegraph.com
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