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Roast Meat, Wholesomeness Of

Roasting is an excellent method of rendering food wholesome and nourishing, as without making any great change in the chemical properties of meat, it renders it more tender, sapid, and highly flavoured, whilst there is not so much dissipation of its nutritive juices as in baking, boiling, and some other processes. "Roasting," says Dr. Kitchener, "preserves the nutritive part of flesh from dissipation in a greater degree than boiling; and it has been remarked by an observant author (Dr. Willich) that' one pound of roast meat is, in real nourishment, equal to two or three pounds of boiled meat.' It ought, however, to be noticed that the fat of meat treated in this way has undergone some degree of chemical decomposition from its exposure to heat, and is in consequence more oppressive to delicate stomachs, and generally less salutary than boiled meat."

By the process of roasting the fibrine is corrugated, the albumen coagulated, the fat liquefied. As the operation proceeds, the surface becomes first brown and then scorched; and the tendinous parts are rendered softer and gluey. Care should always be taken that the meat should not be overdone, nor ought it to be under-cooked; for although in such a state it may contain more nutriment, yet it will be less digestible, on account of the density of its texture. This fact has been satisfactorily proved by the experiments of Spallanzani; and Mr. Hunter observes, that "boiled and roasted and even putrid meat is easier of digestion than raw." Animal matter loses more by roasting than by boiling: by the latter process mutton loses one-fifth and beef one-fourth; but by roasting, these meats lose about one-third of their weight. In roasting the loss arises from the melting out of the fat, and the evaporating of the water; but the nutritious matter remains condensed in the cooked solid, whereas in boiling the gelatine is partly abstracted. Roast are, therefore, more nutritious than boiled meats. (See PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY, xliv. et seq.)