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Cooking of True Proteids Continued: Meat: Roast

ROAST MEATS In broiling, a comparatively large extent of surface is presented to the fire. Sometimes we wish to cook tender meat that is in a compact form. A piece is often but a little less thick than broad. To cook such meat directly over the fire or in front of a fire (roasting) necessitates well-nigh constant attention. To simplify the cooking, we use a hot oven, in which heat is applied to all the surfaces uniformly, or approximately so. The first step is to sear over the surface, to keep the juices within the meat; then, as in broiling, the heat must be lowered. To aid in the outside searing and to convey heat into the meat, we pour hot fat over it (baste) every ten minutes. To sear over the meat, the oven should be at a temperature of 400 F. when the meat is set into it. After the initial searing is completed, the temperature should be lowered as soon as possible to about 240 F. Fat will not burn in the pan at this temperature. This is a guide in the roasting. The temperature of the roast at the center is much lower than 240 deg F., on account of the water in composition, and thus the juices are not overcooked or dried out. Part of the fat used in basting may come from the meat itself, (dripping), but often this must be supplemented with additional fat left over from other roasts, or taken from the top of the soup kettle. If during the cooking a portion of the meat rests continuously in the hot fat, it will be overcooked, fried, not roasted or baked. To obviate this, set the meat on a rack, and always adapt the size of the pan to the size of the roast. If the pan be large, a large quantity of fat is needed to cover the surface of the pan, and keep it from burning. Water is sometimes used to obviate this trouble, but water changes the character of the product and should be discarded. Roasts are preeminently for large families, still there are cuts of meat that are well adapted to the family of two.

ROAST BEEF TENDERLOIN The tenderloin for a small family is cut from under the rump. It sells for thirty-five to forty cents a pound. It contains no bone and little waste. It weighs two and a half to four pounds; about three pounds is the average weight. Two or four slices may be removed for broiling, and the rest be cooked as a roast.

With the fingers and a sharp, thin knife, remove all skin and tendinous portions, and wipe the meat with a damp cloth. When the oven is ready (about 400 deg F.) rub a little salt over the surface and spread it with salt pork or bacon fat, or fasten strips of salt pork or bacon over it. Set it on the rack in a small pan, and into the hot oven; let cook five or six minutes, then turn, to sear over the other side; in about ten minutes baste with the fat in the pan, dredge with flour, reduce the heat and let cook from fifteen to twenty minutes longer, according to the thickness of the meat. Baste three or more times. When cut the meat should be dark on the outside to the depth of one-fourth an inch, and the center shaded from pink to red, but showing no signs of rawness; i.e., the juices should be coagulated throughout. Pour off the fat, to leave two tablespoonfuls in the pan, add two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir and cook until frothy; then add one cup of tomato puree, beef broth or cold water, or a mixture of these, and stir and cook until boiling. For a higher flavored sauce, a slice of onion and two of carrot may be cooked in the fat a few moments before the flour is added. This roast does not have the juiciness and full, rich flavor of a rib roast, and calls for a richly flavored sauce. Bananas baked in the skin, then removed from the skin and covered with a sultana sauce, are a choice accompaniment to this dish. HAMBURG ROAST Chop fine one pound of steak, cut from the top of the round, and two or three ounces of beef marrow, taken from the hind leg bone; a small slice of green or red pepper pod and half a slice of onion may be chopped with the meat or a teaspoonful of onion juice may be added after the meat is chopped. Add a scant half a teaspoonful of salt, the beaten yolk of an egg and one-fourth a cup of soft, sifted bread crumbs that have been soaked in cold water and wrung dry in a bit of cheese cloth. With the hand, mix all the ingredients together very thoroughly. Care must be taken to mix the marrow and bread evenly through the meat. Press the whole into a compact roll, of equal thickness throughout. Put a slice of pork or bacon on the meat rack (to hold up the meat), set the roast on this, put a second slice over the meat and set to cook in a very hot oven. After six minutes reduce the heat, baste with the fat in the pan, and let cook about fifteen minutes longer. The roast should be brown on the outside and pink at the center. Serve with brown or tomato sauce. TIP OF THE LOIN ROAST The best of the small roasts of beef are two ribs cut from the extreme end of the hind quarter. This roast will weigh five or six pounds and will last a family of two nearly a week. The two ribs coming next to this cut (on the fore quarter, however) will weigh seven to ten pounds. As the hind quarter is hung up by the loop made by the tendon in the hind leg, the juices in this quarter naturally flow toward the tip, making it juicy, and, the roast being tender, is very desirable. Sear all over in a hot oven, then set the meat on the rack, skin side down, and when half cooked turn, to brown the skin. Cook from an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half, following the directions given for Roast Beef Tenderloin. Add extra fat if needed for basting. Select a pan but little larger than the roast. Use no water in cooking. WILD DUCK, ROASTED Truss the duck in the same manner as is given for Roast Chicken. Spread the outside with butter or bacon fat, and dredge with salt and flour. Put a dozen cranberries within, and roast in a hot oven from twenty to thirty minutes, basting three times with bacon fat. Remove the duck to a hot platter, and garnish with rounds of hominy, fried in deep fat, each holding a slice of bacon, rolled and baked at the same time as the duck, or better still fried in deep fat. Serve celery salad and currant jelly at the same time. COOKING OF LESS TENDER MEAT In cooking tender meat we took pains to secure a glossy, well-browned exterior and a delicate coagulation of the proteids in solution. In cooking less tender meat a rich-colored, high-flavored surface can be secured only indirectly. Our chief concern is to change the connective tissue into gelatine and to coagulate the proteids, delicately. To gelatinize connective tissue, moisture in the form of water is introduced and prolonged cooking is needful. As in roasting and broiling, the portion of meat is first subjected to high heat, that a coating may be formed to keep in the juices, after that the cooking is completed at a lower temperature. By experiments it has been found that the temperature in the center of meat during cooking is much lower than that of the liquid (or oven heat) surrounding it. Thus albuminous juices, which coagulate between 134 deg and 160 deg F. are not overcooked, though the liquid surrounding the meat be at the boiling point of water, 212 deg F. To give the best results, however, the liquid that supplies moisture for the cooking of meats containing much connective tissue should not exceed a temperature between 185 deg and 200 deg F. By lengthening the time of cooking, just as good results may be obtained and at a much lower degree of heat, as in the fireless cooker. In all cases the cooking is completed, when the fibers are tender and held together loosely yet compactly in a slightly gelatinous mass. Without a thermometer, the proper temperature is assured, if the liquid "bubble" occasionally on one side of the kettle. A furious bubbling of the liquid hardens albuminous juices in solution; and in the cooking of meats, cut in small pieces, as joints of a fowl or pieces of round steak, cooked en casserole, or for beefsteak pie, the albuminous juices are hardened throughout.

CUTS OF LESS TENDER MEAT SUITABLE FOR FAMILY OF TWO Beef is not as palatable when warmed over as is lamb, veal or fowl; thus pot-roast, boiled-and-braised beef, even in pieces of three or four pounds, are not recommended for the family of two. Other dishes of beef to take the place of these will be given. For stews, en casserole dishes, hashed beef and onions and beefsteak pies, meat from the round is the best; for beef tea, bouillon, cannelon of beef, or mince meat, select meat from the sticking piece. For corned beef, buy three pounds from the plate or the brisket. Carefully selected the lean and fat meat will be well proportioned. Either of these pieces, but more especially the brisket, will slice well when cold. Creamed corned beef is a dish that can be served with pleasure at least as often as once a week throughout the year, and well-made corned beef-and-potato hash never goes a begging. Corned beef, cut in tiny cubes and served with vegetables, potato cubes, peas and the like, and French or mayonnaise dressing, to which onion juice has been added, is easily prepared and deserves to be a favorite dish. Thus, with all these ways of presenting close, fire-grained brisket, four pounds may not be too much for an occasional purchase.

A fowl a year old may be cooked in moist heat until the fibers are tender, and the connective tissues are gelatinized, and then browned in the oven with much basting and dredging to approximate the glossy "carameled" appearance and flavor of a roast chicken.

A fowl a year old may be cooked to give quite a diversity of dishes. The breast, cut out neatly, may be cooked in a casserole for one meal; the rest may be stewed; of this the legs and wings may be fried, and on a third day the rest of the chicken, picked from the bones, with any of the breast left over, may be served in a pie.

Three pounds from the forequarter of yearling lamb provide a convenient piece for boiled lamb; the scrag, or neck end of the forequarter, is good for a stew, but the part containing the shoulder is preferable for boiling. This will serve for dinner and leave enough to be fine-chopped, when cold, and used for a second meal.

For veal stew, two or three pounds from any part of the forequarter may be selected; for other dishes of veal, the part of the hind leg that corresponds to the "round" of beef will be the choice.

For boiled ham, buy about three pounds from about the center of the ham; when cold cut in thin slivers across the grain of the meat. Very little of such a piece of ham will be left for chopping. Taking into account the very small quantity of waste in this piece and the large quantity of waste, when either the shank or the round end of a ham is selected, the higher price paid for the piece from the center will not prove an extravagance. BOILED CORNED BEEF Select three or four pounds from the plate or brisket; wash carefully in cold water, cover with cold water and heat slowly to the boiling point, then let simmer until the meat is tender. It will take about six hours. With a fireless cooker proceed as above, but, after simmering an hour and a half, set into the cooker to remain about ten hours. Serve with it boiled turnips or cauliflower. NECK AND SHOULDER OR LAMB The neck and shoulder of lamb, before referred to (see illustration, page 99), is an economical piece of meat, and capable of many variations in cooking. The whole piece shown in the illustration weighed about five pounds. The scrag, or neck end, -- the fore leg is also on this part, -- is the least desirable portion. This follows the rule that meat increases in value the further it is removed from the head. Either of these pieces (do not cut for a family of four or five) may be steamed, and the broth be thickened for a sauce; and they may be braised with vegetables or cut in pieces and cooked as a stew, a ragout, or a curry.