Grill
It is curious that the most ancient and the most simple mode of cookery should be in some respects the most perfect, and in England certainly the most esteemed. The first cooked food that man ate was a broil; and in England the steak or chop from the gridiron is more in request than any other form of food. Though it is the simplest mode of cooking, and does not need much skill, it needs more care than any other method of applying heat to food. The cook can turn his back on his pots and pans, his oven and his spit-but sure as fate if he turns his back upon the grill it will play him a trick. He has constantly to be watching the fire to see that it is clear-and the meat to see that it does not get burnt, dried or smoked. First for the meat: the English seldom give it any pre- Grog paration for the grill except when it is to be breadcrumbed. The French sprinkle it with pepper and salt, and brush it with oil or butter; and they are right. For breadcrumbing, the French plan is to dip the cutlet into oil or butter and then to roll it in crumbs. The English smear it first with egg-yolk, and then roll it in crumbs; but when this is broiled it forms too dry a crust round the cutlet; and therefore it is always best after rolling it in the crumbs to sprinkle it with clarified butter.
For the grill, it should be placed with a slant over a very bright fire. The slant is to ensure that any fat as it melts shall run away, and not drop under the meat so as to raise a smoky flame. The surface of the steak should have a certain degree of firmness when it leaves the grill; and the great art of grilling is to reach this degree-avoiding equally the flabbiness of a bad French steak and the hardness of a bad English one. The French rarely get this firm surface on their steaks, because they do not put them near enough to the fire; and they do not put them near enough to the fire because they have laid down a law which is never to be infringed on any account-that a steak upon the grill is never to be turned more than once. In the English manner of grilling, the steak is turned many times (with a tongs let it be noted, never with a fork), and it can be brought nearer to the fire than a French steak and to a fiercer fire than the French allow to act briskly on the surface, which can be quickly turned so as to prevent burning.