Roasting
-The first lesson which the cook has to learn is to know what roasting is, and how it differs from other modes of firing food. In one use of the term, roasting is something distinct from baking, broiling, and frying; according to another, it includes baking, broiling, and frying. In the widest sense, to roast is to cook food by Roasting the application to it of a roasting heat; and a roasting heat may be described as the highest degree of heat which will cook food without burning it up and destroying it. Roasting, commonly so called, broiling, baking, and frying, are but different modes of applying this extreme heat. The heat of a common fire is said to be equivalent to 1145 degrees of a thermometer on Fahrenheit's scale; an ordinary red heat is said to be 980°. How near to such a heat can we approach so as to roast meat without burning it? A roasting heat varies from 350° to 450°-that is, about double the heat of boiling water; and as we have defined roasting (which includes roasting proper, baking, broiling, and frying) to be the cooking of food by the application to it of the utmost degree of heat which will cook it without destroying it, so we may define boiling (which includes boiling proper as well as simmering and stewing) as the cooking of food by the application to it of the lowest degree of heat which will cook it in a reasonable time. This lowest degree of heat ranges between 170°, for very slow stewing, and 212°, for the quickest boiling. The extreme heat required for roasting evolves certain flavours which it is impossible to reach by mere boiling; and it will be seen, by reference to the numbers, that whereas a roasting heat is about half of what is called red heat, a boiling heat is about the half of roasting heat. It may be added, that between the two extreme forms of cookery, roasting and boiling, with all that they severally include, there are two modes of producing a medium heat with a medium result. One is called brazing -the meat being in a stewpan with live coals on the lid above, whereby while the under part is stewing the upper part is roasting. The other is called tossing in butter (sauter), and is a process of frying in which the roasting heat that would be developed if the pan were left still is arrested by tossing its contents, so that they never reach the browning point, which is the chief indication of roasting. Roasting So much for the theory of roasting, which applies equally to baking, broiling, and frying, and which will be found further illustrated throughout this volume in many discussions on the cardinal division of cookery into brown and white. For the rule of what is specially called roasting, Mr. Buckmaster has summed up the chief points to be attended to in the pithy sentences which follow :- "I believe I am regarded as a sort of heretic on the question of roasting meat. My opinion is that the essential condition of good roasting is constant basting, and this the meat is not likely to have when shut up in an iron box; and what is not easily done is easily neglected. Make up your fire, not by shooting on a scuttle of coals, but laying on the coals with your hands, using an old glove. Arrange the lumps of coal so that air passes freely into the fire. By this arrangement you may avoid stirring the fire-which should be done as little as possible. Just before putting down the meat (which may be suspended by a piece of worsted, if you have no other arrangements), clear up the fireplace, and throw to the back of the fire all the cinders and a little small coal slightly wetted. This will prevent waste of fuel, and throw the heat where you want it-in the front. If you have a meat screen, place it before the fire, so as to get moderately heated before the meat is hung to the fire. Heat reflected from bright metallic surfaces never dries or scorches the meat. Arrange the drippingpan so that no ashes can fall into it, and just as far below the meat as will enable you to baste it easily. If you have a little dripping or stock, put about a gill into the drippingpan for basting. Place a newspaper on the floor; this will keep your hearth clean. There is a right and a wrong way of hanging a piece of meat to roast. The thickest part should hang a trifle below the centre of the fire; and if this can be best done by hanging the shank of a leg of mutton downwards, do so. The time required for roasting will be modified by circumstances; and different kinds or Roasting qualities of meat require somewhat different treatment. The time usually allowed is from fifteen to twenty minutes for a pound. Before removing the meat from the fire, press the lean part with the thumb: if the meat yield easily, or if the meat steam to the fire, it is done. Never sprinkle salt over the meat till about a quarter of an hour before it is ready. Pour away the dripping before using the salt, because fat used for puddings and pies and frying is better without salt. You may dredge a little flour over it; and every part should be of a nice pale brown: if any part be scorched or blackened, you have failed in your cooking. Pour off the dripping, leaving in the pan the pure gravy free from fat. Have a gill or half a pint of stock or broth, or water, ready; pour it into the drippingpan, rinse it round, strain it into the dish, and send it to table as quickly as possible. Some cooks tie a piece of buttered paper on the meat."
TIME-TABLE FOR ROASTING.
The following figures are not exact. A great deal depends on the quality of the meat to be roasted, its distance from the fire, and the heat of the fire. In England, said Carême, all the women roast well; but he attributed the success of English roasting to the constancy of a coal fire and to the regularity of the bottle-jack, which has not, like the turnspit machine in France, to be wound up every quarter of an hour.
Beef, 15 to 20 lbs.
Forequarter, 8 lbs.
Leg of Pork, 8 lbs.
Hours. 2 6 lbs.
Hours. 4 7 or 8 lbs. 2 دو Veal, fillet, 10 lbs. 3 Loin دو Neck or loin, 4 lbs. 2 Haunch of Venison Leg of Mutton, 8 to 10 lbs. 2 Hare...
Shoulder " 6 lbs. دو 1½ Leg of Lamb, 6 lbs. 1½ Turkey, 9 lbs.
Goose, 6 lbs. 3 2 4 to 5 Robert Minutes.
Capon 60 Partridge Poularde 45 Woodcock Chicken 30 Wild duck.
Duck 60 Widgeon Duckling 40 Pigeon ........
Pheasant 35 Quail ..
Minutes. 15 to 20 .. " .. دو وو دو دو