Home › Sect. 5.-General Principles of Roasting › Sect. 5.-General Principles of Roasting

Sect. 5.-General Principles of Roasting

70. According to Liebig, it is essential to the successful and economical management of roasting, to put the joint down first of all close to the fire, so as to coagulate the albumen on the surface, and thus to prevent the escape of it in a fluid state. This answers remarkably well in boiling, but not in roasting, because the heat is not applied to the whole surface at once, but only to one half of it, the other half being cooled at that time, so that it is impossible to raise the surface, without scorching it, up to the coagulating point of albumen, until the whole mass is also above 150 degrees. In a Dutch oven the plan is good, both in theory and practice; but with a revolving spit it is totally erroneous, and the old directions, to put down the joint first at a distance, and then gradually bring it nearer to the fire, are the correct ones. In roasting, very little besides water and fat are expelled from the meat, the former by evaporation, and the latter by liquefaction from the increased temperature, and by contraction of the fibrous tissues owing to the same cause. A small quantity of gravy, containing the juice of the flesh (osmazome), is also expressed; but the loss in this way is very trifling, not amounting to more than a few ounces of gravy in a large joint of meat, and never being more than enough to serve as gravy. Indeed, in roasting, there is absolutely no loss whatever of any thing but water, the fat being collected as dripping, and of equal value with the meat, while the osmazome is saved in the form of gravy, or else it is collected about the dripping-pan, from which it is dissolved in the water poured into it, to make the gravy served with the meat. Although, therefore, there is a great difference between the weight of a joint when cooked and that which pertained to it when raw, yet this loss, after allowing for the weight of dripping and gravy, is to be considered as due to the water passing off by evaporation; so that a roast joint of meat, together with its dripping and gravy, contains all the nourishment which pertained to it beforehand. This, we shall presently see, is not the case with boiled meat. 71. Besides this absolute economy in roasting, there is also the advantage that roast meat is more grateful to the stomach than boiled, and can be eaten for a longer time without change. This is probably due to the presence of the saline ingredients; but to whatever cause it may be referred, there is no doubt of the fact, that any one will much sooner get tired of boiled mutton than roast, or of boiled than roast beef; and also, that invalids can digest roast in preference to boiled mutton, both being fresh. 72. THE WEIGHT thus lost by evaporation and dripping of fat and gravy, varies a good deal according to the quality of the meat, the proportion of bones, and the amount of fat, as described at page 12 of the Economical Housekeeper. It is also said that, by roasting with gas, there is less loss by evaporation, with a greater saving of dripping; and this, I am assured upon good private authority, as well as from public experiments recently made. According to an experiment made by M. Soyer, at the Greenwich Hospital (the account of which was published in the Mechanics' Magazine), twenty-three legs of mutton, weighing 184 lbs., were roasted by gas at a cost of 10 d.; the gas costing 4s. per 1000 feet. 145 lbs. " When cooked they weighed ... ... ... 500 ... ... ...

Dripping ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Gravy, or osmazome ... ... 565 ...

Water, or loss ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 19 21 " 17,, 184 lbs.

Twenty-three joints, also weighing 184 lbs., were afterwards cooked in valued at 1s. 8d.one of Count Rumford's ovens, usually considered more economical than roasting, and consuming 102 lbs. of coke and 30 lbs. of coal, They weighed when done ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Dripping Grayy ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Water, or loss 000 132 lbs. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 18 ... ... 0 0 " ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 34 " 184 lbs.

The gain by the use of gas was therefore- 13 lbs. of meat 486 ... ... ... ... ... 1 lb. of dripping ... ... 800 ... ... 21 lbs. of gravy ... ... ... ... ...

Difference in cost of fuel ... ... ... s. d. ... ... ... 66 ... ... ... ... 05 ... ... ... 36 ... ... ... ... ... 09 ... ... ... ... ... 11 21 Total gain In this, as in other similar experiments, I cannot help thinking that the saving is more apparent than real, and that it depends upon the more regular application of the heat, and upon the meat being done in the one case more thoroughly than in the other. It is an acknowledged fact, that there is no loss in roasting except by evaporation of water; and if so, what became of the thirteen lbs. of meat which were said to