Ribs of Beef of Thirty-Two Pounds, American Style

These ribs lay next to the short loin, on the side near the neck; in veal and mutton this part is called the rack; the ribs are the most desirable part of the beef, and are either roasted or braised. Choose the ribs from a tender, well mortified piece of meat, saw off the projecting part of the spine. To roast on the spit, it must be wrapped up or packed in several sheets of strong, greased paper; tie with several turns of string, lay it in a cradle spit (Fig. 116) to cook, which will take about three hours and a half before a good, regular fire. Half an hour before removing from the spit, remove the paper, let brown nicely, then put it on a heater to keep warm for forty-five minutes before serving. To roast in the oven, place the ribs in a baking pan, pour on some fat, and roast it for four hours, carefully basting several times during the cooking; salt and set it on a heater to keep warm three-quarters of an hour before serving. When sending the roast to table serve with it a sauce-bowl of good thickened gravy (No. 405) and a dish of mellow potatoes, prepared as follows: Cook some potatoes in salted water for thirty minutes, drain and press them through a colander, adding half an ounce of butter for each pound of potatoes. Form this puree into balls an inch and a half in diameter, lay them on a buttered pan, pour over some more butter, and brown them in the oven. Serve them at the same time as the roast beef. The time for cooking different sizes is: For a cut of five pounds, forty minutes, then keep in hot closet for fifteen minutes longer; for a cut of ten pounds one hour, keep in hot twenty minutes; for a cut of fifteen pound one hour and three-quarters, keep in hot closet twenty-five minutes; for a cut of twenty pounds, two hours and one-quarter, then keep in a hot closet thirty minutes; for twenty-five pounds, two hours and a half, then keep in a hot closet thirty-five minutes; for a cut of thirty pounds, three hours, then keep in a hot closet forty minutes.