ROASTING.
In all studies, it is the best practice to begin with the plainest and
easiest parts; and so on, by degrees, to such as are more difficult: we,
therefore, treated of plain boiling, and we now proceed to roasting: we
shall then gradually unravel to our culinary students the art (and
_mystery_, until developed in this work) of making, with the least
trouble and expense, the most highly finished soups, sauces, and
made-dishes.
Let the young cook never forget that cleanliness is the chief cardinal
virtue of the kitchen; the first preparation for roasting is to take
care that the spit be properly cleaned with sand and water; nothing
else. When it has been well scoured with this, dry it with a clean
cloth. If spits are wiped clean as soon as the meat is drawn from them,
and while they are hot, a very little cleaning will be required. The
less the spit is passed through the meat the better;[74-*] and, before
you spit it, joint it properly, especially necks and loins, that the
carver may separate them easily and neatly, and take especial care it be
evenly balanced on the spit, that its motion may be regular, and the
fire operate equally on each part of it; therefore, be provided with
balancing-skewers and cookholds, and see it is properly jointed.
Roasting should be done by the radiant heat of a clear, glowing fire,
otherwise it is in fact _baked_: the machines the economical
grate-makers call ROASTERS, are, in plain English, ovens.
Count Rumford was certainly an exact economist of fuel, when he
contrived these things; and those philosophers who try all questions
"according to Cocker" may vote for baked victuals; but the rational
epicure, who has been accustomed to enjoy beef well roasted, will soon
be convinced that the poet who wrote our national ballad at the end of
this chapter, was not inspired by Sir Benjamin Thompson's cookery.
All your attention in roasting will be thrown away, if you do not take
care that your meat, especially beef, has been kept long enough to be
tender. See "ADVICE TO COOKS," and obs. to No. 68.
Make up the fire in time; let it be proportioned to the dinner to be
dressed, and about three or four inches longer at each end than the
thing to be roasted, or the ends of the meat cannot be done nice and
brown.
A cook must be as particular to proportion her fire to the business she
has to do, as a chemist: the degree of heat most desirable for dressing
the different sorts of food ought to be attended to with the utmost
precision.
The fire that is but just sufficient to receive the noble sirloin (No.
19), will parch up a lighter joint.
From half an hour to an hour before you begin to roast, prepare the fire
by putting a few coals on, which will be sufficiently lighted by the
time you wish to make use of your fire; between the bars, and on the
top, put small or large coals, according to the bulk of the joint, and
the time the fire is required to be strong; after which, throw the
cinders (wetted) at the back.
Never put meat down to a burned-up fire, if you can possibly avoid it;
but should the fire become fierce, place the spit at a considerable
distance, and allow a little more time.
Preserve the fat,[75-*] by covering it with paper, for this purpose
called "kitchen-paper," and tie it on with fine twine; pins and skewers
can by no means be allowed; they are so many taps to let out the gravy:
besides, the paper often starts from them and catches fire, to the great
injury of the meat.
If the thing to be roasted be thin and tender, the fire should be little
and brisk: when you have a large joint to roast, make up a sound, strong
fire, equally good in every part of the grate, or your meat cannot be
equally roasted, nor have that uniform colour which constitutes the
beauty of good roasting.
Give the fire a good stirring before you lay the joint down; examine it
from time to time while the spit is going round; keep it clear at the
bottom, and take care there are no smoky coals in the front, which will
spoil the look and taste of the meat, and hinder it from roasting
evenly.
When the joint to be roasted is thicker at one end than the other, place
the spit slanting, with the thickest part nearest the fire.
Do not put meat too near the fire at first; the larger the joint, the
farther it must be kept from the fire: if once it gets scorched, the
outside will become hard, and acquire a disagreeable, empyreumatic
taste; and the fire being prevented from penetrating into it, the meat
will appear done before it is little more than half-done, besides losing
the pale brown colour, which it is the beauty of roasted meat to have.
From 14 to 10 inches is the usual distance at which meat is put from the
grate, when first put down. It is extremely difficult to offer any thing
like an accurate general rule for this, it depends so much upon the size
of the fire, and of that of the thing to be roasted.
Till some culinary philosopher shall invent a thermometer to ascertain
the heat of the fire, and a graduated spit-rack to regulate the distance
from it, the process of roasting is attended by so many ever-varying
circumstances, that it must remain among those which can only be
performed well, by frequent practice and attentive observation.
If you wish your jack to go well, keep it as clean as possible, oil it,
and then wipe it: if the oil is not wiped off again it will gather dust;
to prevent this, as soon as you have done roasting, cover it up. Never
leave the winders on while the jack is going round, unless you do it, as
Swift says, "that it may fly off, and knock those troublesome servants
on the head who will be crowding round your kitchen fire."
Be very careful to place the dripping-pan at such a distance from the
fire as just to catch the drippings: if it is too near, the ashes will
fall into it, and spoil the drippings[76-*] (which we shall hereafter
show will occasionally be found an excellent substitute for butter or
lard). To clarify drippings, see (No. 83,) and pease and dripping soup
(No. 229), savoury and salubrious, for only a penny per quart. If it is
too far from the fire to catch them, you will not only lose your
drippings, but the meat will be blackened and spoiled by the foetid
smoke, which will arise when the fat falls on the live cinders.
A large dripping-pan is convenient for several purposes. It should not
be less than 28 inches long and 20 inches wide, and have a covered well
on the side from the fire, to collect the drippings; this will preserve
them in the most delicate state: in a pan of the above size you may set
fried fish, and various dishes, to keep hot.
This is one of Painter's and Hawke's contrivances, near Norfolk-street,
Strand.
The time meat will take roasting will vary according to the time it has
been kept, and the temperature of the weather; the same weight[77-*]
will be twenty minutes or half an hour longer in cold weather,[77-+]
than it will be in warm; and if fresh killed, than if it has been kept
till it is tender.
A good meat-screen is a great saver of fuel. It should be on wheels,
have a flat top, and not be less than about three feet and a half wide,
and with shelves in it, about one foot deep; it will then answer all the
purposes of a large Dutch oven, plate-warmer, hot hearth, &c. Some are
made with a door behind: this is convenient, but the great heat they are
exposed to soon shrinks the materials, and the currents of air through
the cracks cannot be prevented, so they are better without the door. We
have seen one, which had on the top of it a very convenient _hot
closet_, which is a great acquisition in kitchens, where the dinner
waits after it is dressed.
Every body knows the advantage of _slow boiling_. _Slow roasting_ is
equally important.
It is difficult to give any specific rule for time; but if your fire is
made as before directed, your meat-screen sufficiently large to guard
what you are dressing from currents of air, and the meat is not frosted,
you cannot do better than follow the old general rule of allowing rather
more than a quarter of an hour to the pound; a little more or less,
according to the temperature of the weather, in proportion as the piece
is thick or thin, the strength of the fire, the nearness of the meat to
it, and the frequency with which you baste it; the more it is basted the
less time it will take, as it keeps the meat soft and mellow on the
outside, and the fire acts with more force upon it.
Reckon the time, not to the hour when dinner is ordered, but to the
moment the roasts will be wanted. Supposing there are a dozen people to
sip soup and eat fish first, you may allow them ten or fifteen minutes
for the former, and about as long for the latter, more or less,
according to the temptations the "BON GOUT" of these preceding courses
has to attract their attention.
When the joint is half done, remove the spit and dripping-pan back, and
stir up your fire thoroughly, that it may burn clear and bright for the
browning; when the steam from the meat draws towards the fire,[78-*] it
is a sign of its being done enough; but you will be the best judge of
that, from the time it has been down, the strength of the fire you have
used, and the distance your spit has been from it.
Half an hour before your meat is done, make some gravy (_see Receipt_,
No. 326); and just before you take it up, put it nearer the fire to
brown it. If you wish to froth it, baste it, and dredge it with flour
carefully: you cannot do this delicately nice without a very good light.
The common fault seems to be using too much flour. The meat should have
a fine light varnish of froth, not the appearance of being covered with
a paste. Those who are particular about the froth use butter instead of
drippings; (see receipt to roast a turkey, No. 57)--
"And send up what you roast with relish-giving froth,"
says Dr. King, and present such an agreeable appearance to the eye, that
the palate may be prepossessed in its favour at first sight; therefore,
have the whole course dished, before roasts are taken from the fire.
A good cook is as anxiously attentive to the appearance and colour of
her roasts, as a court beauty is to her complexion at a birthday ball.
If your meat does not brown so much, or so evenly as you wish, take two
ounces of Glaze, _i. e._ portable soup, put four table-spoonfuls of
water, and let it warm and dissolve gradually by the side of the fire.
This will be done in about a quarter of an hour; put it on the meat
equally all over with a paste-brush the last thing before it goes to
table.
Though roasting is one of the most common, and is generally considered
one of the most easy and simple processes of cookery, it requires more
unremitting attention to perform it perfectly well than it does to make
most made-dishes.
That made-dishes are the most difficult preparations, deserves to be
reckoned among the culinary vulgar errors; in plain roasting and boiling
it is not easy to repair a mistake once made; and all the discretion and
attention of a steady, careful cook, must be unremittingly upon the
alert.[78-+]
A diligent attention to time, the distance of the meat from, and
judicious management of, the fire, and frequent bastings,[79-*] are all
the general rules we can prescribe. We shall deliver particular rules
for particular things, as the several articles occur, and do our utmost
endeavours to instruct our reader as completely as words can describe
the process, and teach
"The management of common things so well,
That what was thought the meanest shall excel:
That cook's to British palates most complete,
Whose sav'ry skill gives zest to common meat:
For what are soups, your ragoûts, and your sauce,
Compared to the fare of OLD ENGLAND,
And OLD ENGLISH ROAST BEEF!"
* TAKE NOTICE, _that the_ TIME _given in the following receipts is
calculated for those who like meat thoroughly roasted._ (_See N.B.
preceding No. 19._)
Some good housewives order very large joints to be rather under-done, as
they then make a better hash or broil.
To make _gravy_ for roast, see No. 326.
N.B. _Roasts_ must not be put on, till the _soup_ and _fish_ are taken
off the table.
DREDGINGS.
1. Flour mixed with grated bread.
2. Sweet herbs dried and powdered, and mixed with grated bread.
3. Lemon-peel dried and pounded, or orange-peel, mixed with flour.
4. Sugar finely powdered, and mixed with pounded cinnamon, and
flour or grated bread.
5. Fennel-seeds, corianders, cinnamon, and sugar, finely beaten,
and mixed with grated bread or flour.
6. For young pigs, grated bread or flour, mixed with beaten nutmeg,
ginger, pepper, sugar, and yelks of eggs.
7. Sugar, bread, and salt, mixed.
BASTINGS.
1. Fresh butter.
2. Clarified suet.
3. Minced sweet herbs, butter, and claret, especially for mutton
and lamb.
4. Water and salt.
5. Cream and melted butter, especially for a flayed pig.
6. Yelks of eggs, grated biscuit, and juice of oranges.
FOOTNOTES:
[74-*] Small families have not always the convenience of roasting with a
spit; a remark upon ROASTING BY A STRING is necessary. Let the cook,
_before_ she puts her meat down to the fire, pass a strong skewer
through _each end_ of the joint: by this means, when it is about
half-done, she can with ease turn the bottom upwards; the gravy will
then flow to the part which has been uppermost, and the whole joint be
deliciously gravyful.
A BOTTLE JACK, as it is termed by the furnishing ironmongers, is a
valuable instrument for roasting.
A DUTCH OVEN is another very convenient utensil for roasting light
joints, or warming them up.
[75-*] If there is more FAT than you think will be eaten with the lean,
trim it off; it will make an excellent PUDDING (No. 551, or 554): or
clarify it (No. 83).
[76-*] This the good housewife will take up occasionally, and pass
through a sieve into a stone pan; by leaving it all in the dripping-pan
until the meat is taken up, it not only becomes very strong, but when
the meat is rich, and yields much of it, it is apt to be spilt in
basting. To CLARIFY DRIPPINGS, see No. 83.
[77-*] _Insist upon the butcher fixing a_ TICKET _of the weight to each
joint._
[77-+] IF THE MEAT IS FROZEN, the usual practice is to put it into cold
water till it is thawed, then dry and roast it as usual; but we
recommend you to bring it into the kitchen the night before, or early in
the morning of the day you want to roast it, and the warm air will thaw
it much better.
[78-*] When the steam begins to arise, it is a proof that the whole
joint is thoroughly saturated with heat; any unnecessary evaporation is
a waste of the best nourishment of the meat.
[78-+] A celebrated French writer has given us the following
observations on roasting:--
"The art of roasting victuals to the precise degree, is one of the most
difficult in this world; and _you may find half a thousand good cooks
sooner than one perfect roaster_. (See '_Almanach des Gourmands_,' vol.
i. p. 37.) In the mansions of the opulent, they have, besides the master
kitchener, a roaster, (perfectly independent of the former,) who is
exclusively devoted to the spit.
"All erudite _gourmands_ know that these two important functions cannot
be performed by one artist; it is quite impossible at the same time to
superintend the operations of the spit and stewpan."--Further on, the
same author observes: "No certain rules can be given for roasting, the
perfection of it depending on many circumstances which are continually
changing; the age and size (especially the thickness) of the pieces, the
quality of the coals, the temperature of the atmosphere, the currents of
air in the kitchen, the more or less attention of the roaster; and,
lastly, the time of serving. Supposing the dinner ordered to be on table
at a certain time, if the fish and soup are much liked, and detained
longer than the roaster has calculated; or, on the contrary, if they are
despatched sooner than is expected, the roasts will in one case be burnt
up, in the other not done enough--two misfortunes equally to be
deplored. The first, however, is without a remedy; _five minutes on the
spit, more or less, decides the goodness of this mode of cookery_. It is
almost impossible to seize the precise instant when it ought to be
eaten; which epicures in roasts express by saying, 'It is _done to a
turn_.' So that there is no exaggeration in saying, the perfect roaster
is even more rare than the professed cook.
"In small families, where the cook is also the roaster, it is almost
impossible the roasts should be well done: the spit claims exclusive
attention, and is an imperious mistress who demands the entire devotion
of her slave. But how can this be, when the cook is obliged, at the same
time, to attend her fish and soup-kettles, and watch her stewpans and
all their accompaniments?--it is morally and physically impossible: if
she gives that delicate and constant attention to the roasts which is
indispensably requisite, the rest of the dinner must often be spoiled;
and most cooks would rather lose their character as a roaster, than
neglect the made-dishes and '_entremets_,' &c., where they think they
can display their _culinary science_,--than sacrifice these to the
roasts, the perfection of which will only prove their steady vigilance
and patience."
[79-*] Our ancestors were very particular in their BASTINGS and
DREDGINGS, as will be seen by the following quotation from MAY'S
"_Accomplished Cook_," London, 1665, p. 136. "The rarest ways of
dressing of all manner of roast meats, either flesh or fowl, by sea or
land, and divers ways of braiding or dredging meats to prevent the gravy
from too much evaporating."