Appears to be the most ancient process of rendering animal food eatable
by means of the action of heat.
Spits were used very anciently in all parts of the world, and perhaps,
before the plain practice of hanging the meat to a string before the
fire. Ere the iron age had taught men the use of metals, these roasting
instruments were made of wood; and as we find it in Virgil,[20] slender
branches of the hazel tree were particularly chosen--
--------“_Stabit sacer hircus ad aram
“Pinguiaque in verubus torrebimus extra colurnis._”
The altar let the guilty goat approach,
And roast his fat limbs on the hazel broach.”
[20] Georgics II. 545.
Roasting is the most simple and direct application of heat in the
preparation of food. The process is, for the most part, confined to
animal substances, though several fruits, such as apples, chesnuts, and
some roots, are in this manner directly subjected to fire.
But in dressing animal food, butcher’s meat, venison, fowl, and fish,
roasting is one of the most usual processes, and it is, we believe, the
best for rendering food nutritive and wholesome. The chemical changes
also which roasting induces, are sufficiently slight, as a careful
analysis will procure from meat, properly roasted, nearly all the
elements which are to be found in it in the raw state. Slight as the
change is however in a chemical, it is considerable in a culinary, point
of view. The texture of the meat is more relaxed and consequently it is
more tender; it is also more sapid and high flavoured. It is absolutely
essential that the meat intended for roasting, has been kept long enough
for the fibres to become flaccid, without which precaution the best meat
does not become tender. If the meat be frozen, it should be thawed, by
putting it into cold water, before it is put on the spit.
The process of roasting requires some care to conduct it properly. The
meat should be gradually turned before the fire, in order to effect its
uniform exposure to the rays of heat. A covering of paper prevents the
fat from taking fire, and frequently _basting_ the meat with gravy or
melted fat, prevents it from being scorched or becoming dry, bitter, and
unpalatable. It is necessary to be very careful in placing the meat to
be roasted at a proper distance from the fire. If it is put too near,
the surface will be scorched and burnt to a cinder, while the inner
portion will be quite raw; and, if it be too distant, it will never have
either the tenderness or the flavour it would have had by proper care.
At first, it should be placed at some distance, and afterwards be
gradually brought nearer the fire, to give the heat time to penetrate
the whole piece equally; and, the larger the joint is, the more
gradually should this be done. Poultry, in particular, should be heated
very gradually.
When the joint is of an unequal thickness, the spit must be placed
slanting, so that the thinnest part is further removed from the fire.
The less the spit is made to pass through the prime part of the meat,
the better. Thus, in a shoulder of mutton, the spit is made to enter
close to the shank-bone, and passed along the blade-bone of the joint.
When the meat is nearly sufficiently roasted, it is dusted over with a
coating of flour; this, uniting with the fat and other juices exuded on
the surface, covers the joint with a brown crust, glazed and frothy,
which gives to the eye a prelude of the palatable substance it encrusts.
The process, as just described, is very similar, whatever may be the
sort of meat roasted, whether joints, and the several species of fowl,
or game. Fish is not usually dressed in this way, though the larger
sorts are sometimes roasted. Those who relish eels and pike prefer them
roasted to any other mode of dressing them.
It is a general practice to move the spit back when the meat is half
done, in order to clear the bottom part of the grate, and to give the
fire a good stirring, that it may burn bright during the remainder of
the process. The meat is deemed sufficiently roasted when the steam
puffs out of the joint in jets towards the fire.
To facilitate the process of roasting, a metal screen, consisting of a
shallow concave reflector, is placed behind the meat, in order to
reflect the rays of heat of the fire back again upon the meat. This
greatly hastens the process. The screen is usually made of wood, lined
with tin. It should be kept bright, otherwise, it will not reflect the
rays of heat.