The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 13

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 ragouts, 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 b.u.t.ter.

2. Clarified suet.

3. Minced sweet herbs, b.u.t.ter, and claret, especially for mutton and lamb.

4. Water and salt.

5. Cream and melted b.u.t.ter, 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, pa.s.s 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 pa.s.s 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 circ.u.mstances 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."

CHAPTER III.

FRYING.

Frying is often a convenient mode of cookery; it may be performed by a fire which will not do for roasting or boiling; and by the introduction of the pan between the meat and the fire, things get more equally dressed.

The Dutch oven or bonnet is another very convenient utensil for small things, and a very useful subst.i.tute for the jack, the gridiron, or frying-pan.

A frying-pan should be about four inches deep, with a perfectly flat and thick bottom, 12 inches long and 9 broad, with perpendicular sides, and must be half filled with fat: good frying is, in fact, boiling in fat.

To make sure that the pan is quite clean, rub a little fat over it, and then make it warm, and wipe it out with a clean cloth.