Roast meat

“ It is more economical, as the joint loses less weight, and if carefully attended to cannot be distinguished from roast meat. A double tin which holds hot water should be used, so that the steam from the water may prevent the dripping from burning. Place the meat on a trivet in the tin, flour the meat, sprinkle it with salt, put it in the hottest part of the oven for the first few minutes, then remove it to a cooler part, baste well, and turn it over occasionally. (For time and gravy see Roast Meat.) ”

“ Also, some persons like their meat very much done; others prefer it rare, as it is called. In summer, meat will roast in a shorter time than in winter.
When the beef is nearly done, and the steam draws towards the fire, remove the paper that has covered the fat part, sprinkle on a little salt, and having basted the meat well with the dripping, pour off nicely (through the spout of the roaster) all the liquid fat from the top of the gravy.
Lastly, dredge the meat very lightly with a little flour, and baste it with fresh butter. ”

“ In roasting meat, the heat must be strongest at first, and it should then be much reduced. To have a good juicy roast, therefore, the fire must be red and vigorous at the very commencement of the operation. In the most careful roasting, some of the juice is squeezed out of the meat: this evaporates on the surface of the meat, and gives it a dark brown colour, a rich lustre, and a strong aromatic taste. Besides these effects on the albumen and the expelled juice, roasting converts the cellular tissue of the meat into gelatine, and melts the fat out of the fat-cells. ”

“ In roasting meat, only the juices and fat are extracted, but not lost, as the juices make good gravy, and the fat is good for various culinary purposes. When it is put down to roast, there should be a little water in the dripping pan. For broiling, the bars of the gridiron should be perfectly clean, and greased with lard or butter, otherwise the meat will retain the impression of the bars. ”

“ What is usually called roast meat in countries not inhabited by English-speaking people, is what we should call ‘baked meat,’ the very name of which sets all the gastronomic bristles of an orthodox Englishman in a position of perpendicularity. ”

“ In a family of ordinary size nothing should find its way into the buckets of the unsavory caller at basement-door or back-gate. The drippings from most kinds of roast meat, if settled, strained and skimmed, and kept in a clean vessel, answer for many purposes quite as well as butter, and better than lard. Even that from mutton should be “tried out,” strained through muslin, slightly salted, and, if you choose, perfumed with rose-water, in which shape it is better than cold cream, or glycerine for chapped hands, and is a useful cerate for cuts, scratches, etc. ”

“ Against this has to be set the fact that roast meat is agreeable to most persons' taste, and is generally considered digestible. As in broiling, the object is to harden the surface albumen and so to imprison the juices of the meat. This can only be done by making it very hot for a short time: the heat must afterwards be lessened by drawing the joint from the fire, or by cooling the oven. The larger the joint the smaller the fire, lest it should be burnt outside before it is cooked enough, but it should always be hot FIRST, and cool afterwards. ”

“ In roasting or boiling, use but little salt at first, as it hardens meat to do otherwise. In roasting, baste frequently, to prevent the meat from hardening on the outside, and try to preserve the juices. If possible, roast the meat on a spit before a large, open fire, after using salt, pepper, butter or lard, and dredging with flour. Where an open fire-place cannot be obtained, however, the meat may be well roasted in a stove or range. Mutton, pork, shote and veal should be well done, but beef should be cooked rare. ”

“ Baste every five minutes with one-fourth cup butter melted in one cup boiling water. Serve with Brown Mushroom Sauce I.
Roast Beef The best cuts of beef for roasting are: tip or middle of sirloin, back of rump, or first three ribs. Tip of sirloin roast is desirable for a small family. Back of rump makes a superior roast for a large family, and is more economical than sirloin. It is especially desirable where a large quantity of dish gravy is liked, for in carving the meat juices follow the knife. Rib roasts contain more fat than either of the others, and are somewhat cheaper. ”

“ A piece of mutton to roast must not be too fresh, it is much more tender when the meat is rather seasoned, but not tainted, or what is sometimes called "high." When on the spit, place it near the fire, baste immediately with a little melted butter, and then with the drippings. As soon as you notice that a kind of crust or coating has formed around the piece of meat, remove it a little from the fire by degrees; and continue basting till done. The quicker the crust is formed, though without burning the meat, the more juicy and tender it will be. ”

“ The dripping of roast beef, after all the fat has been removed, and the basting of the meat is over, should be strained into a pan, and kept in a cold place, with a cover; and next day, when it is congealed into a cake, scrape off whatever impurities may still adhere to the bottom, transfer it to a covered jar, and set it in the refrigerator, or where it will be cold. The dripping of roast beef is excellent for frying, for plain pie-crust, or for many other purposes. The dripping of mutton (being tallow) [142] is only fit for soap-fat, and will spoil any dish whatever. ”

“ Cut thin slices of cold boiled (not salted) , or roast beef, or tongue. Put 6 onions chopped into a saucepan with 1⁄4 lb. of butter, turn it round frequently, and in a few minutes add a little flour mixed in a tea-cup of broth, and a wine-glass of white wine; let it be on the fire until the onions are cooked; then put in the meat with salt, pepper, and a spoonful of vinegar. After one boil, stir in a spoonful of made mustard, and serve it; the edge of each slice lying a little over the other round the dish.
Bubble and Squeak.
Cold boiled beef is best, but roast meat is very good. ”

“ If she has a young cook, she probably will not be acquainted with the various ways of preventing them from being wasted; if one who is experienced, she may not always care to take the trouble. When meat is of a superior quality, there is usually some fat which should be trimmed off before it is cooked, and more will then roast out, than can be properly used for gravy; therefore, about three quarters of an hour before the meat is done, pour [Pg 196] off all the drippings from the roaster, into a dish, and set them away to cool. ”

“ To carve a roast of any kind, run the fork into the meat deeply enough to hold it firmly and then cut the meat into thin slices across the grain. In the case of a roast leg that contains the bone, begin to carve the meat from the large end, cutting each slice down to the bone and then off so that the bone is left clean. Place round of beef and rolled roasts on the platter so that the tissue side, and not the skin side, is up, and then cut the slices off in a horizontal direction. To carve a rib roast properly, cut it parallel with the ribs and separate the pieces from the backbone. ”

“ What are called white meats, such as veal, lamb, and pork, will not keep, and they therefore have to be cooked when fresh. Can either of you tell me what is the first thing to be done when you are going to roast meat? ”

“ In roasting, the meat should at first be placed near the coals, so as to quickly harden the surface; then it should be removed back a little distance, to be cooked through, without burning. The oftener it is basted, the better it is. If the roast of meat is very large, it should be surrounded with a buttered paper. ”

“ The roasting of meat, not requiring the same amount of heat as does the vaporization of an equal weight of water, can be performed in the open air, by the action of the solar reflector alone, the piece of beef, veal, or mutton being fixed upon a spit. In less than an hour we have in this way a very fine roast. The use of butter must be avoided, lest the chemical rays, by transforming the butter into butyric acid, should spoil the flavor of the meat. ”

“ Any kind of meat can be used to make a meat-and-potato hash; but, of course, nothing is so good as corned beef. Cold roast, boiled, or broiled beef, mutton, lamb, veal, or tongue can be freed from skin, fat, and bones, seasoned highly with salt and pepper, and cooked like corned beef hash. Even two or three kinds of meat can be used. If it happens that you have a bit of steak, a part of a chop, and perhaps a slice of tongue, use them all. ”

“ Mutton is good when the flesh is a bright red, firm and juicy and a close grain, the fat firm and white.
Pork, if young, the lean will break on being pinched smooth when nipped with the fingers, also the skin will break and dent; if the rind is rough and hard it is old.
In roasting meat, allow from fifteen to twenty minutes to the pound, which will vary according to the thickness of the roast. A great deal of the success in roasting depends on the heat and goodness of the fire; if put into a cool oven it loses its juices, and the result is a tough, tasteless roast ”

“ Pot roasts are very good for parts of meat not tender enough for roasting, the "cross-rib," as some butchers term it, being very good for this purpose; it is all solid meat, and being very lean, requires a little fat pork, which may be laid at the bottom of the pot; or better still, holes made in the meat and pieces of the fat drawn through, larding in a rough way, so that they cut together. A pot roast is best put on in an iron pot, without water, allowed to get finely brown on one side, then turned, and when thoroughly brown on the other a little water may be added for gravy ”

“ It is not well to salt meat at first, as salt extracts the juices. In roasting all meats, the art depends chiefly on flouring thoroughly, basting frequently, and turning so often as not to allow any part to burn.
To roast in a cooking stove, it is necessary to attend carefully to the fire, lest the meat should burn. Lay it into the pan with three or four gills of water in it. Turn the pan around often, that all the parts may roast equally. When it is about half done, flour it again, turn it over that the lower side may become brown. ”

“ When buying a pot roast, "Aunt Sarah" selected a thick, chunky piece of meat, weighing several pounds, and a small piece of beef suet which she cut into small bits, placed pan containing them on hot range, added a small, sliced onion, and when fat was quite hot she added the quickly rinsed piece of meat, and quickly seared it to retain the juice; added 1 cup of hot water, a sprig of parsley, seasoning of salt and pepper ”

“ Treat a pickled tongue the same as a piece of corned beef. It will require five hours’ cooking.
116 SCIENCE IN ROASTING MEAT. A roast of meat, be it rare or well done, should be juicy and tender. One should not roast a tough piece of meat; stewing, braising, or boiling is better, because the cooking can be continued for a long time at a low temperature, and this method will make the toughest piece of meat tender. The meat always should be exposed to a high temperature at first, that the surface may become hardened and the juices protected. ”

“ Cold roast beef makes a very good pie, but it is not necessary that roast beef be used, as left-over steak or even a combination of left-over meats, will do very well.
Cut into 1-inch cubes whatever kinds of left-over meats are on hand. Cover with hot water, add a sliced onion, and cook slowly for 1 hour. Thicken the liquid with flour and season well with salt and pepper. Add two or three potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices, and let them boil for several minutes. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish and cover it with a baking-powder biscuit mixture. ”

“ Have the butcher bone and roll the meat, dredge it well with salt, pepper, and flour, and brown it on all sides in a frying-pan with a little of the fat from the meat, or one or two tablespoons of beef drippings or pork fat. Put all the ingredients together in a small cooker-pail, let it simmer thirty minutes, set it into a larger pail of boiling water and put into a cooker for nine hours or more. Reheat it to boiling point; strain and thicken the liquor for gravy. Round [95] of beef may be used for pot roast, but it is drier than the rump, which has some fat on it. ”

“ When only a small roast is wanted, a single rib, such as is shown in Fig. 19, is often used. In a roast of this kind, the bone is not removed, but, as will be observed, is sawed in half. Such a roast is called a standing rib roast. Another small roast, called a porterhouse roast, is illustrated in Fig. 20. This is obtained by cutting a porterhouse steak rather thick. It is therefore a very tender and delicious, although somewhat expensive, roast. Other parts of the loin may also be cut for roasts, the portion from which sirloin steaks are cut making large and very delicious roasts. ”

“ Cut all the meat from cold roast beef; put the bones down with some water, pepper, salt, onions, carrots and potatoes, all cut up: a little brown stock 32 will improve it: let it stew till all of the vegetables are done; then take out the bones, cut your meat in small pieces, rub a piece of butter in flour and stir in: put the meat in till it is hot through ”