Roast

“ One roast is composed of one, two, or three calves, two, three, or four sheep, besides game, venison, and poultry. The boiling of the saucepans, the exhalations from the grease, render the atmosphere so fat, so thick, that it is only necessary to breathe in it to feed. A person would not dare enter one of those kitchens on the eve of a feast day, for fear, as it were, of breaking his fast. ”

“ It is a lamentable fact that the multitude of English people nowadays never taste roasted meat; what they call by that name is baked in the oven—a totally different thing, though it may, I admit, be inferior only to the right roast. ”

“ Unless the oven is sufficiently hot to sear the surface, the moisture, or juice, will escape into the roasting pan and the connective tissue will be toughened. A roast should be cooked in a covered roaster to retain the moisture. ”

“ For instance, a large roast is always better than a small one, because it does not dry out in the process of cookery and the part that remains after one meal may be served cold in slices or used for making some other dish, such as meat pie or hash. ”

“ I am dipping up spoonfuls of brown gravy and pouring them over the surface of the roast in approved basting style, when there is a rush, a scramble, and two hard bodies precipitate themselves upon my legs so suddenly that for a moment my head pitches forward into the oven. ”

“ Make a very nice roast, truss them in the same manner as directed for grouse, obtain them young if possible, the old ones although not the best for stewing eat much better dressed that way; four will be sufficient for a roast, put them upon the spit, and when the first course goes to table place them before a sharp fire fifteen minutes, or according to the size, and serve with a gill of clear gravy upon the dish and bread sauce in a boat; you may also lard or bard them with fat bacon, or lard two and bard two, allowing them a little longer to roast, it will give them a very nice appearance. ”

“ 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. ”

“ One of my friends at Paris was perhaps right when he maintained that the English learn their French conversation at the Bureaux des Passeports. Their talk is most useful at table, when they carve their colossal roast beef and inquire which cut you like, overdone or underdone, the inside or the brown outside, fat or lean. This roast beef and this roast mutton are the only good things they have. Heaven preserve every Christian man from their sauces, which consist of one part of flour and two of butter, or when the composition aims at a change, of one part of butter and two of flour. ”

“ When we start to make a roast, we gather up the suitable ingredients: for instance, a few baked beans or mashed lentils, a little cold boiled rice, some tomato macaroni, a nut cutlet or two, perhaps one or two croquettes, a spoonful or so of tomato, some boiled onions, a few peas or string beans or baked peanuts, may be a little corn, and the vegetables strained out of a soup from the day before; throwing them one after another into a pan. Then we often add a handful of nut meats, chopped or whole, a little sage, sometimes sliced celery or chopped onion, occasionally a little browned flour ”

“ One man likes roast chicken, another roast duck; as for me, I love both, and roast goose too.
Regarded from the high idealistic standard, women the world over have a wonderful affinity with the cuisine or cookery of their country, wherever it be. Are not British beauties now—candidly confessed—just so wholesome, nourishing, solid, substantial, inartistic, and yet so admirable as old England's good and simple food: roast beef, roast mutton, pudding in flaming cognac, vegetables boiled once in water, with only two kinds of gravy, of which one is melted butter. ”

“ No. 1—PORK ROAST.
Quantity for 6–8 Persons.
4 lbs. rib roast Salt 6 pepper-corns 2 cloves 1 onion 11⁄2 tbsps. of flour 1 cup of cream 11⁄2 cups of water 1 bay-leaf Preparation: The meat is washed and pounded, some fat trimmed off and salted. The roast is put into the oven with 1 cup of boiling water, all spices and onion and roasted 11⁄2 to 2 hours, basting it frequently. The roast must be crisp outside. When it is done, put it on a platter and prepare the gravy. ”

“ In the first place, the hot water deprives the meat of some of its most important constituents. They naturally become diluted with the water, and are thus unsuited to a feeble stomach. A roast or baked joint retains all its juices, therefore, all its nourishing qualities. ”

“ Catherine de Medici came to France surrounded with a legion of cooks, rôtisseurs and pâtissiers, and these new-comers first improved the cookery already existing, and having found apt scholars in the French, were soon surpassed by their pupils.
The art of roasting is considered an especial art by our neighbours. It is very true, that there is no process in cookery so simple, and yet very few can accomplish it properly. A roast, whether of beef, mutton, venison, lamb, or fowl, should neither be under nor over done. ”

“ A small aitchbone or a solid piece from the shoulder weighing about five pounds makes an economical roast. Wash, dry, season with salt and pepper, dredge with flour, and brown quickly in a hot frying pan or Scotch kettle; place in kettle, half cover with water, cover closely, and cook slowly four hours; when half cooked, season with salt and pepper; add four small onions, two carrots, and one white turnip cut in quarters; when cooked place meat on platter with vegetables around it ”

“ 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. ”

“ ROAST BEEF
My favorite food is Roast Beef, rare, or a good American sirloin steak, which, I take it, are so simple to prepare that they need no recipe.
Suggestions:
1. Stand your roast on two or three thin slices of bacon—not too fat.
2. On the top of the roast lay three or four thin slices of lemon—particularly if you like the “outside cut.”
3. If your steak looks a bit fresh rub with lemon juice (both sides) and allow to stand several hours before broiling or frying. Don’t be frightened if it turns a bit black—be glad.
4. Pan may be rubbed with garlic. ”

“ If one use no water in the dripping-pan, and baste only with the fat that drops from the meat into the bottom of the pan, the roast will have a beautiful glossy brown surface when it is done; but it must be remembered that fat can be heated to a much higher point than water, and that basting with this boiling hot fat will help to harden the piece of meat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As far as my experience goes, they all run thus:—
“Roast beef, roast mutton, roast lamb, roast veal, roast pork, roast pig, roast turkey, roast goose, roast chickens, roast pigeons, roast [Pg 234] ducks,” &c. To which, merely by way of appendix, are added the comparatively insignificant items of “pudding, pastry, and dessert.”
For these, however, nobody cares; but the roasts generally go off well, constituting both the pith and luxury of an American table. A few aristocratic innovations on this rule have, indeed, been attempted by the keepers of some of the crack boarding-houses and hotels ”

“ Roast Beef, Medium, is not only a food. It is a philosophy. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Prepare it the same as any roast, leaving in the kidney, around which put considerable salt. Make a dressing the same as for fowls; unroll the loin, put the stuffing well around the kidney, fold and secure with several coils of white cotton twine wound around in all directions; place in a dripping-pan with the thick side down, and put in a rather hot oven, graduated after it commences to roast to moderate; in half an hour add a little hot water to the pan, and baste often; in another half hour turn over the roast, and when about done dredge lightly with flour and baste with melted butter. ”

“ A pinch of salt, the necessary condiment of our dish, is the only addition made to it. The roast grows golden, softly sizzling, weeps a few oily tears which catch fire on contact with the coals and burn with a white flame. ”

“ In the case of a pot roast, or roast in a kettle, where it is desirable to use both the fibre of the meat and the juice, or gravy, it should be put into a little cold water and raised to about 180 degrees F., where it should be kept for some hours. ”

“ An oven roast, in the first place, should always be placed on a meatstand, and this should be of such a height that at no given moment during the cooking process the meat may come in contact with the juices and fat which have drained from it into the utensil beneath. ”

“ Set the stew aside, and heat up shortly before sending to the table. Putting slices of toast in the bottom of the dish before serving is a decided improvement.
[Pg 12]
Roast, Boiled, Baked, Broiled and Fried. Retaining the Juices in Cooking Meats.
Too little attention is paid to one of the most important features of the culinary art—particularly in roasting, boiling, and broiling—that is the retention of the natural juices of various meats in cooking. ”

“ To Carve a Roast of Beef. Have roast placed on platter skin side up; with a pointed, thin-bladed, sharp knife cut a sirloin or rib roast in thin slices at right angles to the ribs, and cut slices from ribs. If there is tenderloin, remove it from under the bone, and cut in thin slices across grain of meat. Carve back of rump in thin slices with the grain of meat; by so doing, some of the least tender muscle will be served with that which is tender. By cutting across grain of meat, the tenderest portion is sliced by itself, as is the less tender portion. ”

“ Allow the meat to roast until it is either well done or rare, according to the way it is preferred. The length of time required for this process depends so much on the size of the roast, the temperature of the oven, and the preference of the persons who are to eat the meat, that definite directions cannot well be given. ”

“ The bones, trimmings, and remnants of steaks, chops, and roasts may be advantageously utilized for soups. Bits of roast meat and roast gravies are especially serviceable material, since they are rich in the flavoring elements of meat. ”

“ Brush the tops with oil or melted butter or pour a little thin cream over. Bake in a moderate oven in a dripping pan or covered baker without water until the roast is well heated through and the eggs set, then pour boiling water into the baker, cover and bake for an hour or so longer. Remove from oven, let stand a few minutes, invert on platter, lifting mold carefully, garnish, and send to table with a suitable sauce. Some of the meaty flavored sauces are most appropriate. The pieces of nut meat in the roast add much to the pleasure of masticating it. ”

“ ROAST HEART. Take some suet, parsley, and sweet marjoram, chopped fine. Add some bread crumbs, grated lemon peel, pepper, salt, mustard, and an egg. Mix these into a paste, and stuff the heart with it. Whether baked or roasted, serve it up with gravy and melted butter. Baking is best, if it be done carefully, as it will be more regularly done than it can be by roasting. ”

“ Clean roast by wiping with a wet cloth. Place on a rack in oven, add suet to baste with. Cook a six-pound round roast an hour and twenty minutes; a three-rib roast one and one-half hour. Use no water.
ROUND STEAK.
Cover round steak with raw, chopped onions and bacon. Roll and tie. Put into deep kettle, sear or brown. Cover with water and pot roast for two hours. Boil down and thicken the gravy. ”

“ We made a beef stew one day, here, I think. Roasting is cooking meat before the direct blaze of the open fire. Baking is cooking it in the oven. Nearly all the so-called roast beef that we get is baked beef. It is not quite so delicate as real roast beef. You can accomplish the roasting of beef with any range or kitchen stove that has a large grate, that is, a grate where you can have a clear surface of coals against the grate, by using what is called a Dutch oven. ”

“ Cold roast hare will make excellent soup. Chop it in pieces, and stew it in water (according to the quantity of hare) for about an hour, and manage it as in the above receipt: the stuffing of the hare will be a substitute for sweet herbs and seasoning. ”