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. Yolks of eggs, grated biscuit, and juice of oranges✪ Bastings. 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: — "The rarest ways of dressing of all manner of roast meats, either flesh or fowl, by sea or land, and divers ways of breading or dredging meats, to prevent the gravy from too much evaporating." Roasting, Mr. Buckmaster on.— "I believe I am regarded as a sort of heretic on the question of roasting meat. My opinion is that the essential condition of good roasting is constant basting, and this the meat is not likely to have when shut up in an iron box ; and what is not easUy done is easily neglected. Jlake up your fire, not by shooting on a scuttle of coals, but laying on the coals with your hands, using an old glove. Arrange the lumps of coal so that air passes freely into the fire. By this arrangement you may avoid stirring the fire, which should be done as little as possible. Just before putting down the meat (which may be suspended by a piece of worsted, if you have no other arrangements), clear up the fireplace, and throw to the back of the fire all the cinders and a little small coal sUghtly wetted. This will prevent waste of fuel, and throw the heat where you want it — in the front. If you have a meat screen, place it before the fire, so as to get moderately heated before the meat is hung to the fire. Heat reflected from bright metallic surfaces never dries or scorches the meat. Arrange the dripping-pan so that no ashes can fall into it, and just as far below the meat as will enable you to baste it easily. If you have a little dripping or stock, put about a gill into the dripping-pan for basting. Place a news- paper on the floor ; this will keep your hearth clean. There is a right and a wrong way of hanging a piece of meat to roast. The thickest part should hang a trifle below the centre of the fire ; and if this can be best done by hanging the shank of a leg of mutton downwards, do so. The time required for roasting will be modi- fied by circumstances; and different kinds or qualities of meat require somewhat different treatment. The time usually allowed is from fifteen to twenty minutes for a pound. Before removing the meat from the fire, press the lean part with the thumb : if the meat yield easily, or if the meat steam to the fire, it is done. Never sprinkle salt over the meat till about a quarter of an hour before it is ready. Pour EOB (762) ROC away the dripping Tjcf ore using the salt, because fat tised for puddings and pies and frying is "better without salt. You may dredge a little flour over it, and every part should be of a nice pale brown r if any part be scorched or blackened 3'ou have failed in your cooking. Pour off the dripping, leaving in the pan the pure gravy free from fat. Have a gill or half a pint of the stock or broth, or water, ready ; pour it into the dripping-pan, rinse it round, strain it into the dish, and send it to table as quickly as possible. Some cooks tie a piece of di-ippin_g- or buttered paper on the moat."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

A modernized reading is not available for this page yet. You are seeing the original text.

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. Yolks of eggs, grated biscuit, and juice of oranges. 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: — "The rarest ways of dressing of all manner of roast meats, either flesh or fowl, by sea or land, and divers ways of breading or dredging meats, to prevent the gravy from too much evaporating." Roasting, Mr. Buckmaster on.— "I believe I am regarded as a sort of heretic on the question of roasting meat. My opinion is that the essential condition of good roasting is constant basting, and this the meat is not likely to have when shut up in an iron box ; and what is not easUy done is easily neglected. Jlake up your fire, not by shooting on a scuttle of coals, but laying on the coals with your hands, using an old glove. Arrange the lumps of coal so that air passes freely into the fire. By this arrangement you may avoid stirring the fire, which should be done as little as possible. Just before putting down the meat (which may be suspended by a piece of worsted, if you have no other arrangements), clear up the fireplace, and throw to the back of the fire all the cinders and a little small coal sUghtly wetted. This will prevent waste of fuel, and throw the heat where you want it — in the front. If you have a meat screen, place it before the fire, so as to get moderately heated before the meat is hung to the fire. Heat reflected from bright metallic surfaces never dries or scorches the meat. Arrange the dripping-pan so that no ashes can fall into it, and just as far below the meat as will enable you to baste it easily. If you have a little dripping or stock, put about a gill into the dripping-pan for basting. Place a news- paper on the floor ; this will keep your hearth clean. There is a right and a wrong way of hanging a piece of meat to roast. The thickest part should hang a trifle below the centre of the fire ; and if this can be best done by hanging the shank of a leg of mutton downwards, do so. The time required for roasting will be modi- fied by circumstances; and different kinds or qualities of meat require somewhat different treatment. The time usually allowed is from fifteen to twenty minutes for a pound. Before removing the meat from the fire, press the lean part with the thumb : if the meat yield easily, or if the meat steam to the fire, it is done. Never sprinkle salt over the meat till about a quarter of an hour before it is ready. Pour EOB (762) ROC away the dripping Tjcf ore using the salt, because fat tised for puddings and pies and frying is "better without salt. You may dredge a little flour over it, and every part should be of a nice pale brown r if any part be scorched or blackened 3'ou have failed in your cooking. Pour off the dripping, leaving in the pan the pure gravy free from fat. Have a gill or half a pint of the stock or broth, or water, ready ; pour it into the dripping-pan, rinse it round, strain it into the dish, and send it to table as quickly as possible. Some cooks tie a piece of di-ippin_g- or buttered paper on the moat."

Cassell's dictionary of cookery