Miss Corson's practical American cookery and household management

THE roasts proper are given in this chapter, and also those dishes of birds and game which sometimes replace the roasts, and are more suitable for a dinner of several courses than the large joints of roast meat. The baked meats are given among the removes, together with the large boiled joints, and the boiled poultry. The smaller dishes of broiled, fried, and stewed meats are given among the entrees, together with some of the smaller baked meats. The roasts should always be accompanied by some kind of green salad, if it is obtainable, because it greatly enhances the flavor of the meat. When wine is served with the roast, it may be either champagne or Burgundy. Sometimes the salad immediately follows the roast, and in that case it should be accompanied by some form of cheese. ROAST BEEF. Roast beef can be prepared before an ordinary range or cooking-stove by using a tin case, open on the side towards the fire, called a Dutch oven ; any large box of tin bright enough to reflect the heat will serve for this purpose, if it has a bottom tight enough to retain the drippings from the meat. The regular Dutch oven is provided with a hook, upon which the meat is hung ; if it has to be otherwise supported, the best method is by a rack, which will raise the meat to about the middle of the oven, where the heat is the most regular. Wipe the beef with a wet towel after it has been trimmed by the butcher, suspend it in the Dutch oven, and place it before the fire where it will brown quickly; after it is brown, season it with salt and pepper ; if a frothed surface is desired, dust the beef with dry flour, and then moisten it with drippings every fifteen minutes, after it is brown ; allow fifteen minutes to a pound for roasting beef medium rare before a hot fire. When the beef is done, put it on a hot platter, and quickly make the gravy as follows, or do this before taking up the beef. Put over the fire in a frying-pan, dripping-pan, or saucepan, two tablespoonfuls of beef-drippings, and one of dry flour, and stir them until they are brown ; then gradually stir in a pint of boiling water, and a palatable seasoning of salt and pepper ; let the gravy so made boil for one minute, and then serve it with the beef. ROAST LAMB WITH SORREL-SAUCE. Have the bone cut from a shoulder of lamb without mangling it ; replace the bone with crumbs of bread, highly seasoned with salt and pepper, and sew or tie the lamb so as to enclose the crumbs ; put the lamb upon a spit, or into a pan just large enough to hold it, and either roast it before a hot fire, or bake it in a very hot oven. When the meat is brown, season it with salt and pepper, and cook it to the required degree; about fifteen minutes to a pound will cook it medium well done. While the lamb is being cooked, prepare some sorrel-sauce as follows, and when the meat is done, remove the strings, and serve it on the sorrel-sauce. SORREL-SAUCE. For this sauce, either the large-leaved field-sorrel, or the small trefoil of the wood-sorrel, may be used. Thoroughly wash the herb, and put it over the fire in an earthen or porcelain-lined saucepan, with only the water which remains upon