Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

food. When it is introduced into the boiling water, the albumen immediately coagulates from the surface inwards, and in this state forms a crust, which no longer permits the external water to penetrate into the interior of the mass of flesh. But the temperature is gradually transmitted to the interior, and there effects the conversion of the raw flesh into the state of boiled. The flesh retains its juiciness, and is quite as agreeable to the taste as it can be made by roasting. When the temperature of the interior of a piece of meat has not reached 144 deg. it presents a blood-coloured or underdone appearance. The principle of both boiling and roasting is the same — to endeavour as quickly as possible to surround the joint with a hard film of meat, in order to keep the flavour in, not to dissolve it out with a cold-water bath. Cold water extracts from the meat two most important elements of the gastric juice — lactic and phosphoric acids. In boiling meat, however, a certain proportion of the nutritious qualities are sure to escape into the water and steam, for which reason the quantity of water should not be more than suffices to cover the meat, nor the saucepan an inch larger than it must needs be to hold it. Boiled too long or too fast, meat becomes indigestible and hard. Hard water is better than soft water for boiling meat in, more of its tenderness and richness being retained in the former than in the latter. Too rapid boiling tends to overdo the exterior portion of the meat, while the interior remains underdone. For this 74 PRACTICAL GASTRONOMY reason after the meat has been in water kept at the boiling-point about five minutes the temperature should be reduced, and the rest of the process be more slowly conducted. Salted meat, in particular, should be very slowly cooked, kept simmering and allowed to grow cool in the pot. The scum which rises to the surface of the water should be carefully removed while the water is near the boiling-point, as other- wise it sinks, and looks very unsightly attached to the meat. Notes on Roasting. Roasting is a process which, if well done, requires great care, attention, and thoughtfulness on the part of the cook, the method being a difficult and important one, and by no means a thing of rule which can be mechani- cally performed. In the first place, the fire must be in the right condition — clear, bright and giving out uniform but not too strong heat — and its breadth and depth should be regulated to the size of the joint. The weight of the joint to be roasted, the condition and form of the meat, and its proportions of fat and lean should also be considered. Meat of newly killed beasts requires longer cooking. In warm weather joints require slightly less NOTES ON ROASTING * 75