Practical gastronomy and culinary dictionary

roasting than in cold. Thick joints — say sirloins of beef or legs of mutton — will not be well cooked if roasted as long as you would roast thinner ones, such as ribs of beef or shoulders. Boned or stuffed meat will require longer cooking than the same joints would unstuffed, or with the bone in. The meat of young animals and of older ones requires different treatment (as a rule, young flesh, containing less fibrin requires most cooking) ; some kinds of meat are best roasted before a brisk fire (pork, veal, and lamb, for instance) ; others should be more slowly cooked. [Some flesh requires very little cooking, some much longer — the flesh of old and full- grown animals, poultry excepted, requiring the shorter time.] The cook's aim should be to preserve the reai flavour and nourishing qualities of the meat, and to prevent the juices from being dried out during the roast- ing process. Attaining this aim depends chiefly upon the roasting being neither too quick nor too slow, and upon the care given to the basting, which should always be thoroughly done. Avoid thrusting forks into roasting meat. It is a good plan to begin with the meat rather close to the fire and then a little farther from the fire, increasing the distance between the grate and the joint until (the exterior being hardened) the flesh is heated nearly uniformly all through, and then bringing it and keeping it near the fire, lest remaining too far from it should destroy its crisp firmness, and make it un- pleasantly soft and soddened. If too little cooked or underdone, meat is indigestible. If too much cooked or 76 PRACTICAL GASTRONOMY dried up, it is not less so. Overcooking expels the fluids and contracts the fibres. It is sometimes absurdly urged that underdone indigestible meat is to be preferred because it is in itself more nutritious than the digestible or better-cooked flesh. But this is not dealing with flesh as food ; for if it were, cooking would be altogether dispensed with, because raw meat contains more of the nutritious elements than underdone meat. It is the cook's business not only to send food to table as full of nourishing qualities as it can be, but to see that such qualities are in a fit condition to do their beneficent work of repairing and restoring most effectually. Notes on Stewing. The stewpan is one of the most efficient utensils in the hands of a good cook. Stewing has this advan- tage over boiling, the more nourishing and soluble elements are not separted from, but served up with, the meat, the full flavour of which is also thereby preserved. It is sometimes described as a gradual process of sim- mering. The meat selected for stewing should be lean, and, as a rule, the better the meat, the better it will be for NOTES ON STEWING 77