A guide to modern cookery

They only appear on very ordinary menus, and could not be served at an important dinner. CHAPTER XVIi ROASTS AND SALADS In the first part of this work I explained the fundamental principles governing the treatment of Roasts, and I now have to add only a few words to what has already been said. Recipes may be consummate in detail and in accuracy, and still they will be found wanting in the matter of Roasts; for experience alone can tell the operator whether the joint he is treating be old or young, fresh or stale; whether it must be cooked quickly or slowly, and all the theories that I might advance on this subject, though perhaps they might not be useless, would at least prove impracticable nine times out of ten. I shall not prescribe any limit of time for Roasts, except in very special cases, and even so that limit will only be approximate. Nothing can be made precise in the matter; long practice alone, away from books, will teach it; for book-rules can only be understood when the light of practical knowledge is focussed upon them. 1942—ACCOMPANIMENT OF ROASTS It struck me as desirable that I should give in this chapter the recipes of the various preparations which, in England, are served with Roasts :—Yorkshire Pudding, Veal Stuffing, &c. Having treated of the accompanying sauces to Roasts in Part 1, I need only recall them here. 1943—YORKSHIRE PUDDING (For Beef Roasts) Mix one-half lb. of sifted flour with six eggs and one quart of boiled milk, adding the eggs one by one and the milk little by little. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour this preparation into a deep baking-pan, containing some very hot dripping, and bake in the oven. If the joint be roasted on the spit, put the Yorkshire pudding under it, on taking the former out of the oven, and let it thus become saturated with the gravy and fat that fall from the roast. Cut into squares or lozenges, and set these round the Roast or serve them separately. 1944—SAGE AND ONIONS STUFFING (For Turkeys, Ducks and Geese) Bake four large onions in the oven with their skins on. This done, peel them and finely chop them; fry them in butter with a pinch of dry green chopped sage. Add bread-crumbs, soaked in milk and pressed, equal in weight to the onions, and half the weight of chopped veal fat. 1945—VEAL STUFFING (For Veal and Pork) This stuffing is made from equal quantities of chopped suet, sifted bread-crumbs, and chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper as for an ordinary forcemeat, and be liberal with the nutmeg. Cohere this forcemeat with three small eggs per two Ibs. of the above preparation. 1946—ROASTS OF BUTCHER’S MEAT I must remind the reader of this principle, viz.: that however natural it may seem in a dinner to serve a roasted joint as a Remove, a piece of butcher’s meat must never stand as a Roast. Roasts really only comprise Fowl and Feathered Game, provided the menu only announces one roast. If two are announced, the second generally consists of some kind of crustacean, such as a Lobster, a Spiny Lobster or Crayfish, generally served in the form of a Mousse; or of a preparation of foie gras, t.e.: either a Pate, a Terrine, a Mousse or a Parfait; sometimes, too, by a very good ham or a derivative preparation thereof. BEEF ROASTS 1947—ROAST RIBS OF BEEF Clear the joint of the vertebre and the yellow ligaments. Roast before a moderately fierce fire, and place the joint if possible in an uncovered braising-pan, the sides of which may protect the meat during the cooking process. 1948—ROAST UPPER-FILLET Break the projecting bones of the vertebrze, and sever the yellow ligament at various points. For this joint the heat should be fiercer than in the previous case, the limit of time being less. : ; 1949—ROAST SIRLOIN