Meat for roasting should be kept hanging till the fibre becomes tender. The length of time required depends on the state of the weather and the season, ranging from a few days, or, in summer even a few hours, to three or four weeks in a dry cold winter. In frosty weather the meat must be brought into the kitchen for a few hours, before using it, to soften it. To ascertain the length of time required for roasting, weigh rhe Treat and allow in roasting one quarter of an hour Co each pound and one quarter of an hour GENERAL DIRECTIONS— ROASTING. 39 over. If, however, the piece of meat is very thick, allow half an hour over. Young and white meat (veal, lamb, pork) require twenty minutes to each pound and twenty minutes over. They are unwhole- some when underdone. Sweep up the hearth, and make up a large fire in a well-polished fireplace an hour before it is wanted, so as to have it bright and glowf :ig. Do not let the fire go down while the meat is roasting : add small pieces of coal or large cinders occasionally, so as to keep it up. Hang the meat by the small end to the hook of the jack. When there is no jack, the meat may be hooked to a skein of twisted worsted suspended from a hook projected from the mantel-shelf. Wind up the jack, or twist the worsted, so as to make it spin slowly. Place the dripping pan under the joint, if you have a meat screen see that it is bright (so as to throw back the heat upon the joint), and place it before the fire. Meat should be placed for the first ten minutes as near the fire as can be done without scorching, as the great heat hardens the outside, and keeps in the juices. Baste it as soon as the fat melts. Basting prevents the meat becoming dry and scorched. Then withdraw the meat 15 or 18 inches from tire fire, and baste it frequently whilst cooking with the dripping produced by the melting of the fat. A lean piece of meat should be basted with hot dripping melted for the purpose. The meat may be dredged with flour a quarter of an hour before it is quite ready, to make it browner and to thicken the gravy a little. When it is placed on a dish (called in Scotland an ashet), sprinkle it with a little salt. Be- fore making sauce of the brown gravy, pour away the dripping from the dripping pan (keep this dripping for other purposes), add a little boiling water to the browned 40 GENERAL DIRECTIONS— BROILING. gravy left in the pan, mix well, add a little salt, and pour round the roast. Roasting in the Oven. — This is usually called baking meat. Place the meat in a baking tin in a very hot part of the oven for five minutes to harden the outside and keep in the juice. Baste it as soon as the fat melts ; then remove it to a cooler part ; place beside it a cup or basin of hot water to keep the air of the oven moist without cooling it. Baste the meat frequently. For the length of time required, see preceding directions. All ovens in which meat is cooked should be properly ventilated in order to allow the escape of an injurious vapour produced by meat when cooked in a close oven. Meat roasted in the oven is not considered so digestible as when roasted before the fire.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Meat for roasting should be kept hanging till the fibre becomes tender. The length of time required depends on the state of the weather and the season, ranging from a few days, or, in summer even a few hours, to three or four weeks in a dry cold winter. In frosty weather the meat must be brought into the kitchen for a few hours, before using it, to soften it. To ascertain the length of time required for roasting, weigh the meat and allow in roasting one quarter of an hour to each pound and one quarter of an hour GENERAL DIRECTIONS— ROASTING. 39 over. If, however, the piece of meat is very thick, allow half an hour over. Young and white meat (veal, lamb, pork) require twenty minutes to each pound and twenty minutes over. They are unwholesome when underdone. Sweep up the hearth, and make up a large fire in a well-polished fireplace an hour before it is wanted, so as to have it bright and glowing. Do not let the fire go down while the meat is roasting : add small pieces of coal or large cinders occasionally, so as to keep it up. Hang the meat by the small end to the hook of the jack. When there is no jack, the meat may be hooked to a skein of twisted worsted suspended from a hook projected from the mantel-shelf. Wind up the jack, or twist the worsted, so as to make it spin slowly. Place the dripping pan under the joint, if you have a meat screen see that it is bright (so as to throw back the heat upon the joint), and place it before the fire. Meat should be placed for the first ten minutes as near the fire as can be done without scorching, as the great heat hardens the outside, and keeps in the juices. Baste it as soon as the fat melts. Basting prevents the meat becoming dry and scorched. Then withdraw the meat 15 or 18 inches from tire fire, and baste it frequently whilst cooking with the dripping produced by the melting of the fat. A lean piece of meat should be basted with hot dripping melted for the purpose. The meat may be dredged with flour a quarter of an hour before it is quite ready, to make it browner and to thicken the gravy a little. When it is placed on a dish (called in Scotland an ashet), sprinkle it with a little salt. Before making sauce of the brown gravy, pour away the dripping from the dripping pan (keep this dripping for other purposes), add a little boiling water to the browned 40 GENERAL DIRECTIONS— BROILING. gravy left in the pan, mix well, add a little salt, and pour round the roast. Roasting in the Oven. — This is usually called baking meat. Place the meat in a baking tin in a very hot part of the oven for five minutes to harden the outside and keep in the juice. Baste it as soon as the fat melts ; then remove it to a cooler part ; place beside it a cup or basin of hot water to keep the air of the oven moist without cooling it. Baste the meat frequently. For the length of time required, see preceding directions. All ovens in which meat is cooked should be properly ventilated in order to allow the escape of an injurious vapour produced by meat when cooked in a close oven. Meat roasted in the oven is not considered so digestible as when roasted before the fire.

The school cookery book