Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book

As in Roasting, the joint should, after a few minutes, be drawn to a cooler part of the oven, or placed on the oven-shelf. "When basting is possible it should be done every twenty minutes. The gravy must always be poured round the meat ; if poured over the joint the crisp surface is spoiled. Roast meat should be placed on a very hot dish, and served at once. It is difficult to give the exact times for roasting meat, as joints differ in weight and size, and tastes, as to under-done or well-done meat, differ still more. The rough calculation generally used for well-done meat is twenty minutes for every pound of a thick piece of meat, such as a leg of mutton or a sirloin of beef, and fifteen minutes over. Thus for a leg of mutton weighing seven ROASTING M3 pounds two hours and a half would be required. For a thin piece of meat, such as a neck of mutton, fifteen minutes to the pound and fifteen minutes over should he allowed. For veal and pork twenty-five minutes to each pound and fifteen minutes over is not too much. If the thickest part of the meat gives to the pressure of the finger the joint is done ; if it resists, more cooking is necessary. The eye of the cook is generally the safest test ; if she sees the steam from the meat drawing to the fire and the joint looking as if it had begun to smoke it will be sufficiently done for most tastes. But experience is the only guide, based on practice and observation. It must be recollected that fresh meat takes longer to cook than meat which has been hung, and that all meat takes longer to cook in winter than in summer. Frozen meat should be thoroughly and slowly thawed by hanging it in some place of ordinary temperature, away from any fire ; and joints of mutton must be hung shank end downwards or the juices will drain away. After thawing, the sooner the meat is used the better, although in severe weather it is better for hanging for a day or two. When the fire has to be made up whilst Roasting a joint, be careful to avoid smoke by drawing the live coals to the front and putting the fresh supply on at the back of the grate. Boiling*. — It is a well-known fact that meat loses less weight in Boiling than in any other process of cooking, and it is equally true that Boiled meat is more easily digested than meat cooked in any other way. But Boiled meat is often disliked because it is tasteless and often underdone. Neither of these objections need exist at all. Vegetables, such as onion, carrot, turnip, celery, parsley, and thyme, should be boiled, as a fixed rule, with all boiled meat or poultry, whether they are served with it or not. The vegetables will quite prevent any tastelessness. Many people shudder at the sight of a Boiled leg of mutton, such as that so often seen on board ship, when the squeak of the meat as it comes in contact with the knife is a true prophecy of the tough and half-cooked condition of the joint. But the reason is that the meat has been cooked “ at a gallop,” so that the inside is hardly done at all, and the whole joint is extremely tough. There is no use in boiling meat “ to rags,” but it should be slowly and thoroughly cooked. See BOILING