Cassell's dictionary of cookery

will be wanted — supposing there are a dozen people to sip soup and eat fish lirst; you may allow them fifteen minutes for the former and about as long for the latter, more or less, according to the temptations the bon gout of these preceding courses has to attract their attention. When the joint is half done, remove the spit and dripping-pan back, and stir up your fire thoroughly, that it may burn clear and bright for the browning ; when the steam from the meat draws towards the fire, it is a sign of its being done enough ; but you will be the best judge of that from the time it has been down, the strength of the fire you have used, and the distance your spit has been from it. When the steam begins to arise it is a proof that the whole joint is thoroughly saturated with heat; any unnecessary evaporation is a waste of the best nourishment of the meat. Half an hour before your meat is done, make some gravy; and just before you take it up, put it nearer the fire to brown it. If you wish to froth it, baste it, and dredge it with flour carefully ; you cannot do this delicately nice without a very good light ; the common fault seems to be using too much flour: the meat should have a fine light varnish of froth, not the appearance of being covered with a paste. Those who are particular about the froth use butter instead of dripping, "and send up what you roast with relish-giving froth,' ' says Dr. King, and present such an agreeable appearance to the eye that the palate may be prepossessed in its favour at first sight, therefore, have the whole course dished before roasts are taken from the fire. A good cook is as anxiously attentive to the appearance and colour of her roasts as n court beauty is to her complexion at a birthday ball. If your meat does not brown so much or so evenly as you wish, take two ounces of glaze — i.e., portable soup — put four table-spoonfuls of water, and let it warm and dissolve gradually by the side of the fire. This will be done in about a quarter of an hour; put it on the meat equally all over with a pastebrush the last thing before it goes to table. Though roasting is one of the most common, and is generally considered one of the most easy and simple processes of cookery, it requires more unremitting attention to perform it perfectly well than it does to make made dishes. That made dishes are the most difiicult preparations deserves to be reckoned among the culinary vulgar errors; in plain roasting and boiling it is not easy to repair a mistake once made ; and all the discretion and attention of a steady, careful cook must be unremittingly on the alert. Some good housewives order very large joints to be rather underdone, as they can make a better hash or broil. Dredgings. 1 . Flour mixed with grated bread. 2. Sweet herbs dried and powdered, and mixed with grated bread. 3. Lemon-peel dried and powdered — or orange-peel — mixed with flour. 4. Sugar finely powdered and mixed with pounded cinnamon, and flour, or finely-grated bread. 5. Fennel seeds, corianders, cinnamon, and sugar, finely beaten, and mixed with grated bread or flour. 6. For young pigs, grated bread or flour mixed with beaten nutmeg, ginger, pepper, sugar, and yolks of eggs. 7. Sugar, bread, and salt, mixed. Bastings. 1 . Fresh butter. 2. Clarified suet.