Examples.—A rumpsteak or Châteaubriand, in order to be properly cooked, should first have its outsides [rissoled] on a very fierce fire with a view to preserving its juices, after which cooking may proceed over a moderate fire so as to allow of the gradual penetration of the heat into the centre of the body.
Small pieces such as tournedos, small fillets, noisettes, chops, may, after the preliminary process of outside [rissoling], be cooked over the same degree of heat as effected the latter, because the thickness of meat to be penetrated is less.
The Care of Grills while Cooking.—Before placing the meats on the grill, baste them slightly with clarified butter, and repeat this operation frequently during the cooking process, so as to avoid the possible drying of the [rissoled] surfaces.
Grilled red meat should always be turned by means of special tongs, and great care should be observed that its surface [122] ]be not torn or pierced, lest the object of the preliminary precautions be defeated, and the contained juices escape.
Time of Cooking.—This, in the case of red meats, is arrived at by the following test: if, on touching the meat with one’s finger, the former resist any pressure, it is sufficiently cooked: if it give, it is clear that in the centre, at least, the reverse is the case. The most certain sign, however, that cooking has been completed is the appearance of little beads of blood upon the [rissoled] surface of the meat.
[259—WHITE-MEAT GRILLS]
That superficial [rissoling] which is so necessary in the case of red meats is not at all so in the case of white, for in the latter there can be no question of the concentration of juices, since these are only present in the form of albumen—that is to say, in the form of juices “in the making,” so to speak, which is peculiar to veal and lamb.
For this kind of grills keep a moderate fire, so that the cooking and colouring of the meat may take place simultaneously.
White-meat grills should be fairly often basted by means of a brush, with clarified butter, while cooking, lest their outsides dry.
They are known to be cooked when the juice issuing from them is quite white.