The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, Adapted to the Use of Private Families

by active 1823-1849 Mary Eaton

ROAST BEEF. Take care that your spit and dripping-pan be very clean; and to prepare your fire according to the size of the joint you have to dress. If it be a sirloin or chump, butter a piece of writing paper, and fasten it on to the back of your meat, with small skewers, and lay it down to a good clear fire, at a proper distance. As soon as your meat is warm, dust on some flour, and baste it with butter; then sprinkle some salt, and at times baste with what drips from it. About a quarter of an hour before you take it up, remove the paper, dust on a little flour, and baste with a piece of butter, that it may go to table with a good froth, but not look greasy. A piece of ten pounds requires about two hours and a half, and others in proportion. Salad and vegetables are eaten with it, also mustard and horseradish.

ROAST CALF'S HEAD. Wash the head very clean, take out the brains, and dry it well with a cloth. Make a seasoning of pepper, salt, nutmeg, and cloves; add a slice of bacon finely minced, and some grated bread. Strew the seasoning over the head, roll it up, skewer and tie it close with tape. Roast and baste it with butter. Make veal gravy thickened with butter rolled in flour, and garnish the edge of the dish with fried brains.

ROAST CALF'S LIVER. Cut a hole in the liver, and stuff it with crumbs of bread, mixed with chopped onions and herbs, salt, pepper, butter, and an egg. Sew up the liver, wrap it up in a veal caul, and roast it. Serve it up with brown gravy, and currant jelly.

ROAST CHEESE. Grate three ounces of fat Cheshire cheese, mix it with the yolks of two eggs, four ounces of grated bread, and three ounces of butter. Beat the whole well in a mortar, with a dessert-spoonful of mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Toast some bread, cut it into proper pieces, lay the above paste thick upon them, and lay them into a Dutch oven covered with a dish till they are hot through. Remove the dish, to let the paste brown a little, and serve it up as hot as possible, immediately after dinner.

ROAST CHICKENS. Being cleaned and trussed, put them down to a good fire. Singe them, dust them with flour, and baste them well with butter. Make gravy of their necks and gizzards, or of beef. Strain the gravy, and pour it into the dish, adding parsley and butter, or egg sauce.

ROAST COLLARED BEEF. Take out the inside meat from a sirloin of beef, sprinkle it with vinegar, and let it hang till the next day. Prepare a stuffing as for a hare, put this at one end of the meat, roll the rest round it, bind it very close, and roast it gently for an hour and three quarters, or a little more or less, proportioned to the thickness. Serve it up with gravy the same as for hare, and with currant jelly.

ROAST COLLARED MUTTON. If a loin of mutton has been collared, take off the fat from the upper side, and the meat from the under side. Bone the joint, season it with pepper and salt, and some shalot or sweet herbs, chopped very small. Let it be rolled up very tight, well tied round, and roasted gently. About an hour and a half will do it. While this is roasting, half boil the meat taken from the under side, then mince it small, put it into half a pint of gravy; and against the time that the mutton is ready, heat this and pour it into the dish when it is served up.

ROAST COLLARED PORK. When a neck of pork has been collared, and is intended for roasting, the bones must be taken out. Strew the inside with bread crumbs, chopped sage, a very little pounded allspice, some pepper and salt, all mixed together. Roll it up very close, bind it tight, and roast it gently. An hour and a half or little more, according to the thickness, will roast it enough. A loin of pork with the fat and kidney taken out and boned, and a forehand of pork boned, are very nice dressed in the same way.

ROAST DUCK. If two are dressed, let one of them be unseasoned, in order to suit the company. Stuff the other with sage and onion, a dessert-spoonful of crumbs, a bit of butter, with pepper and salt. Serve them up with a fine gravy.

ROAST EEL. Take a good large silver eel, draw and skin it, and cut it in pieces of four inches long. Spit them crossways on a small spit, with bay leaves, or large sage leaves between each piece. When roasted, serve up the fish with butter beaten with orange or lemon juice, and some grated nutmeg. Or serve it with venison sauce, and dredge it with pounded carraway seeds, cinnamon, or grated bread.