ROAST′ING. Alexis Soyer recommends, “as an invariable rule,” that “all dark meats, such as beef and mutton, should be put down to a sharp fire for at least fifteen minutes, until the outside has acquired a coating of osmazome, or condensed gravy, and then removed back, and allowed to cook gently. Lamb, veal, and pork, if young and tender, should be done at a moderate fire. Veal should even be covered with paper.
“Very rich meat, if covered with paper, does not require basting. Fowls, &c., should be placed close to the fire, to set the skin, and in about ten minutes rubbed over with a small piece of butter, pressed in a spoon. Meats, whilst roasting, should be dredged with flour, just at the time when the gravy begins to appear; the flour absorbs it, and forms a coating which prevents any more coming out. Hares and small game should be treated in the same manner.”
Under ordinary circumstances as to the fire, and the distance between it and the joint, beef, mutton, and veal, take about 1⁄4 hour per lb. in roasting. Lamb, poultry, and small game, require only 12 to 14 minutes per lb.; whilst veal takes fully 15 minutes, and pork takes from 1⁄4 hour to 20 minutes, as they must always be well done. The flesh of old animals requires more cooking than the flesh of young ones; and inferior, tough, and bony parts than the prime joints and pieces.
Roasting is not an economical method of cooking pieces of meat abounding in bone or tendinous matter, since the nutritious portion of these is either destroyed or rendered insoluble by the heat employed. Thus, the raw bones from a joint are capable of affording a rich and excellent basin of soup, highly nutritious; whilst the bones from a corresponding joint which has been roasted are nearly worthless when so treated. The same applies with even greater force to the gristly and tendinous portions. A dry heat either destroys them or converts them into a horny substance, unfit for food; whilst by boiling they are transformed into a highly succulent and nutritious article of food, besides affording excellent soup or jelly. Hence the policy of ‘boning’ meat before roasting or baking it; or, at all events, of removing the bony portion which would be most exposed to the action of the fire. See Bone and Jelly.
ROB. Syn. Roob. A term, derived from the Arabic, formerly applied to the inspissated juice of ripe fruit, mixed with honey or sugar to the consistence of a conserve of thin
extract. Rob of elder-berries (ELDER ROB; ROOB SAMBUCI), juniper berries (JUNIPER ROB; ROOB JUNIPERI), mulberries (MULBERRY ROB; ROOB DIAMORUM), and walnuts (WALNUT ROB; ROOB DYACARYON), with a few others, are still found in some of the foreign Pharmacopœias.
ROCK. The popular name of a sweetmeat formed of sugar boiled to a candy, and then poured upon an oiled slab, and allowed to cool in the lump. It is variously flavoured.
ROCK CRYS′TAL. Native crystallised silica. See Quartz.
ROCK OIL. See Petroleum.
ROCK SOAP. A native silicate of alumina; used for crayons, and for washing cloth.