General Remarks.
Be sure you have your spit and tin oven very clean and bright, and for this end wash them, if possible, before they get cold. If they stand, pour boiling water on to them.
Have a fire so large as to extend half a foot beyond the roaster each side.
When meat is thin and tender, have a small, brisk fire. When your meat is large, and requires long roasting, have large solid wood, kindled with charcoal and small sticks. Set the meat, at first, some distance from the place where it is to roast, so as to have it heat through gradually, and then move it up to roast.
Slow roasting, especially at first, and still more for large pieces, is very important.
Allow about fifteen minutes for each pound of most kinds of meat, and if it is cold weather, or the meat fresh killed, more time is required, probably twenty minutes for each pound.
When the meat is nearly done, stir up the fire to brown it. The meat should be basted a good deal, especially the first part of the time.
Let meat be spitted so as to be equally balanced. When the meat is nearly done, the steam from it will be drawn toward the fire.
A pale brown is the proper color for a roast.
Some dredge on flour and baste, a short time before roasted meats are done.