The pupil in cookery who enjoys tossing up entrées, and devising dainty rechauffés, but cannot support the thought of handling raw chickens and big-boned joints of butcher’s meat, is hardly wiser than he.
It is a common fallacy to believe that this branch of the culinary art is uninteresting drudgery, fit only for the hands of the very plain hired cook.
Another mistake, almost as prevalent, lies in supposing that she can, of course, perform the duty properly. There is room for intelligent skill in so simple a process as roasting a piece of meat, nor is the task severe or repulsive. Practically, it is far more important to know how to do this well, than to be proficient in cake, jelly, and pudding making.
Roast Beef.
Have a steady, moderate fire in the stove-grate. Increase the heat when the meat is thoroughly warmed.
Lay the beef, skin side uppermost, in a clean baking-pan, and dash all over it two cups of boiling water in which a teaspoonful of salt has been dissolved. This sears the surface slightly, and keeps in the juices.
Shut the oven door, and do not open again for twenty minutes. Then, with a ladle or iron spoon dip up the salted water and pour it over the top of the meat, wetting every part again and again. Eight or ten ladlefuls should be used in this “basting,” which should be repeated every fifteen minutes for the next hour. Allow twelve minutes to each pound of meat in roasting beef.
Do not swing the oven door wide while you baste, but slip your hand (protected by an old glove or a napkin) into the space left by the half-open door, and when you have wet the surface of the roast quickly and well, shut it up again to heat and steam.