ROASTING.
N.B.—If the time we have allowed for roasting appears rather longer than what is stated in former works, we can only say, we have written from actual experiments, and that the difference may be accounted for, by common cooks generally being fond of too fierce a fire, and of putting things too near to it.
Our calculations are made for a temperature of about fifty degrees of Fahrenheit.
Slow roasting is as advantageous to the tenderness and favour of meat as slow boiling, of which every body understands the importance. See the account of Count Rumford’s shoulder of mutton.
The warmer the weather, and the staler killed the meat is, the less time it will require to roast it.
Meat that is very fat, requires more time than we have stated.
Beef is in proper season throughout the whole year.
Sirloin of Beef.—(No. 19.)
The noble sirloin[122-*] of about fifteen pounds (if much thicker, the outside will be done too much before the inside is enough), will require to be before the fire about three and a half or four hours; take care to spit it evenly, that it may not be heavier on one side than the other; put a little clean dripping into the dripping-pan, (tie a sheet of paper over it to preserve the fat,[123-*]) baste it well as soon as it is put down, and every quarter of an hour all the time it is roasting, till the last half hour; then take off the paper, and make some gravy for it ([No. 326]); stir the fire and make it clear: to brown and froth it, sprinkle a little salt over it, baste it with butter, and dredge it with flour; let it go a few minutes longer, till the froth rises, take it up, put it on the dish, &c.