A Dutch oven is another very convenient utensil for roasting light joints, or warming them up.
[75-*] If there is more FAT than you think will be eaten with the lean, trim it off; it will make an excellent PUDDING ([No. 551], or [554]): or clarify it ([No. 83]).
[76-*] This the good housewife will take up occasionally, and pass through a sieve into a stone pan; by leaving it all in the dripping-pan until the meat is taken up, it not only becomes very strong, but when the meat is rich, and yields much of it, it is apt to be spilt in basting. To CLARIFY DRIPPINGS, see [No. 83].
[77-*] Insist upon the butcher fixing a TICKET of the weight to each joint.
[77-†] If the meat is frozen, the usual practice is to put it into cold water till it is thawed, then dry and roast it as usual; but we recommend you to bring it into the kitchen the night before, or early in the morning of the day you want to roast it, and the warm air will thaw it much better.
[78-*] When the steam begins to arise, it is a proof that the whole joint is thoroughly saturated with heat; any unnecessary evaporation is a waste of the best nourishment of the meat.
[78-†] A celebrated French writer has given us the following observations on roasting:—
“The art of roasting victuals to the precise degree, is one of the most difficult in this world; and you may find half a thousand good cooks sooner than one perfect roaster. (See ‘Almanach des Gourmands,’ vol. i. p. 37.) In the mansions of the opulent, they have, besides the master kitchener, a roaster, (perfectly independent of the former,) who is exclusively devoted to the spit.
“All erudite gourmands know that these two important functions cannot be performed by one artist; it is quite impossible at the same time to superintend the operations of the spit and stewpan.”—Further on, the same author observes: “No certain rules can be given for roasting, the perfection of it depending on many circumstances which are continually changing; the age and size (especially the thickness) of the pieces, the quality of the coals, the temperature of the atmosphere, the currents of air in the kitchen, the more or less attention of the roaster; and, lastly, the time of serving. Supposing the dinner ordered to be on table at a certain time, if the fish and soup are much liked, and detained longer than the roaster has calculated; or, on the contrary, if they are despatched sooner than is expected, the roasts will in one case be burnt up, in the other not done enough—two misfortunes equally to be deplored. The first, however, is without a remedy; five minutes on the spit, more or less, decides the goodness of this mode of cookery. It is almost impossible to seize the precise instant when it ought to be eaten; which epicures in roasts express by saying, ‘It is done to a turn.’ So that there is no exaggeration in saying, the perfect roaster is even more rare than the professed cook.
“In small families, where the cook is also the roaster, it is almost impossible the roasts should be well done: the spit claims exclusive attention, and is an imperious mistress who demands the entire devotion of her slave. But how can this be, when the cook is obliged, at the same time, to attend her fish and soup-kettles, and watch her stewpans and all their accompaniments?—it is morally and physically impossible: if she gives that delicate and constant attention to the roasts which is indispensably requisite, the rest of the dinner must often be spoiled; and most cooks would rather lose their character as a roaster, than neglect the made-dishes and ‘entremets,’ &c., where they think they can display their culinary science,—than sacrifice these to the roasts, the perfection of which will only prove their steady vigilance and patience.”