CHAPTER IV.

ROASTED AND BAKED MEATS.

_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.

Whenever fresh lard is used instead of butter, in the dripping-pan, or to rub on meats, more salt must be used.

Flour thickening in gravies must be wet up with very little water till the lumps are out, and then made thin. Never dredge flour into gravies, as it makes lumps. Strain all gravies.

_Roast Beef._

The sirloin, and the first and second cuts of the rack, are the best roasting pieces.

Rub it with salt; set the bony side to the fire to heat awhile, then turn it, and have a strong fire; and if thick, allow fifteen minutes to the pound; if thin, allow a little less. If fresh killed, or if it is very cold, allow a little more time. Half an hour before it is done, pour off the gravy, thicken it with brown flour, and season it with salt and pepper. It is the fashion to serve roast beef with no other gravy than the juice of the meat.

_Roast Lamb._

The fore and hind quarter of lamb are used for roasting. Rub on a little softened butter, and then some salt and pepper, heat the bony side first, then turn and roast by a brisk fire, allowing about fifteen minutes to a pound, and rather more if fresh killed, or the weather cold. Put a pint of water and a teaspoonful of salt in the dripping-pan, and a little lard, or butter. Lamb is to be cooked thoroughly.

The following is a very excellent _sauce_ for roast lamb. Pick, wash, and shred fine, some fresh mint, put on it a tablespoonful of sugar, and four tablespoonfuls of vinegar; or, chop some hard pickles to the size of capers, and put them to half a pint of melted butter, and a teaspoonful of vinegar.

_Roast Mutton._

The saddle, shoulder, and leg are used for roasting.

Rub the mutton with butter, and then with salt and pepper, and some add pounded allspice, or cloves. Put butter, or lard, in the dripping-pan, with a quart of water, or a pint for a small piece, and baste it often. Set the bony side toward the fire, at some distance, that it may heat through before roasting. Allow about a quarter of an hour for every pound. Mutton should be cooked rare.

Make a brown gravy, and serve it with currant jelly.

_Roast Veal._

The loin is the best for roasting, the breast and rack the next best. Wash the piece to be roasted in cold water, rub a little butter softened over it, and then some pepper and salt, put a pint or more water in the dripping-pan, and unless there is a good deal of fat, a bit of lard, or butter, and baste often. Set the bony side first to the fire to heat. Allow twenty minutes for every pound, and if cold, or fresh killed, a little more. Veal should be cooked very thoroughly. In roasting any part except the loin, cut slits in the veal and draw through the bits of salt pork, which, while roasting, impart a flavor to the veal.

_To Roast a Fillet or Leg of Veal._

Cut off the shank bone of a leg of veal, and cut gashes in what remains. Make a dressing of chopped raw salt pork, salt, pepper, sweet herbs and bread crumbs, or use butter instead of pork. Stuff the openings in the meat with the dressing, put it in a bake-pan with water, just enough to cover it, and let it bake, say two hours for six pounds. Or put it in a tin oven, and roast it two or three hours, according to the size.

_Baked, or Roasted Pig._

Take a pig that weighs from seven to twelve pounds, and as much as five weeks old. Wash it thoroughly outside and inside. Take any fresh cold meat, say one pound, and a quarter of a pound of salt pork, and twice as much bread as you have meat.

Chop the bread by itself, and chop the meat and pork fine and mix all together, adding sweet herbs, pepper and salt, half a tea-cup of butter, and one egg. Stuff the pig with it, and sew it up tight. Take off the legs at the middle joint. Put it into a dripping-pan with cross-bars or a grate to hold it up, and with the legs tied, and pour into the pan a pint of water and set it in the oven. As soon as it begins to cook, swab it with salt and water, and then in fifteen minutes do it again. If it blisters it is cooking too fast; swab it, and diminish the heat. It must bake, if weighing twelve pounds, three hours. When nearly done, rub it with butter. When taken out set it for three minutes in the cold, to make it crisp.

_To Roast a Spare Rib._

Rub with salt, pepper, and powdered sage. Put the bone side to warm slowly. Dredge on a little flour, and put a little salted water and butter into the dripping-pan, and baste with it. If large, it requires three hours; if small, only one to cook it. Pork must be cooked slowly and very thoroughly.

_Roast Turkey._

Wash the outside and inside very clean. Take bread crumbs, grated or chopped, about enough to fill the turkey, chop a bit of salt pork, the size of a good egg, and mix it in, with butter, the size of an egg, pepper, salt, and sweet herbs to your taste. Then beat up an egg and work in. Fill the crop and the body, sew them up, and tie the legs and wings, and spit them. Set it where it will gradually heat, and turn it once or twice, while heating, for fifteen minutes. Then put it up to the fire, and allow about twenty-five minutes for each pound. Turkey must be cooked very thoroughly. It must roast slowly at first, and be often basted with butter on a fork. Dredge it with flour just before taking it up, and let it brown.

Put the inwards in a skillet to boil for two hours, chop them up, season them, use the liquor they are boiled in for gravy, and thicken it with brown flour, and a bit of butter, the size of a hen’s egg. This is the giblet sauce. Take the drippings, say half a pint, thickened with a paste, made of a tablespoonful of brown, or white flour, and let it simmer five minutes, and then use it for thin gravy.

_Roast Goose._

A goose should be roasted in the same manner as a turkey. It is better to make the stuffing of mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, pepper, sage, and onions, to the taste. Apple sauce is good to serve with it. Allow fifteen minutes to a pound, for a gosling, and twenty or more for an older one. Goose should be cooked rare.

_Roast Chickens._

Wash them clean outside and inside, stuff them as directed for turkeys, baste them with butter, lard, or drippings, and roast them about an hour. Chickens should be cooked thoroughly. Stew the inwards till tender, and till there is but little water, chop them and mix in gravy from the dripping-pan, thicken with brown flour, and season with salt, pepper, and butter. Cranberry, or new-made apple sauce, is good with them.

_Roast Ducks._

Wash the ducks, and stuff them with a dressing made with mashed potatoes, wet with milk, and chopped onions, sage, pepper, salt, and a little butter, to suit your taste. Reserve the inwards to make the gravy, as is directed for turkeys, except it should be seasoned with sage and chopped onions. They will cook in about an hour. Ducks are to be cooked rare. Baste them with salt water, and before taking up, dredge on a little flour and let it brown.

Green peas and stewed cranberries are good accompaniments.

Canvass-back ducks are cooked without stuffing.

Wild ducks must be soaked in salt and water the night previous, to remove the fishy taste, and then in the morning put in fresh water, which should be changed once or twice.

_Mutton and Beef Pie._

Line a dish with a crust made of potatoes, as directed in the Chicken Pot Pie. Broil the meat ten minutes, after pounding it till the fibres are broken. Cut the meat thin, and put it in layers, with thin slices of broiled salt pork, season with butter, the size of a hen’s egg, salt, pepper, (and either wine or catsup, if liked); put in water till it nearly covers the meat, and dredge in considerable flour, cover it with the paste, and bake it an hour and a half if quite thick. Cold meats are good cooked over in this way. Cut a slit in the centre of the cover.

_Chicken Pie._

Joint and boil two chickens in salted water, just enough to cover them, and simmer slowly for half an hour. Line a dish with raised or potato crust, or pie crust, then put the chicken in layers, with thin slices of broiled pork, butter, the size of a goose egg, cut in small pieces. Put in enough of liquor, in which the meat was boiled, to reach the surface, salt and pepper each layer, dredge in a little flour, and cover all with a light, thick crust. Ornament the top with the crust, and bake about one hour in a hot oven. Make a small slit in the centre of the crust. If it begins to scorch, lay a paper over a short time.

_Mutton Haricot._

Make a rich gravy by boiling the coarser parts for the liquor, and seasoning with pepper, spice, and catsup. Cut into the gravy, carrots, parsnips, onions, and celery, boiled tender; then broil the mutton, first seasoning it with salt and pepper, put them into the gravy, and stew all about ten minutes. Garnish with small pickles.

_To Cook a Shoulder of Lamb._

Check the shoulder with cuts an inch deep, rub on first butter, then salt, pepper, and sweet herbs, over these put the yolk of an egg and bread crumbs, and then bake or roast it a light brown. Make a gravy of the drippings, seasoning with pepper, salt, and tomato catsup, and also the grated rind and juice of a lemon; thicken with a very little flour.

_Rice Chicken Pie._

Line a pudding dish with slices of broiled ham, cut up a boiled chicken, and nearly fill the dish, filling in with gravy or melted butter; add minced onions if you like, or a little curry powder, which is better. Then pile boiled rice to fill all interstices, and cover the top quite thick. Bake it for half or three quarters of an hour.

_Potato Pie._

Take mashed potatoes, seasoned with salt, butter, and milk, and line a baking dish. Lay upon it slices of cold meats of any kind with salt, pepper, catsup, and butter, or gravy. Put on another layer of potatoes, and then another of cold meat as before. Lastly, on the top put a cover of potatoes.

Bake it till it is thoroughly warmed through, and serve it in the dish in which it is baked, setting it in, or upon another.