Preliminary Hints And Observations

Put a little salt and water into the dripping-pan, and with it baste the meat a little. When dry, dredge well with flour, and baste with fresh butter; because it will give a better colour to your meat. The fire should be regulated according to the thing to be dressed : if very little or thin, then you should have a pretty brisk fire, that it may be done quickly and nicely ; if a large joint, take care that a large fire is laid on to cake. The fire must be always clear at the bottom; and when the meat is half done, move the dripping-pan and spit a little from the fire, and stir it up, to make it burn clear and brisk ; for a good fire is a material thing in the business of cookery. Ifyou are roasting beef, take care to paper the top, and baste well while a. the fire, not forgetting to sprinkle some salt on it. When the smoke draws to the fire, it is a sign that it is nearly enough ; and then take off the paper, baste well, and dredge with flour, to make it frothy ; but never salt your meat before you lay it to the fire, as that will draw out part of the gravy. In roasting mutton or lamb, the loin, the chine, and the saddle, must have the skin raised and skewered on, and when nearly done, take off the skin, and baste and flour, to froth it up. All other sorts of mutton and lamb must be roasted with a quick clear fire, without the skin being raised. You must be careful to roast veal of a fine brown ; and if it be a fillet or loin, be sure to paper the fat, that you may lose as little of it as possible. At first keep it at some distance from the fire, but when it is soaked, put it nearer. When you lay it down, baste well with butter ; and when nearly done, baste again, and dredge with a little flour. The breast must be roasted with the caul on, till the meat be enough done, and skewer the sweetbread on the back side of the breast. When sufficiently roasted, take off the caul, baste it, and dredge a little flour over it. Pork should be well done, or it will otherwise be apt to surfeit. When you roast a loin, cut the skin across with a sharp knife, in order to make the crackling eat the better. When you roast a leg of pork, score it in the same manner as the loin, and stuff the knuckle part with sage and onion, and skewer it up. Put a little drawn gravy in the dish, and send it up with apple-sauce in a tureen. The spring, or hand of pork, if very young, and roasted like a pig, eats very well; but, otherwise, it is much better boiled. The sparerib should be basted with a little butter, a very little dust of flour, and some sage and onions shred small. Apple sauce is the only sauce made for this joint. Wildfowls require a clear brisk fire, and should be roasted till they are of a light brown, but not too much; for it is a great fault to roast them till the gravy runs out of them, as they thereby lose their fine flavour. Tame fowls require more roasting, as they are a long time before they get thoroughly heated.' They should be often basted, in order to keep up a strong froth, and as it makes them of a finer colour, and rise better. Pigs and geese should be roasted before a good fire, and turned quickly. Hares and rabbits require time and care, to see the ends are roasted enough. In order to prevent their appearing bloody at the neck when they are cut up, cut the neck skin, when they are half roasted, and let out the blood. Having thus premised these general rules for roasting, we shall now proceed to particulars.

A Fore Quarter of House Lamb. House lamb requires to be well roasted. A small fore-quarter will take an hour and a half; a leg, three quarters of an hour. For sauce, mint sauce, with salad, brocoli, pota toes, celery raw or stewed: or for a fore quarter of lamb, cut off the shoulder, pepper and salt the ribs, and squeeze a Seville orange over it.