Roasting and baking are synonymous terms. We speak of roasting meats and baking bread, yet we use the same oven for both. Roasting formerly meant to place the meat on a spit before the open fire, turn it frequently and baste constantly to keep from burning. Roasting to-day means to bake in a hot oven.

Roast Beef

There are seven prime ribs in a bullock. Any of them will make a first-class roast of beef. Do not have the ribs removed, but have them cut in two-inch pieces up to the thick muscle; cut these pieces of bone off, to be braised and served as short ribs of beef; place the cut surface of the roast on a smoking hot griddle and press closely; let cook for two or three minutes, or until it is nicely seared; turn and sear the other side; set the roast, resting upon the edges of the ribs, on a rack in a dripping pan; put into an oven hot enough to bake bread, and let cook; do not season the meat and do not put water in the pan; when the oven is at the proper temperature you will hear a gentle sputtering when the oven door is opened - if smoke issues from the oven it is too hot - if you do not hear a gentle sputtering increase the temperature. The time required for roasting depends upon the thickness of the roast; fifteen minutes is allowed for each inch in thickness; a roast four inches in thickness will cook rare in one hour; measure across the thickest part of a roast. A rump roast is seared in the same way and placed upon a rack in a hot oven; allow fifteen minutes to the pound.

Yorkshire Pudding

Two-thirds of a cupful of flour, Three eggs,

One pint of milk,

One teaspoonful of salt.

Sift the flour and measure; add the salt; separate the eggs and add the yolks, unbeaten, to the flour; add a little of the milk and mix to a smooth paste; add the rest of the milk gradually; beat whites of the eggs to a stiff froth and stir into the batter; pour into the roasting pan forty-five minutes before the roast is cooked; serve hot with the roast of beef; if the roast is very fat pour some of the fat from the pan before putting in the pudding.

Braised Beef Or Pot Roast

Six or eight pounds of chuck roast; trim and rub with pepper and salt; cut a large onion into dice and brown in salt pork fat; put the roast into a braising pan; pour over it one quart of boiling water; add the onion; cover closely and cook in a moderate oven about four hours, turning after two hours, and add more water as it evaporates, so as to have three cups of gravy; when tender take up the meat; skim off the fat from the gravy and thicken with a tablespoonful of flour wet in a little cold water and strained into the gravy; season with pepper and salt and a little lemon juice.

Veal Heart

Remove the tough membranes and soak in cold water and salt one hour; wipe and stuff with stale bread crumbs seasoned with salt and pepper and moistened with melted butter; rub the heart with salt, pepper and dredge with flour; fry brown in a pan with a little fat salt pork; place in braising kettle; add one pint of water, one teaspoonful of minced onion, sprig of parsley, three cloves, three pepper corns, one small carrot cut fine; cover tightly and cook two hours in a moderately hot oven; turn three or four times while baking.

Roast Lamb Or Mutton

Remove the skin from a leg of lamb or mutton; sear the cut surfaces on a hot griddle; place on a rack in a roasting pan in a hot oven. A leg of lamb will roast in one hour and a quarter, while it requires one hour and three-quarters to roast a medium-sized leg of mutton.

Roast Veal

Veal being a dry meat, requires basting to keep it moist and to enrichen it; rub the veal with sugar, salt and pepper, using one-half as much sugar as salt; place upon rack in roasting pan and let cook in a hot oven until nicely browned, then baste with a thin gravy made from one tablespoonful of butter, one of flour and two cupfuls of stock or water; season with pepper and salt; baste every fifteen minutes; veal requires longer cooking than either beef or mutton; a five-pound roast will cook in two and one-half hours.

Pork

Fresh pork is seasoned with pepper, salt and sugar. Roast and baste the same as veal.