The use of fire for preparing food is fallaciously regarded as artificial. While this term is literally correct, there is practically no ethnologic nor archaeologic evidence of the existence of a tribe of human beings which has not, even in the earliest times, used fire to some extent in the preparation of food. Even the characteristic failure of the foetal caecum to expand in its distal portion - resulting in the formation of the vermiform appendix, which is not an appendage or outgrowth - is due largely to the use of fire in cooking food, though also to the use of more concentrated food than by the other primates. Thus, to abandon fire for preparing food would be a return, not to the natural state of man, but of the animal from which he evolved.

The value of cooking is three-fold: to kill animal parasites and bacteria, and also, to some degree, to destroy the toxins produced by them; to render both animal and vegetable food more tender and hence more easily digestible; to improve the flavor of food, especially when different natural food stuffs are cooked together.

Probably the most primitive method of cooking is roasting in a fire, and it is probable that the intentional use of this method followed the discovery of the improvement in flavor of meats and vegetables accidentally burned. The use of spits or other support, or the device of first forming a bed of hot ashes or heating a stone, on which the raw food was laid, was an easy advance step. At present the term is usually applied to baking in an oven. Grilling, broiling and toasting are properly included in the term roasting. The surface of the food becomes solidified by coagulation of albumin, usually with more or less charring.

Roasting, as well as the associated methods of cooking, depend upon the action of radiant heat. Owing to the preliminary coagulation of albumin on the outer surface, the juices and volatile flavors of the meat are well retained, nevertheless, 1/5 - 1/4 of the weight is lost by evaporation. This point should be remembered in quantitative estimates of diet. The surface, if not actually charred, is inevitably rather dry and hard, while, owing to the loss of heat by evaporation, the interior, unless the process is prolonged and the temperature rather high (the standard temperature for baking is about 180 F.) remains rare and may be even raw. While the unevenness of the cooking has its disadvantages in the actual loss or difficulty of digestion of the outer part and the failure to accomplish the prime purposes of cooking so far as the interior is concerned, it has the advantage of suiting different tastes, and, if the cooking is carefully done, both charring and lack of disinfection can be avoided.

In the preparation of meats for cooking, the surface should be wiped with a clean, wet cloth, and rubbed over with salt, with or without pepper and other spices. In the customary method of roasting (baking) in an oven, the meat is placed in a dripping pan with a little water, which is renewed if necessary. Poultry, fish, etc., are usually stuffed with a dressing composed mainly of chopped bread. If oysters, nuts, giblets, etc., are added, they should be untainted, and the possible contraindication to excreting viscera like the kidneys and liver, should be considered. Poultry and fish should be thoroughly eviscerated as promptly as possible after killing, due precautions being taken against rupturing the gall bladder and intestines. The body cavity should also be scalded before stuffing.

All meats should be frequently basted, that is, moistened with the contents of the dripping pan, including the juices extracted from the meat, to prevent drying of the surface during cooking. As a rough rule, 1/4 hour of baking should be allowed for every pound of meat in a roast, but ovens vary, and pork should be cooked thoroughly, so that no red appears in the interior. By custom, beef is usually cooked less than veal or mutton, but there is no particular hygienic basis for this custom, as mutton is less liable to contain parasites, animal or bacterial, than beef, and, properly, all meats should be thoroughly done, unless the danger of infection is insured against by careful inspection.

In broiling and grilling, the broiler should be clean and it is generally rubbed with butter. A red mass of coal or charcoal, after the greater portion of the gases have been consumed, is the best fire, but gas does very well. The meat should be turned frequently, and the drippings should be caught on- a platter and served with the meat. The thickness of the mass and the degree of heat used cause the same differences in dryness and charring of the surface and rareness of the interior, as in the case of baking. An extravagantly luxurious method of broiling employs an outer blanket of meat, which is rejected, only the rare interior mass being served. After broiling, the meat is usually rubbed with salt and pepper and spread with butter which mingles with the drippings, to form a gravy.

Roasting, now ordinarily called toasting, using a fork or broiling iron, may also be applied to bread, crackers, sliced potato, sweet potato, parsnips, etc.