The Boast
Ingredients
Directions
HE definition given of the word roast in the “ Dictionnaire des termes du vieux
Francois,”* is a very curious one. Here it is : — “ Rost et raust du rosty. Ce mot vient de rusticus parceque le feu noirci, et brule la viande comme le soleil qui hale le visage des pay- sans.” Anything more futile, trivial, and far-fetched than this it were impossible to conceive ; yet a per- son daily accustomed to lexicographic studies will simply smile at meanings so forced and strained- meanings very common, however, with dictionary
makers and lexicographers.
Boxhornius, in his Britannico-Latm Dictionary, tells us rlwst (sic) is an ancient British word.
* uui.nnnire des femes du vieux Francois, ou tresor de
The Roast.
« Antiquam esse vocem Brittanicam, ostendit no- men Regis Armoricani, Daniel Dremrost ab ustis, oculis, vel usto yultu sic dicti.” Wolfgang Lazius, also, in bis tenth book, “de Migrationibus Gentium” states that rost {sic) in the Vandal and Teuton lan- guages signifies a grill; and Jean Bruy ere, in his book “ de Re Cibaria,”* says, that in early times in France, a guest who was invited to a dinner without a roast on a day when it was lawful to eat meat — in other words, to live en gras — fared very frugally in- deed, if by any accident the roast was omitted. This can be well credited, for among the English and French the roast has been always the principal dish, or, as our neighbours would say, the piece de resistance.
In very early times, in Paris, there were what were called in old French, rostisseries, where roast meats were sold ready to be eaten instantly at meals. Du Loir tells us that in the mediaeval times, an Italian patriarch thought nothing so admirable at Paris as these rotisseries, where he could find such delicate tit-bits as a roast gigot, or a roast shoulder or leg of lamb. The rotisseries were kept by rotisseurs and rotisseuses, and they exist to this day. There were independently of these general rotisseurs, and rotis- seuses as they were called en blanc, who sold only larded roasts, such as filets piques, &c.
The traiteur, or the cuisinier traiteur, was some-
* Lib. XII. cap. 5. M
The Roast.
times also a rutisseur , a calling distinguished from the patissier or pastry-cook. The Company of Maitre Rotisseurs in France was much older than the Company of Maitre Cuisiniers, which latter was only erected into a corporation in 1559, in the reign of Henry I Y. The statutes of the Maitre Rotisseurs were granted by Stephen Poileau, Provost of Paris, about 1258. The rotisseurs, for the most part, lived in the street called Aux Oyers, where, so late as 1 t67, a great many of them were established.
I have in another and preceding chapter remarked, that the French kitchen was very much indebted to Italian cookery. The truth is, that the Italians of the middle ages have been in most sciences the in- structors of Europe. Catherine de Medici came to France surrounded with a legion of cooks, rotisseurs and pdtissiers, and these new-comers first impro^ ed the cookery already existing, and having found apt scholars in the French, were soon surpassed by their pupils.
The art of roasting is considered an especial art by our neighbours. It is very true, that there is no process in cookery so simple, and yet very few can accomplish it properly. A roast, whether of beef, mutton, venison, lamb, or fowl, should neither be un- der nor over done. The great secret therefore is to avoid either extreme, and so to hit the middle point. Venison, beef, mutton, lamb, require to be equally done through all the parts, yet no portion of the gravy
The Roast.
should be wasted. Scorching is not roasting, and burn- ing is not browning a joint* The best joint of beef for roasting in England is the sirloin. The fire should be brisk and clear, as well as large, steady, and intense in proportion to the size of the joint, and the meat should be perpetually basted, so that no cessation in the pro- cess should take place. Large joints should be put down soon after the fire is made up and begins to burn. The gradual access of the heat to meat prevents its burning. If a joint be burned in the early process, it is an evil scarcely remediable in the subsequent stages of the operation of roasting. For this reason it is that in the great kitchens in France there is al- ways some one whose special duty it is to attend to the roast alone. In the fourth volume of the “ Al- manach des Gourmands,” it is said that a dinner may be compared to the rooms of a house, and the roast is the salon or principal apartment. “ The salon in a French house,” says M. Grimod de la Reyniere, “ is the room on which an hospitable host spends all his spare money. It is furnished and decorated with the greatest care, because in this room the master receives his friends. Just a like process is pursued in respect to the roast that smokes upon his table. It is the dish that has cost him most money, and on which he hopes to content and feast his guests.” It is, therefore, most important that the roast, by its excellence, juice, and tenderness, should satisfy; for if it be bad, burned, or hard, all however excellent that has preceded it,
The Roast.
is forgotten; a tristful silence succeeds to hilarity, and the grieved Amphitryon seeks to repair the blun- der of his cook by the production of excellent \\ me.
The misfortune is, that there is no strict law to “ rule the roast.” The doing it to a turn depends on a congeries of circumstances and contingencies which are eternally varying. The beef or mutton may be old, tough, sinewy, or not sufficiently hung. A great deal depends on the size of the coal or wood before which it is placed. Much also on the regular basting or the punctual arrival of the guests. Sometimes a delay of five or ten minutes spoils a beautiful roast joint, and renders it flavourless and insipid. “ Ainsi,” saysGrimod, (becoming poetical) “Ainsi que la beaute dans sa fleur, il n’a qu’un moment pour etre cuelli et ce moment une fois passe ne revient jamais.
It is not therefore an exaggeration to say that good roasters are even more difficult to find than good cooks. It was the opinion of so competent a judge as this, that iu an establishment where the cook attended both to the preparing of the dinner and the roast, the roast was sure to be bad. I will not go to this length, for an experienced kitchen-maid can always bestow on the roast of the first and second course all the at- tention necessary. The roast, according to this gieat and experienced authority, is divided into great and little roast — gros rot et petit rot. The larger roast comprises venison, beef, mutton, veal, lamb, and pork, quarters of wild boar, &c„ and the smaller, fowl,
The Roast.
arouse, and small birds. Grimod recommends that smaller birds should be larded with a slice of good lard. Great care should be taken in the selection of the lard, for a rancid lard will spoil the best bird that ever flew. At large dinners, the editor of the “ Al- manach” holds that the roast should be served without entrees or entremets, flanked merely by four different salades. A general rule among cooks is to allow a quarter of an hour to each pound of the joint. Thus a joint of eight pounds will take two hours. Slow roasting adds to the tenderness and flavour of a joint, and it may be observed, that the longer a joint is kept the less time it will require in roasting.
Our roasts in England (with the single exception of a leg of mutton) are better than in France. The quality of the meat (with the exception of veal) is much better, and good English cooks excel in roasting meat and game. Our game is much finer than in France, though we have nothing to equal the French pou- larde of the Mans, in the department of the Sarthe. Nothing in France can compare to our haunches and necks of venison, to our barons and sirloins of beef, to our haunches, saddles, and legs of mutton, to our barons and fore-quarters of lamb. Our beef is in season all the year round, and may be given as a roast from October to March. Our saddles, haunches, legs, and necks of mutton, may also be given as a roast for the first course, being varied with pork, veal, and roast turkey. For a second course in Jan-
The Roast.
nary and February, we have widgeon and woodcock, snipe, teal, wild duck and black game, hares, &c. All this game is better flavoured and better roasted in England than in France. In April, we have excellent lamb for a first course, with guinea-fowls and ducklings for a second. In May we have poulardes and quails, turkey poults, &c., for a second. Venison begins in June, and in August we have grouse, and that excel- lent bird the golden plover. A little later come partridges, black cock, and then snipe and wild duck, while lamb and mutton alternate in the first. Mutton, whether as a roast, or an entree in the shape of cutlets, can be alike served; and with Swift’s receipt for roast- ing mutton, I will conclude this branch of the subject .
“ Gently stir and blow the fire,
Lay the mutton down to roast,
Dress it quickly, I desire ;
In the dripping put a toast,
That I hunger may remove —
Mutton is the meat I love.
On the dresser see it lie ;
Oh ! the charming white and red !
Finer meat ne’er met the eye,
On the sweetest grass it fed ;
Let the jack go swiftly round,
Let me have it nicely brown’d.
On the table spread the cloth,
Let the knives be sharp and clean,
Pickles get and salad both,
Let them each be fresh and green.
With small beer, good ale, and wine,
0 ye gods ! how I shall dine !
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I by no means mean to imply that our neigh- bours, the French, have not a greater variety of ways of dressing their roasts for first and second couises than we have ; all I mean to assert is, that our simple roasting of venison, beef, mutton, and game, is bet- ter than the French. The material to work upon is incomparably better. Toujours perdrix, however, is sure to pall on the palate, and our object should be to vary our mode of dressing these excellent mate- rials. Till schools of cookery become more general, it will not be safe for a host, with an ordinary plain cook, to set before his guest a filet de boeuf , sauce a la poivrade, a salmi of partridge, or a filet de canard sauvage.
It would even be a dangerous experiment in many cases to essay a loin of veal d la Bechamel, fillets of fowl a la tartare, a common fricassee of chicken, or a braized saddle of lamb a la jardiniere.
It is perhaps unnecessary to say that pork, veal, and lamb should be done well ; turkeys and fowls should have no red in them, but game should be somewhat underdone.
I have already said that the time necessary to roast a joint depends on a variety of circumstances, of which an experienced male or female cook will be the best judge. The following table, however, very nearly approximates to the exact time, supposing a coal fire to be employed : —
The Roast.
A joint of beef . weighing
A joint of veal .
A joint of mutton
A leg of lamb
A joint of fresh pork
A haunch of buck venison .
A neck of buck .
A joint of venison
(Venison should be rather under than
A large turkey .
A medium-sized one
A turkey poult .
A poularde
A large fowl
A gosling .
A pigeon .
A leveret .
A pheasant
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A partridge
Cock of the wood, or black game,
Grouse Woodcock . Snipe
Golden plover Teal .
Fig-pecker
20 minutes. 1 to 1^ hour.
20 minutes. 20 „
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.
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