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Roasting

A method of roasting a joint of meat over a coal fire, seasoned with salt, butter, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roasting

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fire

  1. Prepare a fire larger than the joint by 2-3 inches in width and height.

  2. Place coal on top of the fire, ensuring it is free from smoke and ashes.

Roast the joint

  1. Spit the joint.

  2. Start the joint far from the fire, basting constantly.

  3. When the joint is two-thirds done, move it closer to the fire to brown.

  4. Sprinkle the joint with salt.

  5. Baste the joint with dripping or butter.

  6. Dredge the joint with flour.

Serve

  1. Dish the meat.

  2. Serve the meat.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Meat + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Meat + flourtop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,529 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Joint of meat
Forms the main body of the dish and is cooked slowly by the fire.
Butter
Adds fat and moisture to the surface while basting, helping it brown.
Flour
Dredged over the joint, it helps form a crisp, browned crust.

The step that matters

Moving the joint closer to the fire. Moving it too early or too late affects the result. Near the end, a closer fire browns the surface, while starting far from the fire lets the inside cook gently without burning the outside.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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