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Roasting Meat

A method for roasting a joint of meat with salt, flour, and basting.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 28% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,529 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Roasting Meat

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Prepare the fire and ensure it is burning brightly.

  2. Roast the meat for 15 minutes per pound for beef, or 20 minutes per pound for pork or veal.

  3. Baste the meat regularly to keep it tender.

  4. When the meat is nearly done, stir the fire to increase the heat.

  5. Baste the joint again and dredge it with flour and a little salt.

  6. Check for doneness by observing the steam direction; it should rise towards the fire.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Meat
Forms the main body of the dish; longer roasting at a steady heat turns its connective tissue tender.
Flour
Dusted over the surface, it helps form a browned, crisp crust as the joint finishes roasting.

The step that matters

Adjusting the heat near the end of roasting. Stirring the fire to raise the heat only once the meat is nearly done helps brown the surface without overcooking the interior. Checking doneness by the steam direction is a traditional cue, so judging by temperature is more reliable.

“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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