The Chemistry of Cookery

a few minutes, or the roasting of the small joint as above within thirty minutes, and you will see that I am justified in dwelling on the great differences of the two processes, and the necessity of very varied proceeding to meet these different conditions. The difference of time is so great that the smaller relative surface is insufficient to compensate for the evaporation that must occur if the grilling principle, or the pure and simple action of radiant heat, were only made available, as in the above ideal roasting of the small joint. What, then, is added to this? How is the desiccating difficulty overcome in the large-scale roasting? Simply by _basting_. All night long and all the next morning men were continuously at work pouring melted fat over the surface of the slowly-rotating carcass of the Warwick ox, skilfully directing a ladleful to any part that indicated undue dryness. By this device the meat is more or less completely enveloped in a varnish of hot melted fat, which assists in the communication of heat, while it checks the evaporation of the juices. In such roasting the heat is partially communicated by convection through the medium of a fat-bath, as in stewing it is all supplied by a water-bath. I have made some experiments wherein this principle is fully carried out. In a suitably-sized saucepan I melted a sufficient quantity of mutton-dripping to form a bath, wherein a small joint of mutton could be completely immersed. The fat was then raised to a high temperature, 350° (as shown by Davis’ _tryometer_, presently to be described). Then I immersed the joint in this, keeping up the high temperature for a few minutes. Afterwards I allowed it to fall below 200°, and thus cooked the joint. It was good and juicy, though a little of the gravy had escaped and was found in the fat after cooling. The experiment was repeated with variations of temperature; the best result obtained when it was about 400° at the beginning, and kept up to above 200° afterwards. I used loins and half-legs of mutton,