The Chemistry of Cookery

the principles already expounded will show that, theoretically regarded, a given piece of meat would be better roasted in a closed chamber radiating heat _from all sides_ towards the meat than it could be when suspended in front of a fire and heated only on one side, while the other side was turned away to cool more or less, according to the rate of rotation. If I agreed with the popular belief in the advantage of open-air exposure to direct radiation from glowing coal, I should suggest that for large joints a special roasting fire be constructed, by building an upright cylinder of fire-brick, and erecting within this a smaller cylinder or grating of iron bars, so that the fuel should be placed between these, and thus form an upright cylindrical ring or shirt of fire, enclosed outside by the bricks, but open and glowing towards the inside of the hollow cylinder, in the midst of which the meat should be suspended to receive the radiation from all sides. The whole apparatus might stand under a dome, terminating in an ordinary chimney, like a glass-house or a steel-maker’s cementing furnace; or, in this respect, like those wondrous kitchens of the old seraglio at Constantinople, where each apartment is a huge chimney, outspreading downwards, so that the cooks, and their materials and apparatus, as well as the huge fires themselves, are all under the great central chimney shaft. I do not, however, recommend such an apparatus, even to the most wealthy and luxurious epicure, because I am convinced, not merely from theoretical considerations, but also from practical experiments, that all kinds of meat may be not merely as well roasted in a close oven as before an open fire, but that the close chamber, properly managed, produces _better results in every respect_ than can possibly be obtained by roasting in the open air. To obtain such results there must be no compromise, no concession to any false theory respecting a necessity for special ventilation, excepting in the case of semi-putrid game or venison, which require to be carbonised and disinfected as