bottom of the pan. Close the oven; and in about ten minutes, open, and
baste the meat with the gravy. Dredge with salt, pepper and flour. Do
this every fifteen minutes; and as soon as one side of the meat is
brown, turn, and brown the other. Make gravy as before. Allow a
quarter of an hour less in the oven than in the tin kitchen. The heat
for roasting must be very great at first, to harden the albumen, and
thus keep in the juices. After the meat is crusted over it is not
necessary to keep up so great a heat, but for rare meats the heat
must, of course, be greater than for those that are to be well done.
The kitchen can be drawn back a little distance from the fire and the
drafts closed. Putting salt on fresh meat draws out the juices, but by
using flour a paste is formed, which, keeps in all the juices and also
enriches and browns the piece. Never roast meat without having a rack
in the pan. If meat is put into the water in the pan it becomes soggy
and looses its flavor. A meat rack costs not more than thirty or forty
cents, and the improvement in the looks and flavor of a piece of meat
is enough to pay for it in one roasting. The time given for roasting a
piece of beef is for rib roasts and sirloin. The same weight in the
face or the back of the rump will require twenty minutes longer, as
the meat on these cuts is in a very compact form. If a saddle or loin
of mutton is to be roasted, cook the same time as beef if the weight
is the same; but if a leg is to be roasted, one hour and a quarter is
the time. Lamb should be cooked an hour and a half; veal, two hours
and three-quarters; pork, three hours and a quarter. Ten minutes
before dishing the dinner turn the gravy into a sauce-pan, skim off
all the fat, and set on the stove. Let it come to a boil; then stir in
one table-spoonful of flour, mixed with half a cupful of cold water.
Season with salt and pepper, and cook two minutes. Serve the meat on a
hot dish and the gravy in a hot tureen.