514 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sion. To do this, divide the chop in equal halves, then hold one half 

 over a flaming coal, immersing it in the flame, and cook it thus. Now 

 cut a bit of fat off the other, throw this fat on a surface of clear, glow- 

 ing, flameless coal or coke, and, when a good blaze is thus obtained, 

 immerse this half chop recklessly and unmercifully in this flame ; 

 there let it splutter and fizz, drop more fat and make more flame, but 

 hold it there, nevertheless, for a few minutes, and then taste the result. 



In spite of its blackness, it will be (if just warmed through to the 

 above-named cooking temperature) a deliciously cooked, juicy, nutri- 

 tious, digestible morsel, apparently raw, but actually more completely 

 cooked than if it had been held twice as long, at double the distance, 

 from the surface of the fire. 



For further instruction, make a third experiment by imitating the 

 cautious unscientific cook, who, ignorant of the difference between the 

 condensation products of coal and those from beef and mutton fat, 

 carefully raises the gridiron directly the flame from the dropping fat 

 threatens the object of her solicitude. The result will be an ordinary 

 domestic chop or steak. I apply this adjective, because, in this par- 

 ticular effort of cookery, the grilling of chops and steaks, domestic 

 cookery is commonly at fault. The majority of our city men find that 

 while the joint cooked at home is better than that they usually get at 

 restaurants and hotels, the chops and steaks are inferior. 



I believe that this inferiority is due, in the first place, to the want 

 of understanding of the difference between coal-flame and fat-flame ; 

 and in the second, to the advantage afforded to the " grill-room " cook 

 by his specially constructed fire, where a large surface of glowing coke 

 is surmounted by a sloping grill, whereon he can expose his chops and 

 steaks to the radiation from a large glowing surface with a minimum 

 of convection heat, the hot air passing in a current over the coke sur- 

 face having such small depth that it barely touches the bars of the 

 grill. (This may be seen by watching the course of flame produced 

 by the droppings of the fat.) The same obliquity of draught prevents 

 the serious blacking of the meat, which, although harmless, is un- 

 sightly and calculated to awaken prejudice. 



The high temperature rapidly imparted by radiation to the surface 

 of the meat forms a thin superficial crust of hardened and semi-car- 

 bonized albumen and fiber, which resists the outrush of vapor, and 

 produces within a certain degree of high pressure, which probably acts 

 in loosening the fibers. A well-grilled chop or steak is " puffed " out 

 made thicker in the middle ; an ill-cooked, desiccated specimen is 

 shriveled, collapsed, and thinned by the slow departure of its juices. 



IX. 



Happy little couples, living in little houses with only one little ser- 

 vant or, happier still, with no servant complain of their little joints 

 of meat, which, when roasted, are so dry, as compared with the big, 



