THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 515 



succulent joints of larger households. A little reflection on the prin- 

 ciples applied in my last to the grilling of steaks and chops will ex- 

 plain the source of this little difficulty, and I think show how it may 

 he overcome. 



I will here venture upon a little of the mathematics of cookery, as 

 well as its chemistry. While the weight or quantity of material in a 

 joint increases with the cube of its through-measured dimensions, its 

 surface only increases with their square or, otherwise stated, we do 

 not nearly double or treble the surface of a joint of given form when 

 we double or treble its weight ; and, vice versa, the less the weight, 

 the greater the surface in proportion to the weight. This is obvious 

 enough when we consider that we can not cut a single lump of any- 

 thing into halves without exposing or creating two fresh surfaces where 

 no surfaces were exposed before. As the evaporation of the juices is, 

 under given conditions, proportionate to the surface exposed, it is evi- 

 dent that this process of converting the inside middle into two outside 

 surfaces must increase the amount of evaporation that occurs in roast- 

 ing. 



What, then, is the remedy for this ? It is twofold: First, to seal 

 up the pores of these additional surfaces as completely as possible ; and, 

 secondly, to diminish to the utmost the time of exposure to the dry 

 air. Logically following up these principles, I arrive at a practical 

 formula, which will probably induce certain orthodox cooks to de- 

 nounce me as a culinary paradoxer. It is this : That the smaller the 

 joint to be roasted the higher the temperature to which its surface 

 should be exposed. The roasting of a small joint should, in fact, be 

 conducted in nearly the same manner as the grilling of a chop or steak 

 described in my last. The surface should be crusted or browned 

 burned, if you please as speedily as possible, in such wise that the 

 juices within shall be held there under high pressure, and only al- 

 lowed to escape by burst and splutters, rather than by steady evapora- 

 tion. 



The best way of doing this is a problem to be solved by the prac- 

 tical cook. I only expound the principles, and timidly suggest the 

 mode of applying them. In a metallurgical laboratory, where I am 

 most at home, I could roast a small joint beautifully by suspending it 

 inside a large red-hot steel-melter's crucible, or, better still, in an appa- 

 ratus called a " muffle," which is a fire-clay tunnel open in front, and so 

 arranged in a suitable furnace as to be easily made red-hot all round. 

 A small joint placed on a dripping-pan and run into this would be 

 equally heated by all-round converging radiation, and exquisitely 

 roasted in the course of about ten to thirty minutes, according to 

 its size. Some such an apparatus has yet to be invented in order that 

 we may learn the flavor and tenderness of a perfectly-roasted small 

 joint of beef or mutton. 



For roasting large masses of meat, a different proceeding is neces- 



