5 i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sary. Here we have to contend, not with excessive surface in propor- 

 tion to bulk as in the grilling of chops and steaks and the roasting 

 of small joints but with the contrary viz., excessive bulk in propor- 

 tion to surface. If a baron of beef were to be treated according to 

 my prescription for a steak, or for a single wing-rib, or other joint of 

 three to five pounds' weight, it would be charred on its surface long 

 before the heat could reach its center. 



A considerable time is here inevitably demanded. Of course, the 

 higher the initial outside temperature, the more rapidly the heat will 

 penetrate ; but we can not apply this law to a lump of meat, as we may 

 to a mass of iron. We may go on heating the outside of the iron to 

 redness, but not so the meat. So long as the surface of the meat re- 

 mains moist, we can not raise it to a higher temperature than the 

 boiling-point of the liquid that moistens it. Above this, charring com- 

 mences. A little of such charring, such as occurs to the steak or 

 small joint during the short period of its exposure to the great heat, 

 does no harm ; it simply " browns " the surface ; but if this were con- 

 tinued during the roasting of a large joint, a crust of positively black 

 charcoal would be formed, with ruinous waste and general detriment. 



As Rumford proved long ago, liquids are very bad conductors, and 

 when their circulation is prevented by confinement between fibers, as 

 in the meat, the rate at which heat will travel through the humid mass 

 is very slow indeed. As few of my readers are likely to fully esti- 

 mate the magnitude of this difficulty, I will state a fact that came 

 under my own observation, and at the time surprised me. 



About five-and-twenty years ago I was visiting a friend at War- 

 wick during the " mop " or " statute fair " the annual slave-market 

 of the county. In accordance with the old custom, an ox was roasted 

 whole in the open public market-place. The spitting of the carcass 

 and starting the cookery was a disgusting sight. We are accustomed 

 to see the neatly-cut joints ordinarily brought to the kitchen ; but the 

 handling and impaling of the whole body of a huge beast by half a 

 dozen rough men, while its stiffened limbs were stretching out from 

 its trunk, presented the carnivorous character of our ordinary feed- 

 ing very grossly indeed. 



Nevertheless I watched the process, and dined on some of its re- 

 sult. The fire was lighted before midnight, the rotation of the beast 

 on the horizontal spit before it began shortly after, and continued 

 until the following midday, all this time being necessary for the rais- 

 ing of the inner parts of the flesh to the cooking temperature of about 

 180 Fahr. 



Compare this with the grilling of a steak, which, when avcII done, 

 is done in 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. 



