NEW ENGLAND FARMER 



rUBMSllKl) B\ WILLIAM NICHOLS ROGK.RS' BUILDINGS, CONGRESS STREET, (EOURTH DOOR FROM STATE S'KTUOKT 



T.) 



Vol. H. 



K)STON, SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1824. 



No. 38. 



Somrjstic IStommv. 



ROASTING MEAT. Let tlic j'oung; cook neei' 

 forg^et th;\t cleanliness is the chief cardinal vir- 

 tue of the kitchen ; — the (ir?t prepaiatioi tor 

 roasting is to take care that tlie spit be proper 

 ly cleansed with sand and water ; nothing elsa 

 When it has been well scoured with this, diyil 

 with a clean cloth. If spils are wiped clem, 

 as soon as the meat is drawn from them, aid 

 while they are hot, a very little cleaning wll 

 be required. The less a spit is passed throi^h 

 the meat the better,* and before you spit, jont 

 it properly — especially necks and loins — tiat 

 the carver may separate them easily and nealy, 

 and take especial care it be evenly balancedon 

 the spit, that its motion may be regular, and he 

 fire operate equally on each part of it; — tliffe- 

 fore be provided with balancing skewers, .nd 

 cookholds, and see that it is properly jointel. 



Roasting should be done in the open air to 

 ventilate the meat from its own fumes, and by 

 the radiant heat of a clear glowing fire, oiler- 

 wise it is in fact baked ; the machines, the tco- 

 Domical grate-makers call roasters, are in pain 

 English, ovens. 



Do not put meat too near the fire at first; — 

 ihe larger the joint the farther it must be kept f jin 

 the fire : — if once it gets scorched the out-ide 

 will become hard, and acquire a disagrecrble 

 empyreumatic taste ; and the fire being ire- 

 vented from penetrating into it, the meattvill 

 appear done, before it is little more than half 

 done, besides losing the pale brown color wiich 

 roasted meat should have. 



If you wish your jack to go well keep it as 

 clean as possible, oil it and then wipe it ; if the 

 oil is not wiped off again,]it will ga^er dust ; — 

 to prevent this, as soon as you have cone roast- 

 ing cover it up. 



Be very careful to place the Drpping-Pan 

 at such a distance from the fire as jist to catch 

 Ithe drippings ; if it is too near, the ashes will 

 Ifall into it, and spoil the dripping, which will 

 ■occasionally be found an excellent substitute for 

 butter or lard. 



The time meat will take for roasting will vary 

 iaccording to the time it has been iept, and the 

 (temperature of the weather : — the same weight 

 ■will be twenty minutes, or half an hour longer 

 in cold weather, than it will in warm — and if 

 fresh killed, than if it has been kept till it is 

 iender. Cooks seldom calculate according to 

 'the variation of temperature, &c. 



Every one knows the advantage of slow boil- 

 ing — slow roasting is equally important. 



It is difficult to give any specific rule for 

 time ; — but if your fire be properly made, 

 and your meat skreen sufficiently large to guard 

 what you are dressing from currents of air, and 

 lihe meat is not frozen you cannot do better than 



' * Small families have not always the convenienee of 

 roasting with a spit, — a remark on roasting; by a string 

 is necessary. Let the cook, before she puts her meat 

 down to the fire, pass a strong skewer through each end 

 of the joint ; by this means when it is about half done, 

 she can with ease turn the bottom upwards, the gravy 

 •will then flow to the part which has been uppermost, 

 and the whole joiut be deliciously gravy-full. 



to follow the old general rule of allowing rath- 

 er more than a quarter of an hour to the pound ; 

 a little more or less, according to the tempera- 

 lure of the weather, — and in |)roport!on as the 

 piece is thick or thin, — the strength of the fire, 

 — the nearness of the meat to it, — and the fre- 

 quency with which you baste it; the more it is 

 basted the less time it will take, as it keeps the 

 meat soft and mellow on the outside, and the 

 fire acts with more force upon if. 



Reckon the time not to the hour when dinner 

 is ordered but to the moment the roasts will be 

 wanted. When the joint is half done remove 

 the spit and dripping pan back, and stir up 

 your fire thoroughly, that it may burn clear 

 and bright for the browning; when the steam 

 from the meat draws towards the fire, it is a 

 sign of its being done enough ; but you will be 

 the best judge of that, from the time it has 

 been down, the strength of the fire you have 

 used, and the distance your spit has been from it. 



About half an hour before your meat is done 

 make your gravy. Mix a salt spoon full of salt, 

 with a full quarter of a pint of boiling water, 

 and drop this by degrees on the joint ; and just 

 before you take it up, put it nearer the fire to 

 brown it. If you wish to froth it, — baste it, and 

 dredge it with fiour carefully ; you cannot do 

 this delicately nice without a very good light. 

 The common fault seems to be using too much 

 flour. The meat should have a fine light var- 

 nish of froth ; not the appearance of being 

 covered with a paste. 



Though roasting is one of the most common, 

 and is generally considered one of the most ea- 

 sy and simple processes of cookery, it requires 

 more unremitting attention to perform it per- 

 fectly well than it does most made dishes. 



The Cook's Oracle from which most of the 

 foregoing observations are extracted and abridg- 

 ed, says that a sir-loin of about fifteen pounds 

 will require to be before the fire about three 

 and a half or four hours. It should be spitted 

 evenly, so as not to be heavier on one side than 

 the other, — " put a little clean dripping into 

 the dripping-pan, tie a sheet of paper over it to 

 preserve the fat, baste it well as soon as it is 

 put down, and every quarter of an hour all the 

 time it is roasting till the last half hour ; then 

 take ofl the paper, and make some gravy, k.c. 

 as before diirected. If there is more fat than 

 you think will be eaten with the meat cut it ofJ' 

 and use it for other purposes, such as making 

 pudding, frying, &c. About the same time, and 

 similar management are proper for roasting 

 ribs as for a sir-loin. The inside of a sir-loin 

 should never be cut for the first meal, but be 

 reserved entire for a hash, &c." 



Meat should be kept uncooked, till it has lost 

 its organic elasticity, and the flesh may be in- 

 dented with the finger, but beyond this it is not 

 wholesome to keep it. 



Roaating and broiling, however, greatly di- 

 minish the weight of meat. By far the most 

 economical mode of cooking is boiling or stew- 

 ing, and with proper attention to season and 

 giving a flavor to food dressed in that manner 

 the nicest palates may be gratified. Still as 

 roasting and broiling are not likely soon to be 



dispensed with, especially at the tables of the 

 wealthy, those who roast, had better roust by 

 rule, and thus become entitled to rule the roast 

 among those who are fond of ex<iuisile eating. 



TO CHOOSE EGfiS AT MAHKET AND PRF.SKRVK TIIEM 



Put the large end of the egg to your tongue ; if 

 it feols warm it is new. In new laid eg'^s, there 

 is a small division of the skin from tlie shell 

 which is filled with air, and is perceptible to the 

 eye at the end. On looking through them 

 against a sun or candle, if fresh, eggs will be 

 pretty clear. If they shake they are not 

 fresh. — Domestic Encyclopedia. 



Eggs, it is said, may be preserved by dipping 

 them in boiling water, and instantly taliing 

 them out, or by oiling the shell ; either of 

 which way will prevent the air from passing 

 through it. They may likewise be packed in 

 a keg and covered with lime water. Or if 

 packed with wood ashes in a barrel or other 

 close vessel, so as not to touch each other, stand- 

 ing on end and the barrel turned frequently so as 

 to stand sometimes on one head, and sometimes 

 on the other, it is said they will be preserved. 



CEorrcs^Jontrcncr. 



BLACK INK. 

 To the Editor of the J^ew England Farmer, 



Sir, — As you are fond of rational experiments, 

 I beg leave to communicate to you the result of 

 my endeavors to manufacture Black Ink. Al- 

 though I have a recipe copied from the autograph 

 of the Apostle Eliot, who in the church records 

 of Roxlmry prefixed, very appropriately, a re- 

 cipe to make good ink, yet President William 

 Fleming's proclamation, in the New England 

 Farmer of November 1, to the clerks of courts, 

 with a recipe annexed, took with me so much 

 that 1 undertook to see, as good farmers should, 

 how much it was worth by experimental know- 

 ledge. In the first place I went to our .Apothe- 

 cary for the materials. I might have got them 

 cheaper, but I wanted all to be warranted. Here 

 is his bill. 



1 lb. Chips of Logwood, 

 lib. Aleppo Galls, 



2 oz. Pomegranate Peels, 



1-2 lb. Green Vitriol, or Copperas, 

 4 oz. Green Arabic, 

 1-4 pint Spirits of Wine, and Phial, 

 Salt ef Tartar, - . . . 



^17 



,75 

 ,12 

 ,6 

 ,8 

 ,12 



$1, 36 



The Spaluta, alias small pudding stick, was 

 made by my boy. Well, sir, the next thing was 

 to get an earthen pail-full pot of my wife, and 

 she, good soul, let me have a new one from a 

 parcel she had just bought to put in hog's fat. 

 I took a gallon (beer measure) of brook water, 

 put in the logwood chips, and boiled it thirty mi- 

 nutes. Then I poured off the decoction from the 

 chips into the pot, (having previously put into 

 it the galls and peels,) but as their strength did 

 not appear to be exhausted, ! ventured to pour 

 on one quart more of hot water, which I also 

 poured off into the pot, making five quarts of 

 water in all. I set the pot on the hearth near 

 the kitchen fire, for three days, stirring it three 

 or four times a day with the spatula or slick. I 



