264 



On the Construction of Kitchen 



weight before they were cooked, were roasted on the 

 same clay, the one in a roaster, the other on a spit before 

 the fire; and, to prevent all deception, the persons 

 employed in roasting them were not informed of the 

 principal design of the experiment. When these pieces 

 of roasted meat came from the fire they were carefully 

 weighed ; when it appeared that the piece which had 

 been roasted in the roaster was heavier than the other 

 by a difference which was equal to six per cent, or six 

 pounds in a hundred. But this even is not all ; nor is 

 it indeed the most important result of the experiment. 

 These two legs of mutton were brought upon table at 

 the same time, and a large and perfectly unprejudiced 

 company was assembled to eat them. They were both 

 declared to be very good ; but a decided preference was 

 unanimously given to that which had been roasted in 

 the roaster, it was much more juicy, and was thought 

 better tasted. They were both fairly eaten up, nothing 

 remaining of either of them that was eatable. Their 

 fragments, which had been carefully preserved, being 

 now collected and placed in their separate dishes, it 

 was a comparison of these fragments which afforded 

 the most striking proof of the relative merit of these 

 two methods of roasting meat, in respect to the economy 

 of food. Of the leg of mutton which had been roasted 

 in the roaster, hardly any thing visible remained except 

 the bare bone ; while a considerable heap was formed 

 of scraps not eatable which remained of that roasted on 

 a spit. 



I believe I may venture to say that the result of this 

 experiment is deserving of the most serious attention, 

 especially in this country, where so much roasted meat 

 is eaten, and where the economy of food is every day 



