Fire-places and Kitchen Utensils. 265 



growing to be more and more an object of .public 

 concern. 



I could mention several other experiments similar to 

 that just described, which have been made, and with 

 similar results ; but it would be superfluous to bring 

 many examples to ascertain a fact which is so well 

 established by one. 



There is one peculiarity more respecting meat roasted 

 in a roaster, which I must mention ; that is, the uncom- 

 mon delicacy of the taste of the fat of the meat so roasted, 

 especially when it has been done by a very slow fire. 

 When good mutton is roasted in this manner, its fat is 

 exquisitely sweet and well tasted, and when eaten with 

 currant jelly can hardly be distinguished from the fat of 

 the very best venison. The fat parts of other kinds of 

 meat are also uncommonly delicate when prepared in 

 this manner ; and there is reason to think that they are 

 much less unwholesome than when they are roasted 

 before an open fire. 



The heat which is generated by the rays which pro- 

 ceed from burning fuel is frequently most intense ; and 

 hence it is that the surface of a piece of meat that is 

 roasted on a spit is often quite burned, and rendered not 

 only hard and ill-tasted, but very unwholesome. The 

 fat of venison is not thought to be unwholesome ; but, in 

 roasting venison, care is taken, by covering it, to prevent 

 the rays from the fire from burning it. In the roasting 

 machine, the bad effects of these direct rays are always 

 prevented by the sides of the roaster, which intercepts 

 them, and protects the surface of the meat from the 

 excessive violence of their action ; and even when, at 

 the end of the process of roasting, the intensity of the 

 heat in the roaster is so far increased as to brown the 



