770 KIT 
London. A fmali violin of fuch form and dimenfion as to 
be capable of being carried in a cafe in the pocket: its 
length, meafuring from the extremities, is about lixteen 
inches, and that of the bow about feventeen. Small as 
this inftrument is, its powers are co-extenfive with thofe 
of the violin. 
Kit is likevvife ufed, among dragoons, to denote their 
lot of neceffaries, colle&ed and packed up in a fmali com- 
pafs. The term is alfo applied, among the infantry, to 
the contents of a foldier’s knapfack : 
The ferjeant comes with all his wit: 
“ My lads, you’ve loft fome of your kit." 
We know’d all that as well as him ; 
’Tvvas pawn’d to get the girls forne gin. Song. 
KIT-FLOOR, /. with miners, a particular lay or ftra- 
tum of coals. AJh. 
KIT-KAT, the name of a club of noblemen and gen¬ 
tlemen, formed in 1703, which met at a tavern kept by 
one Chriftopher Kat ; though fome fay that Kat was a 
paftrycook near the houfe where they met, in King-ftreet, 
Weftminfter, and who fupplied them with tarts. Of this 
club, Addifon, Steele, Congreve, Garth, and other wits of 
the day, were members. Garth wrote extempore epigrams 
on their toafts, which were infcribed on their drinking- 
glaffes ; and Kneller painted their portraits cf a particu¬ 
lar iize which has hence been called the kit-kat fize. The 
picture was hung up in the club-room, and is laid to be 
ft ill in the poffeffion of a defcendant cf Jacob Tonl'on the 
bookfeller. 
KITAIBE'LIA, f. in botany, a genus of the clafs mo- 
nadelphia, order polyandria. Generic effential charac¬ 
ters— Calyx double; the outermoft feven or nine cleft 5 
capfules one-feeded, cluttered in a five-lobed head. 
Kitaibelia vitifolia, a fingle fpecies. Plant vifcid-hairy ; 
leaves five-lobed, unequally toothed; flowers axillary, 
two or three together, white. Native of Hungary. 
KITANES'JO, a town of Japan, on the north-weft 
coaft of the ifland of Niphon. Lat. 36.40. N. Ion. 1 37. 30. E. 
KIT'CHEN, f. \_kegin, Welfh ; keg, Flemith ; cycene, 
Sax. cuifine, Fr. cucina, ltal. kyjhen, Erf.] The room in a 
houfe where the provilions are cooked.'—He was taken into 
fervice in his court to a bafe office in his kitchen ; fo that 
he turned a broach that had worn a crown. Bacon. 
We fee no new-built palaces afpire. 
No kitchens emulate the veftal fire. Pope. 
Upon the oeconomy of the kitchen we ftiall tranferibe 
a few remarks from count Rumford’s Eflays. Man has 
been called, by way of diferimination, a cooking animal ; 
be it fo; but there is no reafon that he fhould cook ex¬ 
travagantly. He mult allow, with count Rumford, that 
“ nothing is fo difgraceful to fociety and to individuals, 
as unmeaning waftefulnefs.” Now the object of the count, 
whofe philoiophy is of the moft ufeful kind, is to (how 
that there is great waftefulnefs in the kitchen and culi¬ 
nary proceffes of Great Britain ; and to recommend a fyf- 
tem that will remedy thofe evils. Endeavouring to elta- 
blifh economy on philofophic principles, he wilt recom¬ 
mend his thoughts to the attention of all who are not ex¬ 
tremely ignorant or extremely prejudiced. He obferves 
that “all the fuel ufed in making water boil with violence 
is wafted, without adding in the fmalleft degree to the 
.heat of the water, or fhortening the procels of cook¬ 
ing a fmgle inftant; and that the walte of fuel which 
arifes from making liquids boil unneceflarily, when no¬ 
thing more wouid be neceftary than to keep them boiling- 
hot, is enormous.” On this ftmple principle he proceeds; 
and, in order to enforce the adoption of his economical 
plans, he farther obferves, that “ the unfcientific and Slo¬ 
venly method of cookery makes the food lefs favory, lefs 
wholefome and nourilhing. The true reafon why nou- 
rifning foups are not more in ufe among the common peo¬ 
ple of Great Britain is, becaufe they do not know how 
good they really are, nor how to prepare them.” 
3 
K I T 
Count R. reprobates the open kitchen-fire-places now 
in common ufe, and particularly that devouring imple¬ 
ment called a kitchen-range. “ More fuel (he obferves) is 
frequently confumed in a kitchen-range, to boil a tea¬ 
kettle, than with proper management would be fufficient 
to cook a good dinner for fifty men.” He anathematizes 
with equal vehemence the common appendage of the 
range, viz. the fmoke-jack. He then gives deferiptions 
of the manner in which feveral kitchens are fitted up on 
the continent. The general principles of their conftruc- 
tion are, that each boiler, kettle, and ftew-pan, fhould 
have its feparate clofed fire-place; and that each fire-place 
fhould have its feparate grate, and its feparate afh-pit, 
clofed by a door well fitted to its frame, and furnifhed 
with a regifter for regulating the quantity of air admitted 
into the fire-place through the grate. 
The procefs of roaiting meat by an open fire is attended 
with more trouble to the fervant, and with a greater wafte 
of fdel, than any other operation of cookery. It is like- 
wife, in the opinion of the author, an injudicious method 
of applying heat, fince the outlide of the meat quickly be¬ 
comes fcorched and dried, fo as to prevent the heat from 
fufficiently penetrating into it, and acting on the interior 
parts. To remedy thefe defeats, count Rumford invent¬ 
ed an apparatus, which he calls a roajler. It is, in its ge¬ 
neral form, like a cylindrical oven ; but that part of the 
contrivance which enables it to brown the meat, and thus 
to give it the diftinguifhing character of roajling, in oppo- 
fition to baking, conlifts in throwing over its furface, in 
the latter part of the procefs, a ftrong current of hot air. 
From the teftimonies which are adduced in its favour, we 
cannot doubt that the roafter will anfwer the purpofe for 
which it was intended, and we hope to fee it gradually 
come into ufe; more particularly as the author repeatedly 
allures us that meat cooked in this manner is “ more de¬ 
licate, more juicy, more favory, and higher flavoured, than 
when roafted in the common way, on a fpit, by an open 
fire.” The count particularly expatiates on the uncom¬ 
mon delicacy of the fat part of the meat cooked in the 
roafter: “When good mutton is roafted in this manner, 
its fat is exquifitely fweet and well-tafted ; and, when 
eaten with currant-jelly, can hardly be diftinguifhed from 
the fat of the very belt venifon.” The other advantages, 
which it holds out, are the fmali quantity of fuel required 
to drefs the meat, and the little trouble which it gives 
the cock ; whofe duty is only to pay occafional attention 
to the regulation of the fire, and, for a fhort time before 
the procefs is concluded, to open the (toppers which ad¬ 
mit the current of hot air. Yet, notwithftanding thefe 
high praifes, and thefe ftrong recommendations, we know 
that it has not been eafy to render public opinion favour¬ 
able to thefe roafters, when brought into ufe ; and that, 
■ Itrange as it may feem, from the nature of the cafe, the 
molt difficulty has occurred in teaching cooks how to ma¬ 
nage them, and in perfuading them to adopt the innova¬ 
tion. By a little alteration in the conftruftion and ma¬ 
nagement of the roafter, it may be converted into an ap¬ 
paratus nearly equally ufeful for both roafting and baking, 
it then constitutes what the count calls a roaJling-oven a 
He next offers fome remarks on ovens in general, and the 
method of improving their conftrufiion. When treating 
on this fubjeff, he mentions a circumftance which will ex¬ 
cite fome furprife, that, when meat is boiled by having the 
pan containing it placed in a hot oven, the water in which 
the meat was immerfed will be found nearly pure, almoft 
without flavour or impregnation ; although the meat it- 
felf is completely done, and even, in the opinion of the 
author, is more agreeable to the tafte than when boiled in 
the ufual manner. For this lingular faft he accounts by 
fuppofing that, when the heat is applied equally, to all 
parts of the fluid, it remains nearly at reft; and that the 
agitation, into which the water is thrown in the ufual 
procefs of boiling, when the heat is applied to the bottom 
or fide of the pan,, caufes the fibres of the meat to be fe- 
parated from each other, and the particles to be mixed 
with 
