The Charlotte Democrat., 1892-01-15
Roast and Baked Meats.

The very general adoption of the close
range or "kitchener" in place of the open
CRATE has necessarily caused an abandon
ment of the method of roasting our meat
before the open fire, and the substitution
of the process of baking in close chamber
or oven. No doubt the latter method is
the most convenient and the most eco
nomical, but it may be questioned whether
it is the most wholesome. In baking, the
meat is, as it were, cooked in its own
juices; the vapors exhaled from the warm
meat are confined in the close oven and
do not escape in the atmosphere, adding,
no doubt, to the flavor and also to the
richness of the food. At the same time,
the joint surrounded by this dense vapor
does not yield its juices so freely as when
roasted in an open atmosphere, as can be
seen by comparing the yield Of dripping
obtained in the dish in which a leg Of
mutton has been baked with the amount
which similar joint gives to the dripping
pan when roasted. That very large
quantity of the more oily portion of the
fatty matters, especially of the fat distrib-
uted between the muscular 6bres, does
not leave the meat when baked can be
shown by examining slice Of baked
meat and comparing it with a similar
slice ofroast meat, when it will be seen
that in the former minute oily globules
are abundantly distributed among the
fbres, while in meat that has been we'll
and thoroughly roasted they are compar-
atively unnoticeable. Moreover, the
gravy from baked meat when cut always
yields more grease than does that from
roast meat, though, as above stated, the
yield to the dripping pan is less with the
former than the latter. 1t is this retention
of the volatile aroma and unctuous juices
that renders baked meat so popular, and
no doubt with persons of strong stomachs
is not harmful; but when digestion is
feeble, we are convinced it is highly in
furious, but that its continued use not
| only agravates but also induces indigestion
and that in many instances very consider
able benefit has resulted from the advice
of the medical man to the patient to
| order his meat to be roasted instead of
baked. Our knowledge at present regard
ing the respective digestibility Of different
fats is very imperfect; still, the general
and popular opinion is that the more oily
fats are less digestible and more "bilious"
than the solid, and it is these fluid fats
which form the grease of cooked meats.
| Much the same may be said regarding
the mode of cooking bacon. Thus in the
north of England thick slices of bacon are
placed in shallow tins and cooked in the
oven, while rashers are usually fried in a
pan over the fire. In both cases, however,
the bacon is cooked in it's own "dip," or
most oily portion of its fatty matter. 1t
has long been pointed out that bacon
cooked by either of the above methods is
a "bilious" article of diet, whereas when
bacon is toasted it is not apt to disagree
even with decidedly "bilious" people, the
reason being that the oily portion of the
fat or "dip" is removed, and only the
moro solid fat left. We have no wish to
raise panic with regard to the useful
and economical "kitchener" but would
merely suggest that baking may in some
instances be tho unsuspected cause Of
indigestion, in which case return to the
use Of the roasting jack and the open fire
would, we think, prove to be a step in the
right Objectionable Lancet, London.