New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-11-17
Roasting Pan and Bag
in q Culinary DueI
The Result Greatly in Favor of the Bag. the Roast
Cooked in Paper Losing Little Weight
and Being Juicy and Tender.
BY Martha MecuIIoeh Williams.

Experience has heen mr. only school
which perhaps accounts for the fact that
hold no opinions half-heartedly, especially
about cooking 1t seems TO me the finest
OF fine arts, all too much nisprized, and
held a drudgery instead Of a privilege.
Possibly this makes me reactionary-a
holder fast to old methods. Certainly when
Soyer's paper bag cookery was suggested
10 me there was not a stouter skeptc In all
these United States. Soyer's experience did
nothing TO change my mind. Rather, II
convinced me that paper bag cooking was
one Of the things that cost more than they
come 70. For I set myself this sum: Bags,
plus greaslng. plus clips. equal the cost OF
many saucepans. Furthermore. II is against
sense and reason that the mere putting OF
food in a bag should either hasten the
cooking or better the flavor OF II. Thus
argued the case forthrightly but ended by
confessional would try out paper bags and
see what I should see.
The first bag left me warmly triumphant.
II held loin OF veal, with a generous al
lowance OF suet-hence. to my mind sreas-
ing the bag was in the nature Of a work OF
supererogation. Consequently. my bag
broke, dripped grease on the stove bottom,
filed the house with evil smells-and the
roast got itself finished in a proper pan.
But, being eminently fair minded, I didn't
let IL go at that. Instead, l creased bag
upon bag, doing the work very thoroughly.
and vent on cooking in then-with the re-
suit of finding myself forced by each fresh
experiment 10 admit the excellences claimed
for them, which had inclined most stoutly
to dispute.
Wisdom ferments like yeast. AS | &C
duired IL there was no keeping II TO myself.
II drpped down upon my next story neigh
Dor, a cook both born and made. She was
interested. but skeptical-less so than | had
been, Notwithstanding an open mind. She
likes to be thrifty for set purposes-her
dearest present purpose Is a trip abroad.
The high cost of living is a lion in the path
TO IT, Naturally she is keen for those econ
omies possible without scanting food. So
when I proposed an experiments culinary
duel, II you please-whose result was to be
decided by the scales, she was ready, even
eager, TO engage in II.
Each of us bought rib roast. hers weigh
ing four pounds. mine but three. To the
eye they we're Identical save In the matter
Of size. And our gas ranges are own
brothers, made by exactly the same pat
tern. Her roast went into a pan. mine into
bag Not having 10 haste nor watch
mine. after the fame was turned down
properly, had liberty to run in on her and
see how she Jared. She was doing her best
"A best that is superlative, watching and
hasting her beef with the skill of q chef.
The result was something beautiful to be-
hold when she took II out after little more
than an hour. Mine was still in the oven,
its bag intact, though had turned out the
gas after forty-hve minuteA 1t had not
been on full for forty minutes, whereas my
neighbor had kept hers lowered only the
least bit. The exact saving Of gas do not
undertake TO compute, but that there was a
saving Is beyond question.
The scales showed her roast TO have lost
in weight fraction over nine ounces Mine,
lighter by a pound, had lost a fraction
under two ounces. Furthermore, all the
strength of my meat was in the gravy. A
fifth. at least, OF hers remained sticking TO
the pan. though she treated It in the usual
way We reckoned that paper bag would
have saved her half pound weight OF
beef. equivalent TO IL cents, the cost Of
gas saving alone would have more than
paid for the bag, the clips, the greasing.
Moreover. my beef was tenderer than hers,
had a richer taste and was juicier.
Then and there she saw light, the same
as l had. But the next Saturday, by her
experience, I got stll a greater illumina-
ton. Her family dotes on chicken fricas-
see-which is almost an offence TO my plate
She bought two fowls" fine. yellow. fat
fellows. to provide the Sunday dinner. But
because her supply OF bags had not come
10 hand and she wouldn't take one from
me- she cooked part OF the fowls In stew
pot as usual for Saturday dinner-and
came 10 me. almost In tears, over their
toughness. II had sufflced to break her
pride 10 the degree OF taking bag OF me.
Late Sunday afternoon she called me up
10 say: TT turned out fine. Ny husband
said he never ate tenderer chicken-not
even broilers And so good Why. every
bit of seasoning had gone clear through
every piece l mean never 10 cook chicken
fricassee any other way so long as have
stove and can buy. borrow. beg, or steal
a paper bag"
I reflected Fowls sell az a little more
than 20 cents a pound, roasting chicken
around 80. Ny neighbor who eats so many
chickens, may help herself to Europe by