Sentence:  And in spite of all our professors of <WSD>torrefaction</WSD> — to borrow a phrase from Grant Allen — and our demonstrations of cookery, not one woman in fifty can boil rice, or be trusted to grill a chop when it is easier to fry it. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  The act or process of subjecting something to heat or to highly acidic substances.