The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

_Mode_.---The fore-rib is considered the primest roasting piece, but the middle-rib is considered the most economical. Let the meat be well hung (should the weather permit), and cut off the thin ends of the bones, which should be salted for a few days, and then boiled. Put the meat down to a nice clear fire, put some clean dripping into the pan, dredge the joint with a little flour, and keep continually basting the whole time. Sprinkle some fine salt over it (this must never be done until the joint is dished, as it draws the juices from the meat); pour the dripping from the pan, put in a little boiling: water slightly salted, and _strain_ the gravy over the meat. Garnish with tufts of scraped horseradish, and send horseradish sauce to table with it (_see_ No. 447). A Yorkshire pudding (_see_ Puddings) sometimes accompanies this dish, and, if lightly made and well cooked, will be found a very agreeable addition. _Time_.--10 lbs. of beef, 2-1/2 hours; 14 to 16 lbs., from 3-1/2 to 4 hours. _Average cost_, 8-1/2d. per lb. _Sufficient_.--A joint of 10 lbs. sufficient for 8 or 9 persons. _Seasonable_ at any time. MEMORANDA IN ROASTING.--The management of the fire is a point of primary importance in roasting. A radiant fire throughout the operation is absolutely necessary to insure a good result. When the article to be dressed is thin and delicate, the fire may be small; but when the joint is large, the fire must fill the grate. Meat must never be put down before a hollow or exhausted fire, which may soon want recruiting; on the other hand, if the heat of the fire becomes too fierce, the meat must be removed to a considerable distance till it is somewhat abated. Some cooks always fail in their roasts, though they succeed in nearly everything else. A French writer on the culinary art says that anybody can learn how to cook, but one must be born a roaster. According to Liebig, beef or mutton cannot be said to be sufficiently roasted until it has acquired, throughout the whole mass, a temperature of 158째; but poultry may be well cooked when the inner parts have attained a temperature of from 130째 to 140째. This depends on the greater amount of blood which beef and mutton contain, the colouring matter of blood not being coagulable under 158째. ROAST RIBS OF BEEF, Boned and Rolled (a very Convenient Joint for a Small Family).