The Art of
Roasting
By Rod Michael
With grilling season , a distant past , it ' s time to think about some roasting adventures . We all enjoy the aromas that fill a kitchen as the oven roasts one of your favorite dishes . As a child , it always seemed that , the Sunday dinner was the one meal that we all looked forward to . It could have been a plump roasted chicken , my mom ’ s favorite rack of lamb or that Thanksgiving Turkey we all coveted . The comfort that a lipsmacking meal brings is unequaled . So , let ’ s take a journey through roasting history .
Roasting began in prehistoric times , when man first stuck a piece of meat on a stick and held it over the fire . Spit roasting fowl and game was common place in ancient societies . In the Middle Ages , hunting was a prime occupation of the noble classes and the game was usually roasted on a spit . Suckling pigs were prime candidates for the spit . Beef , believe it or not , was not . It was considered vulgar , because cattle didn ’ t have to be hunted . It wasn ’ t until the 17th century that roast beef became widely accepted in Europe . Roasting was , the most prestigious way to cook meat . Roasting so inspired people that the oldest gastronomic society was founded in Paris in 1248 by masters in the art of roasting geese . The society was known as the Confrerie de la Chaines des Rotisseurs , ( The Brotherhood of the Chain of the Roasters ). The object of the guild was to perpetuate the quality standards befitting the royal table of King Louis IX , King of France . The king loved roasted meats for the same reason people do to this day . Properly roasted meat is tender , delicious , appetizing and easier to digest than meat cooked by other methods . Oven cooking as we recognize today began during the late 18th century in England and America . Ben Franklin with the invention of the Franklin Stove can be given partial credit for closed stove cooking . Fuel was growing scarce and open heating and cooking required a lot of fuel . The new stove was to economize fuel and homemakers had to learn a new way to cook . Scholars of the day decried over the loss of the open hearth . They said it was a sign of moral decay and a threat to family unity ! The British food historian Dorothy Hartley writes , “ Undeniably , much good English cooking , perhaps the best of English cooking , was lost when the oven door went shut on the English roast and turned it into a funeral feast of baked meats !”
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