[6] The following, from Francatelli’s _Modern Cook_, is amusing, if not instructive: ‘Take two dozen garden snails, add to these the hind quarters only of two dozen stream frogs, previously skinned; bruise them together in a mortar, after which put them into a stewpan with a couple of turnips chopped small, a little salt, a quarter of an ounce of hay-saffron, and three pints of spring water. Stir these on the fire until the broth begins to boil, then skim it well and set it by the side of the fire to simmer for half an hour; after which it should be strained, by pressure through a tammy cloth, into a basin for use. This broth, from its soothing qualities, often counteracts, successfully, the straining effects of a severe cough, and alleviates, more than any other culinary preparation, the sufferings of the consumptive.’ [7] Carpenter’s _Manual of Physiology_, 3rd edition, 1846, p. 267. [8] Londe, _Nouveaux Éléments d’Hygiène_, 2nd edition, vol. ii. p. 73. CHAPTER V. ROASTING AND GRILLING. I MAY now venture to state my own view of a somewhat obscure subject—viz. the difference between the roasting or grilling of meat and the stewing of meat. It appears to me that, as regards the nature of the operation, it consists simply in the difference between the cooking media; that a grilled steak or chop, or a roasted joint is meat that has been stewed in its own juices instead of stewed in water; that in both cases the changes taking place in the _solid_ parts of the meat are the same in kind, provided always that the roasting or grilling is properly performed. The albumen is coagulated in all cases, and the gelatinous and fibrous tissues are softened by being heated in a liquid solvent. I shall presently apply this definition in distinguishing between good and bad cookery. In the roasted or grilled meat the juices are retained in the meat (with the exception of those which escape as gravy on the dish), while in stewing the juices go more or less completely into the water, and the loosening of the fibres and solution of the gelatin and fibrin may be carried further, inasmuch as a larger quantity of solvent is used. Roasting and grilling may be regarded as our national methods of flesh cookery, and stewing in water that of our continental neighbours. The difference between the flavour of English roast beef and French _bouilli_ or Italian _manzo_ is due to the retention or the removal of the saline and highly-flavoured soluble materials. (Concentrated kreatine and kreatinine are pungently sapid.) The Frenchman takes them out of his _bouilli_, or boiled meat, and transfers them to his _bouillon_, or soup, which, with him, is an essential element of a meal. If he ate his meat without soup, he would be like the dogs fed on gelatin by the bone-soup commissioners. To the Englishman, with his roast or grilled meat, soup is merely a luxury, not an absolutely necessary element of a complete dietary.