of intelligence.

The English way of baking beef is to allow nine minutes to the pound for
a rib-roast and eight minutes for a sirloin. Sprinkle pepper and salt
over the meat and sprinkle with flour. Pour a little boiling water into
the pan and bake in an oven hot enough to crisp and brown peeled raw
potatoes cooked in the same pan. Do not forget to baste often. This
method gives a rich flavor to the beef and the gravy, but the outside is
apt to be cooked too hard while the inside is not enough cooked. Too hot
a fire tends to make meat tough and dry.

The French have a safer way, especially for small roasts. The beef is
cooked in a cool oven--so cool that a peeled, raw potato will cook tender
without browning. Allow about an hour and a quarter for a four-pound
rib-roast. In this way the heat penetrates to the center without
hardening the outside. When properly done the outside is very little more
cooked than the inside, and the roast throughout is tender, rare, and
juicy, with no hard-burned edges. This way of baking makes inferior beef
more tender and juicy than the English way. It has the disadvantage of
not leaving any gravy in the pan. When baked after the English method the
fat fries out into the pan, and a delicious, rich, brown gravy may be
made by adding flour and water. Strain the juice through a fine sieve and
allow to stand a few minutes so as to be able to skim or pour off all the
grease. Do not serve gravies with half an inch of pure grease on top. It
does not require a scientific education nor a herculean effort to remove
the grease.

_Pot Roast._--If the beef is of an inferior quality, the best way to cook
it is in a heavy iron kettle, preferably with a sloping bottom. Sprinkle
the meat with salt and pepper; place a little fat in the bottom of the
kettle--enough to keep the meat from sticking--and allow the roast to
brown slowly for half an hour. Now put a pint of boiling water in the
pot. Cover very closely and let it simmer on the back of the stove for
about four hours, adding small quantities of hot water as necessary, and
turning often. When cooked take up the meat; skim the fat from the gravy
and thicken with flour.

_Hamburg Steaks._--Another way of preparing inferior cuts of beef is to
make Hamburg steaks. Chop the meat in fine pieces. Season with salt,
pepper and a little onion juice, and shape into thin cakes. Put three or
four slices of fat salt pork into a frying-pan, and when brown remove