. We must baste every quarter of an hour, and to do this
we must lift the meat right out of the oven, and shut the door as soon
as possible. If we were to baste the meat while it was in the oven, the
latter would become cool, and we wish to keep the heat up the whole
time. We should be careful also to shut the oven door gently. If we slam
it, we shall force some of the hot air out of it."

"I never saw anything like it," said Margaret. "In cookery there are so
many little things to remember."

"That is the case with whatever we learn, my dear little girl, if we try
to learn thoroughly. And there is still another point to remember: when
we take the meat out of the oven to baste it, we must notice whether it
is browner in one part than another, and if it is, we must turn the tin,
so that the side which is less cooked may take its turn in going to the
hottest part of the oven. You know that one part of the oven is always
hotter than another. In the same way, you should turn the meat over once
or twice, that it may be equally cooked."

"How long will it have to be in the oven, ma'am?" said Mary.

"If you use the ventilator as I have told you to do, you may follow the
same rules in baking meat that would hold good for roasting it: that is,
you may allow a quarter of an hour to the pound, and a quarter of an
hour over for red meats, and twenty minutes to the pound for white
meats. But if the ventilator is not used, the oven would get very hot,
and ten minutes to the pound, with ten minutes over, would probably be
sufficient, excepting in cases where the meat was very thick and solid."

"And do we make gravy for baked meat in the same way that we make it for
roast meat, ma'am?" said Mary.

"Certainly," said Mrs. Herbert.

"Well, I must say," said Margaret, when in course of time the baked meat
was dished and set on the table, "that I think baked meat tastes quite
as well as roast meat, and it is much less troublesome to cook."

"I do not agree with you, Margaret," replied her mother. "I do not
consider baked meat is equal to roast meat. Nevertheless, if it is
carefully cooked, if the ventilator is left open, and if the meat is
well basted, there is not much difference between the two, and certainly
baking is a very convenient mode of dressing meat. Besides this, it is a
way which nine people out of every ten must adopt; they have no choice
in the matter. Therefore, I hope you will try to remember what I have
told you a