2-888-152 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Roasting the Baron of Beef by Gas, in the Castle-Yard, Exeter, [Devon], 1850. Event during the annual meeting and exhibition of the Royal Agricultural Society. 'The most novel, if not the most interesting, sight was that of cooking the baron of beef in the Castle-yard, under the inspection of M. Soyer. In the centre of the yard a hole was dug, and lined with perforated pipes, from which proceeded an innumerable quantity of small jets of gas; when the beef was deposited in this hollow, a similar apparatus of perforated pipes closed over the top, so that the meat was enveloped in a continued sheet of fire'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.