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Tips for roasting
- Pre-heating the oven compartment is
only required when roasting beef sir-
loin joints and fillet. Pre-heating is
generally not necessary.
- Use a closed roasting dish for roast-
ing meat, such as an oven dish. The
meat stays succulent. The oven com-
partment will also stay cleaner than
when roasting on the rack. This en-
sures that sufficient stock remains for
making gravy.
- If you are using a roasting bag, follow
the instructions on the packaging.
- If you are using the rack or an open
roasting dish for roasting, you can
add a little fat or oil to very lean meat
or place a few strips of streaky bacon
on the top.
- Season the meat and place in the
roasting dish. Dot with butter or mar-
garine or brush with oil if necessary.
For large lean cuts of meat (2–3 kg)
and fatty poultry add about 1/8 l of
water to the dish.
- Do not add too much liquid during
cooking as this will hinder the brown-
ing process. Browning only occurs to-
wards the end of the cooking dura-
tion. Remove the lid about halfway
through the cooking duration if a more
intensive browning result is desired.
- At the end of the programme, take the
food out of the oven compartment,
cover it and leave to stand for about
10 minutes. This helps retain juices
when the meat is carved.
- For a crisp finish, baste poultry
10 minutes before the end of the
cooking duration with slightly salted
water.
Notes on the cooking charts
You can find the cooking charts at the
end of this book.
Take note of the temperature range,
microwave power levels, shelf levels
and durations. These also take the
type of cooking container, the size of
the meat and cooking practices into
account.
Selecting the temperature
As a general rule, select the lower
temperature given in the chart. If
higher temperatures are used, the
meat will brown on the outside, but
will not be properly cooked through.
For cuts which weigh more than 3 kg,
select a temperature approx. 10 °C
lower than that given in the roasting
chart. The roasting process will take
longer, but the meat will cook evenly
through and the skin or crackling will
not be too thick.
When roasting on the rack, set a tem-
perature approx. 20 °C lower than for
roasting in a covered oven dish.
Selecting the cooking duration
Unless otherwise stated, the durations
given in the cooking chart are for an
oven compartment which has not been
pre-heated.
The traditional British method for cal-
culating the roasting time is to allow
15 to 20 minutes per lb/
450 grammes, according to type of
meat, plus approx. 20 minutes, ad-
justing the length of time as roasting
proceeds to obtain the required res-
ult. The roasting time can also be de-
termined by multiplying the thickness
Roasting
83
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