Roasting is
probably the easiest cooking technique, with the most satisfying results. Your
oven does most of the work while you spend time on the side dishes or dessert.
Roasting involves cooking food in an uncovered pan in the oven. It is a dry
cooking technique, as opposed to wet techniques like braising, stewing, or
steaming. Dry, hot air surrounds the food, cooking it evenly on all sides.
Depending on your recipe, you can roast at low, moderate, or high temperatures.
It is the ideal method for large cuts of meat or poultry: rib roasts, ham,
whole turkeys or chickens, or tenderloins. Smaller cuts, such as boneless
chicken breasts or fish fillets, tend to dry out in the oven (they're usually
better sautéed). Roasting is also ideal for dense vegetables such as potatoes,
beets, and winter squash, as it concentrates their natural sugars and
intensifies their flavor.
My chef friends have taught me
that pan roasting is the best cooking method for large cuts of meat. It saves
time and delivers a thick cut of meat to the table perfectly seared and juicy
medium-rare throughout. The technique is rarely explained in cookbooks but is
taught in every culinary school and is
used by professional chefs every day. It involves searing all sides of the meat
in fat in the roasting pan on the stove before putting it the oven to roast. Since
it shortens the roasting time, it requires a meat thermometer to ascertain when
the meat is cooked to the desired doneness.
To pan roast, the meat must be
at room temperature. The oven must be preheated so it is at the correct
temperature (usually 350° F) when the meat is ready. Preheat the metal or cast-iron pan on the stove and, once hot, add enough fat (canola
or other oil, margarine, duck fat or pork fat, and so on) to coat the pan. Wait
a minute or two for the oil to get good and hot, season your meat with salt and
pepper, and place it in the pan. Make sure there is a lot of room around the
meat. If you crowd the meat, it will steam and not sear. Sear all sides of the
meat and then place in the oven. This will produce a good crust and a moist,
juicy interior. Use an instant-read thermometer to check the internal
temperature of the meat and remove it from the oven about five degrees cooler
than the desired final temperature. Remove from the oven and allow to rest
loosely covered (or tented) with aluminum foil. This "carryover
cooking" will finish the process. Do not wrap the foil tightly around the
roast, or it will steam and change the flavor and texture. Another bonus of pan roasting is using the
resting time to make a quick pan sauce with
the drippings. De-glaze with the
liquid(s) of your choice (wine, stock, and so on), reduce, check for seasonings
and finish the sauce with a pat of butter or maybe a splash of cream.
Basting
Chefs
disagree on whether meat should be basted or left alone. In my opinion, if you
purchased good quality, well-marbled meat, a standing rib roast (beef, veal or
pork), should not be basted because one of the best features is the salty crust
that forms over the meat as it roasts, and it could be washed away if over-basted.
On the other hand a lean piece of meat could dry out without basting. Whole
chickens or turkeys need frequent basting (every 15–20 minutes).
Resting
All roasted meat should rest for 10 to 20 minutes (tented) after it is removed
from the oven. Larger cuts―a standing rib roast, for example―retain enough
internal heat so that they continue to cook out of the oven, up to 5 or 10
degrees or so. Smaller cuts like pork tenderloins do not have enough mass to
continue cooking more than a couple of degrees.
But the main
reason meat should rest is to allow the juices to redistribute. If you slice
into a roast immediately upon removing it from the oven, all the juices pour
out onto the platter and the meat dries out.
About
doneness
For rare roast beef, lamb, or veal take the roast out at 120º and allow it to rest tented until it has
reached 130º ,
for medium rare remove at 125º and rest until 135º, for medium 135º and 145º
and medium well 150º and 160º. Roast pork should be served medium - removed at
135º and served at 145º or medium well 150º and 160º. Chicken and turkey
removed at 160º and served at 170º.
Roasting
vegetables
Roasting vegetables in a very hot
oven gives them a caramelized exterior and flavor while keeping the inside
moist and tender. Some vegetables, such as onions, potatoes, carrots, sweet
potatoes and other root vegetables, are especially good when roasted. I like to
coat the pan (Pyrex or other roasting pan) with olive oil, salt and pepper
before adding the vegetables. I roast them, uncovered,
about 30 minutes, shaking the pan or stirring once or twice.
Roasting potatoes with the
beef
Potatoes make a tasty side dish that goes very well with beef, and they are
very easy to roast in the oven alongside the meat. (Do not try this with pork—it
is too fatty). About an hour and a half before the meat should be done, peel,
quarter (if large) and parboil potatoes for approximately ten minutes. Remove
the potatoes from the boiling water and place them along the sides of the beef.
The potatoes will absorb the drippings along with their flavor, and will turn
deep golden brown as they bake. Baste the potatoes often until they are tender
and ready to eat. (If they finish cooking before the meat is done, remove them
when ready and heat them up in the pan once the meat is removed for its resting
time). They will take up to one hour and fifteen minutes to fully cook in the
oven. Add salt and pepper to taste.
