All too often cookbooks and chefs who should know better exhort you to initially roast meat in a hot to very hot oven, before reducing the temperature for the remainder of the cooking time. This, despite the fact that there is more than enough evidence to show that low temperature cooking throughout produces a much more even and succulent result. The larger the joint, the more noticeable this difference will be.
When you roast meat, in effect you burn it. The higher the temperature, the more you burn it. This burning is what produces the brown crust that photographs so well. It also forces out fat and moisture, leading very quickly to overcooked protein that needs a sturdy gravy just to revive it. It can also lead to undercooking, particularly in the case of chicken, when that initial "crust" acts as a band of insulation, preventing the heat penetrating the carcass as it should. That's one reason why chicken cooked on the barbecue can be black on the outside and decidedly pink and shiny in the middle.
Temperatures To Use
Increasing temperature when roasting does not decrease cooking time. If anything, the reverse is true. On the other hand, roasting meat at an even temperature of 185°C/325°F will produce a result that is:
- Thoroughly and evenly cooked
- Moist
- Succulent
- Full of the flavor of the meat
- Easy to carve
It will also mean cold cuts that have not gone to a tough, unappetizing greyish-brown matter that is only fit for hiding in sandwiches.
Where To Place Your Joint
An important step in this process of producing the perfect roast meat is to ensure that your joint - or carcass in the case of poultry - has an even distribution of heat while cooking.
This means not sitting it in the bottom of a roasting tin, where it stews in its own juices, but rather cooking it directly on the rungs of the oven itself, and bang in the middle. Put a roasting tin underneath it to catch the drips. True, you will have to clean the rungs afterwards, but if this troubles you try putting a trivet or cake cooling stand on top of the roasting tin and placing the meat on that. It's not as good, but its still better that letting the tin reflect away part of the heat.
Cooking Times
The next step is to determine the cooking time and that, too, is a matter of contention. Think about it; does it make any sense at all to cook by the weight of a joint, if the thickness remains the same for its entire length? Why, for example, would half a scotch fillet take longer to cook than a whole scotch fillet if the circumference of the joint remains the same and is entirely surrounded by heat? Leave cooking by weight to poultry where 25 minutes a pound plus 25 minutes for stuffing will produce the desired result. For joints of meat, measure the diameter of the thickest part and cook for ten minutes per centimeter or, if you live in a decimally-challenged part of the world, 25 minutes per inch.
These three things used together will ensure perfect roasts every time, given that your oven behaves as it should and is not too far out in its quoted temperatures.
Use a Thermometer
To be perfectly certain you have got it right, the best device to use is a meat thermometer and preferably one that can be left in the joint or bird throughout cooking time.
When pork, lamb and beef reach an internal temperature of 66°C/150°F, they are cooked, fit to eat and still quite pink. Most people would want to cook the lamb and pork a little longer, say to 71°C/160°F, just to be on the safe side. Poultry needs to go much higher because of the problems associated with salmonella, among other things. Here an internal temperature of the thickest part of the meat of 190°F/87°C is desirable.
All roasted meat needs time to relax after coming out of the oven, but by using the methods given above you can reduce this time from 15-20 minutes to a mere 5-10 minutes. Just time enough, really, to ensure that you have everything else ready for service and to make the gravy. Cooking at reduced temperatures will also save you money both in terms of the energy needed to power up your oven and the loss of volume from your joint. It will not shrink as much. Try this with your next roast; cook it at an even temperature throughout, place it directly on the rungs of the oven and judge the time by measurement rather than by weight. You will be delighted with the result.
