Roasting Tips and Techniques knowledge for Kitchen staff

Cooking Method: Roasting

What is Roasting?

• Cooked through contact with dry, heated air (convection)
• Roasting temperatures of at least 150 °C (300 °F) from an open flame, oven, or another heat source.
• Meats, poultry, and most root and bulb vegetables can be roasted
• Items sometimes seared before placing in the oven
• During roasting, meats and poultry are usually basted on the surface with butter, lard, or oil to reduce the loss of moisture by evaporation.
• It is suitable for slowly cooking meat in a larger cut or whole piece.
• Roasting can enhance flavor through caramelization and Maillard browning on the surface of the food.
• Pan drippings foundation for sauces and gravy,
• E.g. Roasted Chicken with Thyme Chicken Sauce, Roasted Beef ribs, Roasted Turkey with Giblet Gravy, etc.
• Roasting is a dry heat cooking method that uses dry heat air where hot air envelops the food, cooking it evenly on all sides of the food and desired doneness and color at the same time.

Roasting Method

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The History of Roasting

• Until the late 19th century, roasting by dry heat in an oven was called baking. Roasting originally meant turning meat or a bird on a spit in front of a fire. It is one of the oldest forms of cooking known.

• Traditionally recognized roasting methods consist only of baking and cooking over or near an open fire.

Cooking over an open fire.

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Foods suitable for roasting

• Meats: Lamb, beef, veal, mutton, etc. 
• Vegetables: Carrot, pumpkin, rutabaga, onion, etc.
• Poultry: Duck, chicken, turkey, etc
• Seafood

Characteristics of items to be roasted

• Tender
• Well-marbled (intramuscular fat)
• A larger or single portion

Suitable for Roasting

Poultry, Meat, Seafood, and Vegetables

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Equipment and Utensil

• Roasting Pan
• Roasting rack
• Thermometer
• Oven
• Trays

Roasting Equipment

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Roasting Temperature

1. Low temperature 95 to 160 °C (200 to 325 F)

• A low-temperature oven is best when cooking with large cuts of meat, turkey and, whole chickens. 
• The benefit of slow-roasting an item is less moisture loss and a more tender product. 

2. High temperature 200 °C (400 F or more)

• At higher temperatures, the water inside the muscle is lost at a high rate. 
• Cooking at high temperatures is beneficial if the cut is small enough (filet mignon, strip loin) to be finished cooking before the juices escape. 

3. The Combination

• The combination method uses high heat just at either the beginning or the end of the cooking process, with most of the cooking at a low temperature. 
• This method produces the golden-brown texture and crust but maintains more of the moisture than simply cooking at a high, although the product will not be as moist as low temperature cooking the whole time. 
• Searing and then turning down to low the piece of meat is also beneficial when a dark crust and caramelized flavor is desired for the finished product. 

How to Roast Meat 

• Preheat oven
• Season items (stuff and/or marinate if desired)
• Sear (if necessary)
• Elevate item in roasting pan
• Roast item, uncovered, to  desired internal temperature   – allow for carryover cooking
• Add mirepoix to pan for flavor during the final hour of roasting time, if desired
• Let item rest before carving
• Prepare pan gravy
• Carve the meat
• Serve with gravy or sauce

Determining Doneness

Internal Temperatures According to Food Safety

• 63°C / 145°F or above for 15 seconds for raw shell eggs, fish, beef, veal, pork, and farm-raised game animals
• 74°C / 165°F or above for 15 seconds for poultry and stuffed fish, stuffed meat, stuffed pasta and stuffed poultry
• 68°C / 155°F for 15 seconds for ground meat and injected meats

Note 

• Raw or under-cooked whole muscle and intact beef steak may be served if the steak is cooked on both the top and bottom to a surface temperature of 63°C / 145°F or above and a cooked color change are achieved on all external surfaces.

Roasting Tips

• Regulate oven temperature to suit item
• All roasted meats should have a resting period before carving  -  allows juices to redistribute
• Baste roasted meats, often, with fat drippings that collect in the pan
• Avoid piercing roasted items
• Don’t use higher oven temperatures than necessary (smaller items higher temp)
• Don’t cover while roasting as this will steam the item

Culinary Terms

• Caramelization is the browning process of food
• Maillard is browned protein of meat
• Searing or seared process or caramelization process of food is browning the meat at high temperature to seal the juice from the meat 
• Basting or Basted process is moist the meat with fat or liquid  to add color and flavor
• Mirepoix is a combination of cut vegetables: onion, carrot, and celery
• Barding is wrapping meat with fat
• Larding is putting fat into the meat

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