Techniques #2: Roast Me, Fam

Now that we can all season our food properly, let’s talk about a type of cooking that is predominately done at home: roasting. For the purposes of this discussion what I mean is roasting a whole bird or a large cut of meat (a “roast”, if you will) to be served whole and sliced at the table.

This is a type of cooking that isn’t done much at restaurants. It’s rare that we’ll cook a whole bird or a roast to slice and serve. Usually restaurants deal with smaller pieces of meat to be served to individuals. These portions, taken from larger cuts that are fabricated at the restaurant are small enough that they can be cooked to order, or are cooked sous-vide, then reheated and seared to order. Which makes sense, because you don’t want a slice off of a slab of meat that was cooked to be ready for 5:30 when your reservation is for 8:30, right? Not unless you’re lining up for tacos al pastor, anyways… or so I thought.

At the hotel, whole roasting was much more common due to the number of large banquets done, the greater quantity of equipment and space, and the more classical style of cuisine we were producing. Even in the hotel restaurant, we still cooked a couple of prime ribs every night, coating them in salt and slowly roasting them for hours on the bone until they were crackly on the outside but perfectly rosy medium-rare in the middle. They would be taken off the bone but left whole in a warming chamber, ready to be sliced and sauced per order and they were a hit. I couldn’t change that dish even if I had wanted to. Not that I wanted to, because for me it was fun to do something old-school like that every night, the creamy mashed potatoes, the green bean almandine, and the giant slabs of prime rib sauced with a red wine demi-glace, you don’t see that every day anymore.

When you’re at home, however, cooking for you and your loved ones you have many degrees of control. You control what to cook and you control when it’s served. Because of this, you can take advantage of cooking a whole bird or large roast, bringing it to the table and carving it in front of your awed guests and family. An additional benefit is that buying whole birds and large roasts is significantly cheaper than buying prefabricated cuts of meat. They also provide you with bones and trimmings which can be used for stocks, soups and sauces. Want one more benefit? How about free time? Rather than being chained to the cooktop making sure your sad little chicken breast doesn’t overcook and turn mealy in the pan, the more even radiant heat of the oven does the work. As long as you don’t stray TOO far for TOO long, you have some relative freedom while the big meaty cooking is taking place.

You don’t need much to get roasting. An oven, certainly. A roasting pan, Dutch oven or large cast-iron skillet to roast in. I have to recommend a fast-reading digital probe thermometer, too. Forget about poking a roast with your finger to test doneness. Even the cake-tester trick you see us pros do isn’t very effective when faced with a huge turkey or thick pork loin. The best you can get is a Thermapen, they’re pricy but you’ll never need another. Remember to always probe the thickest part of the meat and ensure that the tip of the probe isn’t touching any bones.

While the basics of roasting are quite simple (salt and prepare food, put into oven, come back when smell good) there are of course variables depending on what exactly you’ll be roasting. For smaller and more tender cuts of meat, you’ll want to roast at a higher temperature. This promotes browning while cooking, which means lots of flavour. For bigger cuts, or ones that are naturally tough and need to be broken down, you’ll want to roast low and slow. Once the middle of the roast is just about at the right temperature, then you can crank your oven up or sear the roast in a hot pan to get that delicious Maillard reaction.

Then there’s the question of fats and aromatics. Of course, you can roast meats on a bed of vegetables and baste with butter and it’s tasty. But, if what you’re after is some crispy skin then remember that butter and veggies create steam as they give up their liquids. This steam is what will keep skin flabby and pale. It’s up to you, depending on what you want.

When I roast a chicken, I’m all about that crispy skin, so I dry it out as much as I can first. I let it sit uncovered on a plate in the fridge for at least two hours before I cook it and then another hour out at room temperature. I salt the cavity, truss it up (an optional thing I’ll show you guys how to do another time), and salt the bird heavily all over. Then it goes into a heavy cast iron skillet and into a 450°f oven for say 45-50 minutes usually. That’s it, salt and chicken. I don’t even oil the pan, because the chicken will give up its own fat while cooking. Fat I use to cook vegetables and potatoes in while the bird rests. That’s all, folks. No herb bouquet, no turkey baster, no Jamie Oliver butter shoved under the skin, no lemon up the butt. And it comes out perfect every time; skin salty and crispy, meat juicy and flavourful.

Lastly is a brief bit about temperatures and resting. Once again, this all depends on what you want. For beef or lamb, I like medium rare, which will read 130°f or 54.4°c at the thickest point. For pork, I’m more of a medium fellow, so that’s 140°f or 60°c at the thickest part. As for chicken, there’s nothing worse than a mealy, overcooked and stringy breast, so I aim for no higher than 145°f or 62.8°c in the thickest part of the breast. This is only five degrees below a medium well steak, if you’re interested, and most certainly will not be harmful to you, but if you’re still squeamish go ahead and let it cook until it reads 155°f or 68.3°c. I won’t judge you. Much.

How long to rest meat all depends on how long it takes to cook it, which I can’t tell you because all meat is different. The size of the meat, the temperature of it when it goes it to the oven and the particularities of your individual oven will all come into play. But as a general rule all meat should rest for at least half as long as the total time it cooked before you slice into it. If the meat is bone-in, then up the resting time to 2/3rds of the total cook time. This gives the juices in the meat time to slow down and redistribute themselves evenly. Which as you should know results in meat that is juicier, tastier and more evenly seasoned. If you’re worried about the meat getting too cold as it sits, tent some aluminum foil over it and giggle to yourself as Benedict Cumberbatch says ‘alu-min-ium’ in your head.

So, that’s roasting in an oven in a nutshell in a blog post. I hope this will give you the confidence to purchase and try cooking some larger cuts of meat, using the knowledge of seasoning and temperature to cook without a recipe, but rather a technique. As I said earlier, cooking this way is great for home because it’s cheaper and nets you lots of by-products and tasty leftovers. So, fire up the oven and bust out the carving knife! It’s time to roast.