Roasting Meats
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the joint in a roasting pan.
If the meat is very lean, add ½ cup of water to the pan; if it is fatty, do not add water.
Roast
Baste the meat several times while it roasts.
Turn the meat halfway through cooking, keeping the thickest part in the hottest part of the oven.
Make the gravy and serve
Once cooked, pour off the fat from the pan, keeping the gravy.
Add ½ cup of boiling water to the pan and a little salt, stirring to dissolve the glaze.
Sift fine salt evenly over the meat just before serving.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Meat joint
- Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks in dry oven heat.
- Water
- Added only to lean meat, it creates some steam and moisture in the pan to keep the meat from drying.
The step that matters
Turning the meat halfway through cooking. Ovens heat unevenly, and the thickest part of a joint cooks slowest. Turning it and keeping that part in the hottest zone helps the meat cook through evenly and brown on all sides.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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