About Roasting Meat

The basic techniques for roasting meat successfully are logical enough. If the cut is lean, I would tend to seal the outside all over by either frying it or starting the roasting in a hot oven and then lowering the temperature for the final period of cooking. Conversely, a fattier cut of meat or bird might benefit from initial roasting in a moderate oven to start the fat running and then at a higher oven temperature for the last 30 minutes or so to crisp it up.

Lean joints of beef or veal are often barded with pork fat or rolled and tied with a thin layer of fat to prevent them becoming too dry. However, avoid lean birds that are advertised as ‘self-basting’, as they have probably been injected with animal fats in order to lubricate otherwise dry and tasteless meat. I prefer most joints to have the bone still attached whenever possible, as I think they taste better, although they will take longer to cook – the bone takes longer to heat up sufficiently to cook the surrounding meat – so the roasting has to be done at a lower temperature.