Roasting

The smell of a roasting bird never fails to excite the taste-buds. Roasting is one of the simplest ways of cooking, and carefully done it can produce exquisite results. Even though a roast chicken is nowadays perhaps the meal we are more used to than anything else, a glistening, golden bird still has an aura of feasting about it.

When done thoughtfully, roasting is probably in the end the most satisfying way of cooking chicken, turkey, guinea fowl, duck, goose and most game birds. Chicken, turkey and guinea fowl should be cooked until all the flesh has turned from pink to white, but it is equally important that they should not dry out, losing both tenderness and flavour. For smaller birds a medium or high heat is best and there are various ways to make sure that moisture is not lost, particularly from the breast. With most birds olive oil or butter, spread either on top of or pushed under the skin, or a few rashers of streaky bacon over the breasts, will do, but some larger birds need basting during roasting. Duck and goose have so much fat that they do not need any extra to keep them moist.