Roasting meat doesn’t have to be complicated. As a company renowned for our spit roast catering, we thought a great place to start with our new blog would be to share our top tips for cooking the perfect roast.We’re busy cooking roasts every week, often for 100 or more people at a time, so we hope sharing our top tips will make your next roast extra tasty!
1) Choose your cut – we recommend choosing cuts that are easy to carve and, if you are pressed for time, it makes sense that opting for a smaller sized meat will reduce cooking time. As a guide a 1kg cut of meat will generally feed 4-6 people.
2) Prepare your meat – If you have time take your meat out of the fridge for 15-20 minutes before starting to cook it. Doing this will ensure it cooks evenly.
3) Season – Salt and pepper is a must. Sit your meat out until it is room temperature and season well with salt and pepper. While salt and pepper will suffice we often try different seasonings, so don’t be afraid to add rosemary or garlic or your favourite truffle oil.
4) Consider cooking at lower temperature – you will likely have heard of “pulled pork” or “pulled beef” – for those of you familiar with this type of meat you will know that it is pretty darn good. The pulled part of the term refers to meat so juicy and tender that you don’t even have to carve it, it just pulls apart. Consider cooking your roast at a lower temperature (140-150 Celsius) for 4-5 hours. The meat will fall off the bone / can be pulled apart with a couple of forks. It’s always a winner and a little bit of a different take on a traditional roast.
5) Use the juices – When cooking use the juices generated from the cooking process to baste the meat as it cooks. Do this regularly throughout the cook.
6) Know when your roast is cooked – a meat thermometer can be useful (if it doesn’t make its way to the bottom of the kitchen drawer, never to be used again). We prefer to use a knife. Stick the knife deep into the meat for a few seconds and then test it on the back of your hand. If you remove the blade from the meat and place it against your hand and it is too hot, you’ve probably over cooked your meat. We recognise that how well you like your meat cooked is entirely a personal preference however we find that if you are able to do the knife test and when placing the knife against your hand it is hot (but not too hot that you need to instantly remove it) then you are well on your way to serving a roast that will be cooked just right. If the knife is only warm or still cool, your meat will need more cooking.
7) Rest to get the best – We recommend resting your meat. The fibres in the meat tend to tighten up when cooking so resting allows the fibres to relax and the juices within to flow. 15-20 minutes is a good amount of time to rest your meat. We suggest wrapping your roast loosely in foil. Meat will continue to cook when wrapped so ensure you take it out of the oven when it is almost cooked to ensure it does not overcook when resting.
Cooking the perfect roast is trial and error. Follow our tips and you will be cooking like a pro in no time. Have some other tips not mentioned above? Feel free to leave them in our comments section below.
