Roasting 101

Roasting: A Cooking Method Using Dry Air Heat

• Roasting is a cooking method that uses dry heat where hot air covers the food, cooking it evenly on all sides with temperatures of at least 150 °C (300 °F) from an open flame, oven, or other heat source.
• Roasting can enhance the flavor through caramelization and Maillard browning on the surface of the food.
• Meats and most root and bulb vegetables can be roasted.
• For roasting, the food may be placed on a rack, in a roasting pan or, to ensure even application of heat, may be rotated on a spit or rotisserie.
• There are several plans for roasting meat: low-temperature cooking, high-temperature cooking, and a combination of both.
• During roasting, meats and vegetables are frequently basted on the surface with butter, lard, or oil to reduce the loss of moisture by evaporation.
• Traditionally recognized roasting methods consist only of baking and cooking over or near an open fire.
• Grilling is normally not technically a roast, since a grill (gridiron) is used.
• Roasting can be applied to a wide variety of meat. In general, it works best for cooking whole chickens, turkey, and leaner cuts of lamb, pork, and beef.
• Some vegetables, such as potatoes, carrots, eggplants/aubergines, zucchini/courgette, pumpkin, turnips, rutabagas/swedes, parsnips, cauliflower, asparagus, squash, peppers, yam and plantain lend themselves to roasting as well.
• Roasting fish is done with whole fish, and will work well with snapper, or any medium-sized, whole round fish such as trout, ocean perch, and black sea bass will work.
• In the United States and Britain, a mix of vegetables and meat roasted together in the same pan is known as a traybake.