Oven Cookery Notes

To prepare meat and poultry for roasting in your fan oven.

(a)Wipe the meat or poultry, dry well and weigh it. Meat which has been stored in a refrigerator should be allowed to come to room temperature before cooking, and frozen meat or poultry must be completely defrosted before placing in the oven.

(b)The weight of any stuffing used should be added before cal- culating the cooking time.

(c)Place meat/poultry in the meat pan supplied with your cooker. Small joints weighing less than 1.75kg (31/2 lbs) should be roasted in a smaller meat pan/tin - or they may be 'pot roasted' - a small joint in a large meat pan causes unnecessary oven splashing and evaporation of meat juices.

(d)Additional fat should not be added, except for veal, very lean meat or poultry which can either be 'larded' with fat bacon or brushed very sparingly with cooking oil or melted fat.

(e)Beef, lamb, mutton and poultry may be dusted lightly with sea- soned flour to give a crisp outer surface. The skin of duck and goose should be pricked to release excess fat during cooking, and the rind of pork should be scored, brushed lightly with oil, and rubbed with salt, to give crisp crackling.

(f)Meat and poultry wrapped in, or covered with a tent of aluminium foil will be juicy and tender. Roasting bags offer the same advantages. Always follow the manufacturers pack instruc-

tions, and remember to reduce the temperatures given for con- ventional ovens by approximately 25oC and the time by approxi- mately 10 minutes per hour.

(g)Potatoes for roasting only require to be brushed with cooking oil or melted fat.

(h)It is not necessary to baste when roasting in an electric oven and stock or liquid should not be added to the meat pan since this only causes unnecessary soiling, steam and condensation.