Handy roasting rules from The Old Farmer's Almanac

[crowdog66]

From http://www.almanac.com/food/roasting.php:

Roasting Rules

YOUR GOAL in cooking a roast is to keep it as tender and juicy as possible. These steps ensure success:

1. Remove the roast from the refrigerator at least two hours before you put it into the oven. This gives it a chance to warm up to room temperature and cook evenly.
2. Make sure the oven is preheated before you put the roast in.
3. Do not salt the exterior flesh of the roast. (Salt draws the juices to the surface, so wait until you serve it to salt the meat.)
4. Take into account that bones conduct heat, so bone-in and partially boned roasts require slightly less time to cook through than boneless cuts.
5. Allow about 1 pound of meat per person if a roast contains a bone, and 1/2 pound per person if it is boneless.
6. Always use a meat thermometer -- preferably the instant-read type -- inserted into the thickest part of the flesh, away from bone, fat, and gristle.
7. Before carving, let the roast stand for at least 20 minutes after you remove it from the oven to allow the flesh to reabsorb the juices.

Came across these while considering how much meat to get for tomorrow's Samhain ritual feast (I've got eight folks altogether, so four pounds of meat). Good advice. :-)

Comments

[nightdog-barks.livejournal.com]

What kind of roast? Beef? Lamb?
*iz just curious*

And that is good advice from the Old Farmer ... although sometimes if we have a lamb roast, we rub the outside with a little olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh-ground pepper, and tuck fresh rosemary branches sprigs under the meat, before roasting.

You can also pour just a little red wine over and around the meat while it's in the roasting pan, before you put it in the oven.

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

The traditional meat for this time of year is pork, but one of the attendees really hates pork, so this year it'll be beef. ;-)

Mmm, rosemary... I'll have to give that a try!

roast? oven? oboyoboy!

[7-league-boots.livejournal.com]

Do you need me to pre-heat the oven, or have I got the right idea?

(I have garlic here too.)

Holly
wishing she had a leg o' lamb -- maybe for Xmas...

Re: roast? oven? oboyoboy!

[crowdog66.livejournal.com]

Due to a profound lack of coffee when I first read this, I thought you meant that I was to bring a roast tonight, lol -- which I had not understood at all. Cue much confusion, hilarity, and minor panic at the Smith and Freeman household.

Er... DO you need me to bring anything? ^_^

Re: roast? oven? oboyoboy!

[7-league-boots.livejournal.com]

Due to an acute and chronic lack of Little Grey Cells, I read and replied to your first roast-post, and then read the later one about last night's ritual. My bad. Must be pining for the pork-roasts of my girlhood.

Boots
cooking chicken stew as we speak ("double, double...")