Page 72 - YC Cooking School

Keep it simple

Try to keep seasoning to a minimum and don’t go overboard with the spices and
herbs. Prime cuts are expensive and if you use too much seasoning you’ll kill the
natural meaty flavour, which defeats the point of cooking meat in the first place.
If you do want to introduce lots of different flavours, rather do this with your
accompaniments. If you’re making sauces, make sure that they enhance the
meat rather than disguising or overpowering it.
Let your meat get to room temperature before cooking
Always remove your meat from the fridge well before you intend to roast it so
that when it goes into the oven it’s at room temperature. This can take 20 - 30
minutes depending on the size of the piece of meat. Leaving your meat to get to

room temperature is particularly important when cooking meat rare, as you
don’t want the middle of the piece of meat to still be ice cold by the time the rest
of it is cooked. The larger the joint to be roasted, the longer in advance you need
to remove it from the fridge.
Crank up the heat
Put your seasoned joint or whole bird into a furiously hot oven (200º- 220º C) for
the first 10 – 15 minutes (this initial intensity can be longer for larger pieces of
meat). This will help develop that lovely crunchy crust. Cranking the heat is best

done at the beginning of the cooking process while the core temperature of the
meat is low, so that no unnecessary moisture loss occurs. Cranking up the heat
to brown the meat at the end when the core temperature is close to ready
means that the meat will lose moisture and become dry. Once this initial
scorching process is complete, turn the oven down to a cooler 150 - 160º C for
the rest of the roasting period.

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