What Makes a Perfect Roast?
In Britain, roast dinners are an iconic dish with almost every family having specific favourites or recipe additions that are tried and tested. While roast dinners are a staple, they can be difficult to get right, with chicken, pork, beef and lamb all often served with different sauces. It doesn’t stop there, as different cuts of meat all require different cooking times and flavours. If you are a less practised home cook, then creating a roast dinner for your family can be quite intimidating. This guide will give you a quick overview of the different cuts of meat and what to consider when cooking your roast.
One of the biggest issues when cooking a roast is that while a lot of the sides like mashed potatoes, roast vegetables and gravy aren’t complicated to cook on their own, they all need to be ready to serve at the same time. This requires any chefs to keep an eye on each dish and be ready to take them out of the oven once they are cooked.
The Centrepiece
Your cut of meat is the centrepiece of your table. Making sure that your roast is cooked to perfection will elevate the rest of your dishes, and the juices from your roast will be used as the foundation of your gravy.
Roast chicken is often the overwhelming favourite for family gatherings (especially for young children). However, despite chicken roasts being the most popular it can still be hard to cook perfectly, as the breast meat can get dry while cooking. There are a few ways to lock moisture into the chicken breast so it stays nice and moist while it is cooked. Here are three tricks to try yourself at home:
Roast pork is a fantastic dish, often served with apple sauce. The meat is often thought of as quite fatty, but this is mostly on cuts of meat like the pork belly. The cuts of pork that are most often used for roasting, like the shoulder, leg or loin, have a lower fat content. Fennel, rosemary and thyme pair very well with pork, and adding those to your roast as a flavouring can taste delicious.
The key to a good pork roast is the crackling. In order to get a good crisp crackling it is important to ensure that the skin is well scored and dry before adding the oil and salt. If the skin in the roast is damp when it is cooked it may not dry out completely to produce crackling.
A beef roast is a dish that is hard to beat, whether you prefer your beef rare, medium rare or well done. The cuts of beef best for roasting are generally the foreribs, sirloin, ribeye and the fillet. To ensure you are cooking a perfect roast, asking the butcher which cuts they recommend as well as how many each cut will serve is always a fantastic way to ensure you get a cut of meat that suits your plans. Getting a cut of meat that is slightly larger than you need is always good - the leftovers can be used to make fantastic beef sandwiches for lunch the next day.
The savoury taste of roast beef pairs very well with red wine when you are making your gravy. The rich taste also pairs well with mustard and horseradish sauce. Sweeter flavours such as cranberry sauce tend work better with lighter meats like poultry.
Lamb is a fantastic rich meat for a roast. When you cook lamb it will likely be on the bone, as three of the most popular cuts of lamb for roasting are often sold on the bone - the shoulder, the leg and the rack of lamb. The end of neck is considered the perfect cut of meat for roasting, but generally only serves two people, so if you are planning on feeding a lot of people then a larger cut may work better.
If you don’t want a roast on the bone, then butchers can remove the bone to make the roast easier to carve.
The Trimmings
While your choice of meat and cut will act as the centrepiece for your roast, the trimmings that accompany your main centrepiece will complement and elevate your dish. There is a wide range of sides that are traditionally served with a roast, from roast potatoes to cauliflower cheese. Many families will have specific favourites that they come back to year after year. Here are a few of the sides that are traditionally served with a British roast dinner:
When it comes to creating the perfect roast, experimentation is key. Which cuts does your family enjoy the most? Are there specific flavours that really make the dish sing? Do you prefer a side of roast potatoes or mash? There are hundreds of little tricks to make the flavours of your dish pop, such as adding a teaspoon of mustard to your mashed potatoes to deepen the flavour, or putting a bit of crispy pancetta in your cauliflower cheese to deepen the flavour.
If you are cooking a Sunday roast this weekend Ian Chatfield Butchers & Deli is here to offer you incredible quality cuts of meat for your roast. If you want to enquire about what we have to offer, contact us here. Our team of Butchers will be delighted to help you find a fantastic cut this weekend.
