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Main Oven Cookery Notes
20
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 calculating the
cooking time.
(c) Place meat/poultry in the meat pan supplied with your cooker.
Small joints weighing less than 1.75kg (3
1
/
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
seasoned 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 instructions,
and remember to reduce the temperatures given for conventional
ovens by approximately 25
o
C and the time by approximately 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.
Frozen Meat
Joints of meat and whole birds should be defrosted slowly, preferably
and Poultry in a domestic refrigerator (allowing 5 - 6 hours per 450g, 1lb), or at
room temperature (allowing 2-3 hours per 450g, 1lb). If however, it
is found necessary to accelerate this process, frozen food can be
defrosted in the fan oven at a temperature of 70
o
C/80
o
C (150/175
o
F).
A 1.5kg (3lb) oven ready frozen chicken, placed in the meat pan, will
defrost in approximately 1
1
/
2
– 1
3
/
4
hours.
The breast should be covered with foil, held in position by skewers or
string, and the giblets removed after defrosting but before cooking.
THIS METHOD OF DEFROSTING IS ONLY RECOMMENDED
FOR MEAT/POULTRY UP TO 2kg (4lb) IN WEIGHT, AND IT IS
ESSENTIAL TO COOK IT THOROUGHLY, IMMEDIATELY
AFTERWARDS.