Tuesday Tips: Perfect Roasting Techniques

Here are a few ideas to help you end up with the perfect piece of browned, but tender roast pork, chicken or beef.

• Always preheat the oven. Twenty minutes at least. That gives the meat the dry blast of heat equivalent to searing a steak on the grill.
• Bring your meat or poultry to room temperature before roasting. You want it to be cooking not warming when it first goes in. That means an hour for a whole chicken and 2 hours for large cuts of meat. Go ahead and season the meat and use the time for the seasoning to penetrate.
• Roast meat on a rack so it doesn't sit in its own juices. That's called braising.
• You should know this from grilling steaks, but let roasted meat and poultry rest for at least 10 minutes before carving. This lets the juices redistribute rather than leak out with the first cut. Large roasts over 3 pounds should stand for 20 minutes. And don't be afraid of it...let your Thanksgiving turkey rest for half an hour.