Arrosto, or roast meat, has always been the main dish on Sunday lunch with the family. A nice slice of roast meat, perhaps accompanied by baked potatoes, means a buona domenica! Veal, pork, beef: all are good meats to be roasted, the important thing is to choose the right piece. So here are a few tips to help keep you on track.
1. How to choose
First thing to do, and essential for the success of your roast is to choose the meat best suited to the recipe you’re making. The advice for roast meat is to prefer beef walnut, veal steak, a turkey slices or a pork loin. The choice of course equally depends very much on personal taste and there are plenty of other cuts available. Having a trusted butcher to rely on is another small guarantee for the success of your recipe!
2. Aromas
Once the right cut of meat has been found, it's time to move on to the second step: the choice of aromas! To make your roast really unique and delicious, you need to also think about and choose herbs and spices, because every meat needs the right aroma. So, note that veal and beef are perfectly combined with oregano, parsley, sage, thyme, rosemary, while pork we recommend the combination of cumin, fennel, mustard or thyme, oregano, garlic, onion, and chili pepper.
3. Salt and pepper, the right amount!
We recommend using it. Many people do not recommend adding salt to raw meat and we’ll tell you when and why to use it. The addition of salt is useful before cooking and the meat should be massaged with coarse salt to absorb a little more flavor prior to cooking. Pepper on the other hand should never be added before cooking but only when the roast is ready and based on diners own personal taste.
4. Steam oven
To obtain a tender roast with the perfect cooking, the secret is the addition of steam that prevents the meat from drying out too much and those who have a steam oven in the kitchen can be said to have made the right choice!
We have discovered that the benefits of using the steam oven when cooking meat are numerous and in the case of a roast the meat has a better advantage of remaining tender and juicy. The heat in fact demands water, if there is not a constant percentage of moisture in the oven it will be 'absorbed' by the food, draining the liquids naturally contained in it and therefore reducing the final weight. A roast cooked with a steam oven will remain juicier inside and more golden outside.
Another advantage of introducing steam is that the cooking will be homogeneous, both inside and outside, avoiding the problem of a crust that is too hard and an inside that is not very well cooked and tough to chew.
5. Cooking time
The right amount of time cooking is often underestimated and is actually essential for the success of the dish. Wrong cooking times: remember that for a piece of beef of about 1kg at medium cooking time it takes 45 minutes in a static oven at 180°. If you prefer it rare, reduce the time in the oven by 5-7 minutes.