Home Cook Meals
Wanted – Home Cooks That Want the Best Tools for Creating Their Holiday Meal by Bethany Payne
Do you love cooking a holiday meal for your family? There is nothing like the smell of the roast in the oven. But for creating a perfectly roasted turkey, you need the best roasting pan. I recommend a stainless roasting pan. If you have the wrong roaster, you could end up with unevenly cooked meat, a pan so heavy you strain yourself lifting it out of the oven, and burnt gravy.
First, the size of the roasting pan matters. Ideally, your pan should fit in your oven and still leave 2 inches for air to circulate between it and the sides of the oven. In addition, you don’t want a pan so large that the juices from your average roast will have too much room to spread and will burn.
The material of your roasting pan is important. You want your pan to be light, sturdy and to conduct heat well. Aluminum conducts heat well, but it reacts badly to the acids in lemons and tomatoes which can affect the taste of your food. Stainless steel in non-reactive and not too heavy or fragile, as stoneware can be. However, stainless steel is not a good conductor of heat. Therefore, I recommend a heavy stainless roasting pan layered with sheets of aluminum and/or copper.
Your turkey roasting pan must also be able to stand up to high oven temperatures and the high direct heat of the stove top. You often will want to use your roaster on the stove top to sear the meat and also to make gravy after roasting. Some lightweight pans can buckle under high-heat conditions. The poorly made pans can also distribute heat unevenly and cause burning and scorching of your roast or gravy.
The construction of your pan matters also. You should look for a rectangular roasting pan with rounded sides. The rounded sides allow for easy removal of remaining bits for cleaning or use in your gravy. The best height for the sides of the pan is 2 1/2 inches to 3 inches. This is low enough for good air circulation when cooking, but high enough so that juices don’t spill while you are transporting your roast to the counter. Handles are also something important to consider. The worst handles fold down and make it very hard for you to grasp the pan with your hands in potholders. The best are riveted and stand straight up from the pan so that oven space is not wasted.
Look for extras to go with your pan such as a rack. Heavy meat forks are also indispensable at the moment you must transfer that large heavy bird or roast to your serving platter.
About the Author
Bethany Payne loves great holiday meals and the best kitchen tools and gadgets. Visit her Squidoo lens for more tips and specific recommendations for the best roasting pan and other holiday cooking tools. http://www.squidoo.com/stainlessroastingpan
Follow that dabbawalla: home-cooked meals, the Mumbai way
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