Roasting insights

When you use proper technique any roast can and will taste good, but there are certain things you can do to make it even better.

Rubs are a combination of herbs, oil and salt and pepper and other seasoning that you apply to a meat to get ready for cooking. These can be a combination of any items you like. I have several ingredients that I always include, like salt and oil, and the majority of the time I put in garlic. There are some already made rubs that are good but if you use a little creativity you can make any roast unique and tasty.

The food lover’s companion defines Brine as a strong solution of water and salt used for pickling or preserving foods. A sweetener such as sugar or molasses is sometimes added to brine.

Note that the brining process can be taken to the preserving level but when I am referring to it in the roasting sense it is just meant to add flavor. Let me explain it further. You brine a turkey for 12-24 hours and it makes the bird taste better, when you brine a loin of pork for 5-7 days then have Canadian bacon. When we refer to brining here we are only referring to the short bring process not to preserve or pickle the food.

Items that really benefit from a short brining period are poultry, pork, and some seafood, (like shrimp, scallops…). And some beef, although with beef and some other tougher meat you want to add an acidic ingredient that helps tenderizes the food, like wine, citrus fruit, cola …

When you combine the steps that we discussed earlier and use a rub and in some cases a brine your roasts will even be better.