100 Part I: Eating Right with Every Bite
✓ Roasting: Cooking food in dry heat with the aid of fat
To roast food correctly, use a roasting rack and a roasting pan with
sides no higher than 2^1 ⁄ 2 to 3 inches. The rack lifts the meat out of the
pan and allows the food to be exposed to heat all the way around. Fill
the pan^1 ⁄ 4 inch with a liquid, such as canned chicken stock, which collects
the drippings to start a gravy (and also keeps the drippings from burning
when they hit the bottom of the pan). While roasting, baste the food
with the stock and drippings from the pan. Never wrap or cover the
meat when roasting, because it either breaks the sear (causes the meat
to leak juices) or keeps the protein from forming a tight sear, and your
protein will be chewy and dry.
✓ Broiling: Cooking food from heat above
You may already use your oven broiler to brown the tops of casseroles
and melt cheese, but that’s also a quick way to quickly cook thin cuts
of meats, fish, seafood, and vegetables. Preheat the broiler on high
before putting food in the oven. Space the food out on the top of a
broiler pan (all ovens come standard with them). Add seasoning and,
if needed, a little oil. Place the broiler pan in the oven so the food is 6
inches beneath the broiler, and leave the oven door open a crack. At this
point you can’t walk away, because food begins to brown quickly. When
desired browning has occurred, flip the food over and broil until desired
doneness on the other side.
Moist cooking methods
Moist cooking methods include deep frying, pan frying, stewing, braising,
poaching, and boiling. Moist cooking techniques can be used to cook meats,
such as poultry, beef, lamb, or pork. Boiling and poaching can cause most
meats to be tough unless cooked low and slow to break down the muscle. On
the other hand, moist cooking methods, particularly poaching and steaming,
are very effective in maintaining the tenderness of fish and seafood.
✓ Deep frying: Cooking food totally immersed in preheated fat or oil
Deep frying is typically done at 350 degrees so the submerged food is
seared on the outside (keeping excess fat from seeping in) and keeps
its moisture in. If done correctly, fried food is lower in fat on the inside
but higher in fat and calories on the outside. (If the food on the inside is
greasy, the food was fried at a temperature below 350 degrees or the oil
is old.) That fatty outside, often battered, is where the most fat is found.
If eating deep-fried food, peel off the fried skin or batter and eat only the
moist tender food on the inside.
✓ Pan frying: Cooking food partially immersed in preheated fat or oil
Pan frying is the same as deep frying except that the food is only
submersed halfway in the heated oil, and then turned to finish cooking the
other side. Again, discard the fatty outside before eating pan-fried foods.
