How to cook a perfect roast

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It's roast dinner weather and we've got you sorted with our guide to cooking times, accompaniments and all the traditional and non-traditional recipes you'll ever need

A guide to meat roasting times

BEEF

Rib eye/scotch fillet, rump, sirloin, fillet/tenderloin

Cooking temperature: 200C

Cooking times (per 500g):
Rare 15-20 minutes
Medium 20-25 minutes
Well done 25-30 minutes

Silverside, blade, topside, standing rib, centre rump, rump eye

Cooking temperature: 160C

Cooking times (per 500g):Rare 20-25 minutes
Medium 25-30 minutes
Well done 30-35 minutes

LAMB

Rack, striploin, boneless rump, topside, silverside, thick flank

Cooking temperature: 220C

Cooking times (per 500g): Rare 15-20 minutes
Medium 20-25 minutes
Well done 25-30 minutes

Leg (whole or short-cut), shoulder, mid-loin

Cooking temperature: 180C

Cooking times (per 500g): Rare 20-25 minutes
Medium 25-30 minutes
Well done 30-35 minutes

PORK

Leg, loin, shoulder

Cooking temperature: 180C

Cooking times (per 500g):
Medium 30-35 minutes (plus an additional 30 minutes to the total time)
Well done 35-40 minutes (plus an additional 30 minutes to the total time)

Perfect potatoes

Geoff Scott makes roast spuds that we all dream about - crispy on the outside and light and fluffy inside. Be sure to use floury potatoes such as agria, red rascal, fianna and ilam hardy. When serving with a roast, Geoff cooks them in the roasting pan so that the fat from the roast can be used for basting and also to give them extra flavour. Once cooked, keep your potatoes uncovered (or they will go soggy) in a warm oven until you are ready to eat.

If you're looking to do something other than roast your spuds, see our 15 classic potato side dishes.

Individual Yorkshire puddings

Yorkshire puddings are always served with roast beef in the UK and have become more and more popular in New Zealand as we have embraced such traditions. But don't restrict yourself to just roast beef and "yorkies", they are great served with stews, casseroles and braises — anywhere there is gravy, really. See Kathy Paterson's recipe for Pr ime rib roast with roast vegetables and yorkshire pudding.

Ray McVinnie's five steps to gravy

Once you've removed the roast, skim off most of the fat from the roasting dish, but don't remove the meat juices. A little fat will add flavour and richness. Get rid of anything burnt as this will make the gravy bitter.
Place the dish over a moderate heat and as it boils add wine to deglaze and lift the crisp bits stuck to the dish. As it boils, scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to dislodge and dissolve the bits stuck to the dish. Boil for a minute to cook out the raw alcohol flavour. If you have no wine, use water or stock.
Then add water or stock to make up the volume of the gravy. Don't add too much, better to have a small amount of well-flavoured gravy then a lot of tasteless liquid. Bring to the boil and simmer a minute or two.
Taste the gravy and add any appropriate flavouring. A little soy sauce will appetisingly darken the gravy and add a savoury umami flavour but don't add enough to make it taste like soy sauce. You may want to add something tart like a little balsamic vinegar, which goes well with roast meat, but again not enough to dominate the flavour. Or you could add something sweet like redcurrant jelly for lamb, pork or game, but again not too much.
Check the roast and add any juices that have seeped out of the roast to the grav A thin well-flavoured gravy based on wine and meat juices is often all you need but if I want to thicken it I don't add flour at the beginning, as my mother would have. I stir in a thin slurry of cornflour mixed with cold water (one part cornflour to two parts cold water). A little at a time. Again not too much because any thickening will cut the flavour. I prefer to thicken with cornflour at the end of the process as you have more control over how thick it will be and the consistency is lighter than gravy thickened with flour. I like gravy to be the consistency of liquid cream. Boil gently for a couple of minutes to cook the cornflour then taste, and season with salt and pepper.

How to make crispy pork crackling

Score the rind well, in the same direction you'll be carving the roast as this makes for easy carving (or ask your butcher to do it) and cover liberally with oil and salt.
Cook your roast and then remove the rind.
While your meat rests, place the rind under the preheated grill until it's perfectly crisp and puffy.

Uh oh!

Crave crackling but you’re actually a vegetarian? See

Peter Gordon’s vege crackling and his crackling know-how

There's more than one way to roast a chicken

A roast dinner can be as simple as Geoff Scott's chicken breasts on cooked greens or served on a winter tabbouleh salad (photographed above). Marinated ahead of time in herbs and honey, a butterflied chicken is quick to cook and succulent to eat. Nadia Lim roasts her chicken with alliums (that'd be onions and garlic) because of their sweetness and Simon Gault has an Indian-inspired version. Find more recipes in our roast chicken collection.