The roasting technique is definitely a favourite with many of our customers when cooking in their wood fired ovens. Whether it’s a Sunday roast or a Christmas turkey, creating the perfect roasting environment is key. Have a read of our wood fired roasting guide below, on how to achieve a roasting environment fit for a huge roast turkey! We’ve even included some delicious recipes to try out in your wood fired ovens.
What’s great about the roasting technique?
The great thing about the roasting technique is how versatile it is. It can be used for sealing or browning as well as cooking through, whilst maintaining juices and tenderness.
Getting the perfect roasting environment down to a tee
When wanting to create the ideal roasting environment, firstly you will need to fire up your oven to its optimum temperature. If you are wanting to brown/seal food items, keep the temperature high.
Follow this by covering your meat with liquid or a lid, then maintain the temperature at 200°c to 300°c.
When your oven has reached these lower roasting temperatures, move the fire and embers to one side of the oven, maintaining small oven flames, adding small logs every 15-20 minutes. Roasting relies more on the radiation of heat from the wood embers than the heat from the flames.
Allow the oven temperature to gradually fall by letting the fire burn down but not out.
Naturally, the closer the food is to the fire, the hotter it will be and gradually the temperature will fall as you move it across the oven floor. Be sure to check the food to determine whether you need to move or increase/decrease the oven temperature.
Always remember to leave off the oven door for shorter roasting times (under an hour), or (over an hour) leave the door in place.
Remember! Don’t put the oven door in place if you have an aggressive fire inside your oven.
Top Tip: If you are cooking poultry, you will need to first roast the bird then remove the foil to brown.
Stone Bake Fact: High temperatures created in a wood fired oven are perfect for the caramelisation of meat and vegetable dishes, which is something that a conventional oven can’t recreate.
Now you’ve created the perfect roasting environment in your wood fired oven, we thought it would only be right to give you some delicious roast recipes to try out. Tuck in Stone Bakers!
Flavours Galore! – Wood roasted duck and red currant relish
Our wood fired duck with redcurrant relish tastes even better when cooked in one of our wood fired ovens. The redcurrants compliment the duck fantastically, creating some truly delicious flavours. It’s yummy! Find the recipe here.
Stone Bake’s favourite winter roast- Wood Fired Pork and Pears
In the chillier months there is nothing better than a scrumptious wood fired dish. The pears compliment the pork perfectly and give this dish a fruity feel.
You’ll Need
- 13lb boneless pork loin
- 3 pears, halved
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1tbsp salt
- 1tbsp pepper
- A couple of sprigs of thyme and rosemary
- Olive oil to drizzle
Method
Start by firing up your wood fired oven to its optimum temperature and allow the oven to cool down and maintain the temperature at 200 degrees C. For more information, please refer to our Cooking Techniques Guide.
Coat the cutting board with the salt, pepper and chopped garlic. Roll the pork along the board to coat. In a pan on medium high heat, sear the pork until golden and you get a bit of a crust. Place in a cast iron tray with the halved pears and garlic. Rip apart the thyme and rosemary and sprinkle over. Drizzle with oil and cook for about 60-75 minutes.
Cover in tin foil and let rest for 5-10 min. Now all that’s left is to enjoy!
Easy Peasy Recipe- Roasted beer can chicken
Everyone loves a quick and easy recipe, especially when it tastes so good! Give our Beer/Cider Can roasted chicken a go- We promise you won’t regret it!
You’ll Need
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons pimentón (sweet smoked Spanish paprika)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried marjoram or oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 3 bay leaves, finely crumbled
- 2 (3 1/2- to 4-lb.) whole chickens
- Can of beer or cider of your choice
Combine first 7 ingredients. Sprinkle skin and cavity of chicken with salt mixture.
Place chicken upright onto a beer/cider can, fitting into cavity. Pull legs forward to form a tripod, allowing chickens to stand upright.
Move the fire and embers to one side of the oven and maintain small oven flames, add smaller logs every 15-20 minutes. Place chicken onto tray upright and into your oven for 35 – 40 minutes until cooked!
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If you are interested in our residential oven range, visit our Primo, Mezzo, Vento and Gusto pages for prices, information and technical drawings. Please don’t hesitate to contact the team on 01425 204985 should you have any further questions.