COOKING TO PERFECTION
To help you cook your Stockton & Stratton meat to perfection, we’ve set out some handy guidelines below –
GUIDELINES FOR ROASTING BEEF
1) Weigh the joint (if you don’t already know the weight from the packaging).
2) Allow 20 minutes per pound / 50 minutes per kg, plus an extra 10 minutes.
3) An oven temperature as below will be about right, but all ovens vary – so make sure you know how your oven works! (This is particularly true for fan ovens.)
180 – 190oC
350 - 375oF
Gas Mark 4 – 5
4) To be really safe, you should use a meat thermometer to check the temperature of the centre of the meat. The actual temperature you need will depend upon how well you like your meat cooked – but a temperature of around 70oC should be safe. If you don’t have a thermometer, pierce the meat with a skewer or small knife and check that the juices run clear when you take it out. If they don’t, then put it back in the oven.
5) Finally, the last thing to do is… NOTHING! Let the meat rest for at least 20 minutes before doing anything with it. Keep it somewhere warm while you finish preparing the other parts of the meal. During this time the meat fibres will relax, reabsorb some of the juices and the temperatures will even out throughout the meat. This will make it eat better and be much easier to carve.
6) Carving – use the largest knife you feel comfortable with, and make sure it’s really sharp. (If you don’t like using a steel, then use any of the handy gadgets available – but make sure you use something!) Hold the meat steady with a fork, and cut away from you, letting the knife do the work. And there’s nothing wrong with electric knives – maybe not for the purist, but they do the job.
If you have let the meat rest sufficiently, the result should be lovely neat slices– if not, you’ll have a plate of cooked mince!