Category:Baked or roasted

Baking or roasting food as the main method of cooking

Recipes in this category use baking or roasting as the primary cooking method.

What is Baking?

Baking is cooking food in an oven with dry heat applied evenly throughout the oven. Breads, pastries, desserts, and meat are often baked. The dry heat of baking causes the outside of the food to brown or char, giving it an attractive appearance and taste, as well as sealing in the food's moisture. The browning is caused by caramelisation of sugars and is the result of the Maillard browning reaction. Moisture is never really entirely "sealed in", however; over time, an item being baked will become drier and drier. This is often an advantage, especially in situations where drying is the desired outcome, for example in drying herbs or in roasting certain types of vegetables.

To compensate for moisture loss, some items are basted on the surface with butter or oil to slow the loss of moisture through the skin. Some foods are replenished with moisture during baking by placing a small amount of liquid such as water or stock in the bottom of the pan, and letting it steam up into or around the food.

Baking is the primary cooking technique used to produce cakes and sweet desserts.

What is a Roasting?

Roasting is high-heat baking with very little moisture. Roasted foods get drier and browned on the outside by initially exposing the meat a high temperature. This keeps most of the moisture from being cooked out of the food. Temperature is then lowered to cook the meat through. The flavours of both meats and vegetables are retained and enhanced by roasting. A typical roasting temperature is 425-450 °F, with an initial temperature of over 500 °F for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. You can either roast in an oven or over an open fire. Spit-roasting or rotisserie cooking is a variation where the meat is impaled on a spit and rotated as it roasts.

See also

• Safe meat cooking temperatures