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Figure A is your average home oven. The heat is generated from a gas burner array safely hidden under a metal plate in the floor of the oven. You turn the oven on and set the thermostat and this burner fires. The metal in the floor heats, creating convection currents in the air that rise and fall through the cavity. Then there’s radiant energy, which rises up from the floor and bounces around like zillions of ricocheting bullets. (In electric ovens, a coil inside the cavity heats air and walls via radiant—both visible and infrared—energy.) If we place a piece of food in the oven, some of the careening waves will indeed strike and penetrate that food. These random hits, along with the convection air currents, are what roast it.

ROASTING: THE SHORT FORM

1. Bring target food (meat or otherwise) to room temperature before cooking.

2. If the target is a beef roast, consider dry-aging it for a couple of days in the bottom of your refrigerator.

3. Lightly oil the meat. How light is light? Enough to make the entire surface of the meat glisten but not enough to leave a puddle on the plate.

4. Season the meat. Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper are all the seasoning you need. Most folks go too easy on them. Don’t be shy.

5. Choose the right meat: broiler/fryer chickens and smaller, tender cuts of beef, pork, and lamb.

6. Roast at different temperatures. Either start low and finish high or, in the case of pork and chicken, vice versa.

7. If possible, build an oven (with firebricks or flower pots). The even heat will reward you.

8. Buy big: small roast—no leftovers; big roast—lots of leftovers (see Sandwich Making Tips).

9. When purchasing beef look for “choice” grades. The marbling in these cuts will help to keep them lubricated throughout cooking.

10. If you plan to make a jus, sauce, or gravy, consider doing your roasting on a bed of vegetables (carrots, onions, herbs, potatoes, and so on).

When a thermostat in the oven senses that the air in the cavity has reached the desired temperature, the burner turns off. When the thermostat senses a drop in temperature, it re-ignites the burner. How much of a drop is necessary to prompt the firing depends on the manufacturer.

All of this is fine and good, except for the fact that it’s almost impossible to get all this heat into the food evenly. Some ovens are better at it than others, but I’ve never seen a metal oven that roasts as well as a pile of dirt (be it in the form of clay, ceramic tile, or what-have-you).

Earthen ovens have made a big comeback in the last twenty years. Restaurants are building them into their kitchens and home enthusiasts are erecting them in their back-yards. I, for one, am happy about this de-evolution of culinary technology because several of the best meals I’ve ever eaten (or cooked, for that matter) have come out of such ovens. Why?

Consider figure A in comparison to figure B. A is your oven (and mine). B is an earthen oven. Oven A may be easy to use, easy to heat, clean, and so forth, but under normal usage it cannot generate heat beyond 500° F, nor can its walls conduct and store heat; rather, they reflect it, which is not the same thing. The earthen oven can be cranked well beyond the 500s, and once heated it will radiate that heat evenly, which is why foods roasted in such ovens look and taste so darned good.

Let’s say that you have no intention whatsoever of building a clay or adobe oven in your backyard. You can get the same effect by building another oven either inside your existing oven or inside your grill.

Few residential ovens heat beyond 500° F unless they’re in self-clean mode, in which case temperatures of up to 800° F are not uncommon. Take firebricks and build a box in the oven just big enough to hold the smallest metal roasting or baking pan that can possibly hold the target food. Turn the oven to its self-clean mode. Wait one hour, then turn the oven off. Although I haven’t been able to find a single manufacturer to condone