Beef

You get what you pay for but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy cheaper cuts. “Roasting joints” are usually Topside/Silverside/Top rump and they are fine, but they are usually not that great for cooking rare as they are a solid piece of meat with little or no fat, so they don’t have a great texture or flavour. But they are perfectly OK. I’d just consider cooking them gently for longer rather than roasting them for a short time. Brisket is the classic pot-roast and isn’t worth roasting.

As a rule, the more expensive it is the less you should cook it. Roasting times are 20 minutes at the highest heat your oven will do to try to seal the outside and then 15 minutes at a lower heat (170 in a fan oven) per lb (450g). This should give you rare but thoroughly cooked. Add 10 minutes for medium and 20 for well done.

Tip: Open the door of the oven for a minute or so at the end of the 20 minutes when you turn the temperature down otherwise it will slowly drop from the high heat to the low heat and mess up the timings.

Lamb

Shoulders should be cooked slowly and legs quickly but look at the blog post on butterflying legs as shanks are long/slow so are best removed before roasting.

For a shoulder cook it like a pot-roast: put chopped onions, carrots, celery and anything else in a roasting tin, put the shoulder (seasoned) on top and add water, stock and/or wine. Loosely cover it in foil but not allowing gaps – you want the steam to stay in if possible - and cook it for an hour or so at 200, then reduce the heat to 160 and cook for 3-4 hours.

Leg just season/spice or cover in whatever flavours you like, and roast for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 180 and roast for 25 minutes per lb (450g).

Tip: If you butterfly it, it’s just a huge steak, roast it for 30 minutes at 200. Or stick it on a barbecue for 20!

Pork

Treat it pretty much like lamb but make sure it’s cooked through – lamb can (should) be pink but pink pork, like pink chicken, is like playing Russian Roulette. So similar timings and do the shoulder like lamb shoulder and the leg like a lamb’s leg.

For crackling, score the skin – it is often already scored these days but nowhere near enough. Scoring lets steam escape instead of getting trapped under the skin keeping it damp. Then rub salt into it – don’t mess about, just get cheap free-flowing salt and make sure you are generous.

Tip: Don’t beat yourself up about crackling – it doesn’t always work. There’s dampness in or on the skin, it’s been stored in a weird plastic coffin, steam comes out of the meat and soaks it, you’re up against luck as well as your own skill.

Chicken

Season it with salt and add some pepper on the skin. Heat the oven as high as it will go and cook it for 20 minutes then turn down the heat to 180 and cook it for 20 minutes per lb (450g).

A nicer variation is to separate the skin at the open end from the breast - just slide your finger or a spoon into a gap you can make but don't tear the skin. Then push butter flavoured with garlic and/or herbs into the gap. Then as it cooks it will baste the breast and gives it a lovely flavour.

Pot Roasting

Pot Roasts are a good alternative – they cook for longer and there’s liquid in the pot to stop it drying out during the longer cooking process. A big Le Creuset cast iron enamelled pot with a lid is ideal but any casserole dish is cool. There are infinite varieties but essentially you put veg on the bottom, meat on the top, liquid in there to cover the veg and that’s it. Suggestions below but mix it up however you like:

Chicken - carrots, celery, onion, garlic, fennel bulb sage/tarragon, white wine

Beef – carrots, celery, onion, garlic, swede, thyme, red wine and a bit of mustard

Lamb – carrots, celery, onion, garlic, rosemary and dried mint, wine (either colour)

Pork doesn’t work brilliantly as the pork fat in the gravy isn’t that nice, but the usual veg plus sage parsley. Cider

Gammon/bacon are brilliant for this – much like the chicken version above but with dry cider