‘Tis the season…
A roast is considered de rigueur for the holidays.
But, if you suffer from fear of roasting, here are the Accidental Locavore’s top 10 tools to make roasting a snap!
Nest week, the steps to a perfect roast.
Roasts are easy but you will need a few critical pieces of equipment.
Top 10 tools, listed in order of importance:
1. An oven: if you’ve been using this as storage, remove all occupants and see if you can turn on the oven. If not, call for take-out.
2. A roasting pan: or the broiler pan that probably came with your oven, a big Dutch oven or cast iron pan. Size will dictate what you can cook.
3. An instant-read thermometer. This is as essential for a roast as an oven. You can use a simple cheap dial model, or a fancy one like the one Zhu Zhu gave us. 
4. A good piece of meat. Rack or leg of lamb, leg of lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, roast beef, pork roast, etc. Chicken, duck or lamb are good to start with. They’re easy to roast and generally forgiving. Because the meat is the star of the meal, buy the best you can afford.
5. Spices: Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper are a good start. Garlic is always good and if you have fresh herbs or a favorite spice mix/rub use it!
6. A rack, preferably a V-shaped rack. This is an option — think of it as roasting 2.0, but it will come in handy.
7. Oven mitts, or pot holders: don’t want to burn your hands pulling the pan out of the oven!
8. A baster and/or a brush: This is also roasting 2.0 but I have faith.
9. Olive oil, butter or melted butter: Gotta have something to do with #8, right?
10. A timer: doesn’t matter if it’s on your stove or smart phone, just make sure it’s loud enough that you can hear it. Obnoxious helps too. Mine keeps making noise until you get up and turn it off.
Ready to roast?
I have always had a fear of roasting, and this is just the impetus i needed to conquer this fear! I love the step by step directions- seems idiot proof! I’ll let you know how it goes!
I know a dandy who lives in the East Village who stores his designer shoes in his oven. He’ll never take them out (except to wear)! (Instead, he always ate at Life Cafe down the street from where he lives — until I closed it, that is.)
LOL! Well, nothing is as fun as that, but I love roasted chicken, rack of pork, whole leg of lamb. A lot of things I used to roast I now do sous-vide, like tri-tip, pork loin roast. But let’s not forget vegetables either – love roasted root vegetables! Done properly they are slightly caramelized, which you can’t get sous-vide. yum yum.
Other than the President, what’s your favorite thing to roast?
This is going to be a great series… I love roasting. I find i have much more consistency and success if I let the protein come to room temperature before I pop it in the oven…