This past summer the Washington Post ran my Top 20 picks for kitchen newbies. The list was pretty straightforward—vegetable peeler, whisk, cutting board, a good knife. The heavy-bottomed roasting pan didn’t make the list, but under my fifteenth pick, the 13- by 9-inch pan, it won honorable mention: “You’ll eventually want a roasting pan,” I advise, “but for now this works for baking a cake, casserole, or small roast.
For those with a limited repertoire—canned soup, scrambled eggs, cheese quesadillas—and no plans to expand it, your money is probably better spent elsewhere. But for those who sear, sauté, stew, and simmer—especially when cooking for more than four—a heavy-duty roasting pan is worth putting on your Christmas list.
So serious my commitment to this piece of kitchen equipment, I bought Maggy and Andy one their first Christmas. (Unfortunately I forgot just how small their apartment-size British oven was. Since then it’s been relegated to bread and cracker storage on top of their fridge.) Unless you say no, Sharon, you’ll find one under your tree this year too. Here’s why.
In Julie & Julia, recall Julie’s delight with her well-browned mushrooms. The key, per her ghost-mentor, Julia Child, was not to overcrowd the pan. It’s true. Even in a large skillet, a pound of sliced mushrooms are stacked three or four deep. Take the same pile of mushrooms and sauté them in a heavy-duty roasting pan over two burners. The doubled pan surface not only improves browning, it also decreases cooking time.
And in that same flick, remember Julia’s famous Boeuf Bourguignon? Picture the pile of beef chunks that need searing before stewing. You can brown them in three batches in a dinky Dutch oven or you can do it in one batch in a roasting pan set over two burners. At eight minutes per batch, that’s a sixteen-minute time saving.
I promote this technique when I can and although no one ever says why, some food magazines I write for don’t like it (and won’t publish it). I’m sure they think the technique’s a little risky. It’s true that when stirring your arm might hit one of the hot metal handles, but—nothing a little foil cover wouldn’t prevent. It’s also true that cooking in a roasting pan over two burners is hotter, faster, sweatier… racier. For the uninitiated, it could feel a tad stressful.
I’ll continue to promote the benes of roasting pan cooking. For the nay-sayers, however, I borrow a line from Julia’s husband Paul, who, when the original publisher rejects her book for a second time, delivers two deliciously choice words. (And it’s not “Screw ‘em”.)
Yes, I think you were quite surprised at the state of my kitchen that Christmas. I think I had about 8 of your top 20 picks. No whisk, no Pyrex measuring cup, no microplane (Mon Dieu!) You took me straight to the shop “Kitchen Capers” in town to rectify this situation. And it was very disappointing when my new roasting pan didn’t fit in my oven. But in the words of Nanny Mayhew, I’ve just had to “make do and mend.” And like you said, in its place are a 13×9 Pyrex and two Le Cruesets which are my most prized kitchen possessions. They hardly have time to dry before they’re back on the stove or in the oven again. I haven’t found a great need for a roasting pan…yet. While sometimes it would be more convenient, I find that I get by pretty well without it. However, as a minister’s wife, you entertain more than I do. I think the most people I’ve ever cooked for is about eight (not counting barbecues!) You cook for dozens, even hundreds! Heck, you practically catered my wedding, which without an army of helpers and roasting pans, wouldn’t have been possible. Your roasting pan will be put to good use when I get home and have an American-sized oven, but my first purchase is going to be a mixer. I can’t count how many times I’ve had to make something in the blender when the recipe really required a mixer
I absolutely adore my new roommate. It may or may not have something to do with the fact that, in addition to a laid-back attitude and Wusthof-sharp wit, Kelly has brought to the apartment a full set of All-Clad cookware, a Cuisinart food processor, and a KitchenAid stand mixer (and that’s just the big stuff.) She’s got plates, glasses, silverware, whisks, spatulas, measuring spoons, and stuff I never even knew I wanted—like an immersion blender. It’s amazing!
I have to say, though, when Mom was bouncing ideas off us for that Washington Post piece, I had visions of shopping for hot pink measuring spoons, a rainbow array of rubber spatulas, mixing bowls that nestle together like those creepy Russian dolls, and smooth, beautiful bamboo cutting boards with non-slip rubber feet.
Kelly, who interestingly enough does not cook (much), has brought most of this stuff with her. Albeit in slightly more subdued colors and with a lovable amount of wear and tear. I’m managing my mix of excitement at a fully stocked kitchen with my disappointment in not getting to pick it out with 2 thoughts: I saved a ton of money (which I can now spend on my room) and I’m getting a roasting pan for Christmas!
Forehead slapping moment here. My heavy duty roasting pan roosts in the pantry 364 days of the year, doing its duty only for the Thanksgiving turkey. It will be nice to pare some minutes off the browning for my favorite oven braises.
This is brilliant. Could you make some recommendations for good, quality roasting pans? I sadly do not own one and now realize how useful it could be. 🙂
I own three roasting pans, Bluecastle–2 are in my CT kitchen and they’re so old I’m not even sure I could tell you their brands. I’m at my PA house now, and the one here is Kirkland Brand that I purchased at Costco! I like it a lot and it’s very inexpensive. Can’t remember the exact price but it was under $50.