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Food tips

Meat From buying lamb, pork or beef to marinating, glazing, roasting and carving, our meat tip section is packed with useful information. Want to submit a tip? Click here More tips Select a category Baking Beverages Cleaning Cooking Culinary term Dairy Desserts Eggs Freezing Freshness Fruit Garnishing General Herbs & spices Low-fat cooking Meat Microwave Odours Outdoor cooking Pasta Poultry Preserving Quick recipe Seafood Storing Substitute Trouble-shooting Vegetables

1 Carving meat Always allow your roast to rest for 5 to 15 minutes before carving so that the juices can be reabsorbed and the meat presents an even surface when sliced. Use a short- or long-bladed knife, and a two-pronged carving fork with a guard. To prevent the meat from losing juice, steady it with the flat of the fork, rather than piercing.

2 Combine beef with... Basil, bay, caraway, thyme, mint or sage. It combines well and brings out the natural flavour of the meat.

3 Combine pork with... Anise, basil, coriander, fennel, tarragon or lemon balm.

4 Defrosting meat The best way to defrost meat is to plan ahead a bit and place the meat in the refrigerator overnight. Larger items may take two nights.

5 Freezing meat Freeze thin cuts of meat (boneless chicken breast, slices of pork or ham) rather than big chunks, and freeze them flat and separate. This makes it easier to remove just a few pieces.

6 Frying meat When frying meat, do it in batches so that your pot or pan isn't too full and enough air is circulating around the meat. If the cubes touch each other, the meat will stew.

7 Frying meat Fry blocks of meat in batches. If you overload the pan and the blocks touch each other, the meat will stew - meat needs air around it to seal in the juices.

8 Great glaze Make a simple but excellent glaze for meat by simmering 2 quartered onions, 125 ml balsamic vinegar and 60 ml red wine together for 15 minutes.

9 Juicy burgers Rub both sides of a burger with water before grilling. This makes them juicier.

10 Marinade check If you're brushing your grilled food with the mixture that the meats were marinating in, stop brushing the marinade on during the last five minutes of cooking. Raw meat juices in the marinade may contain bacteria and need this time to thoroughly cook.

11 Meat and a flour coating After dredging pieces of meat in flour, toss them in a strainer over the sink to remove excess flour before sautéing. This leaves a light thin coating of flour that doesn't get cakey.

12 Meat tenderiser Wine corks contain tannin, so drop one into a pot of stew to tenderise the meat.

13 Non-sticky meatloaf Meatloaf will not stick to the pan if a slice of uncooked bacon is placed beneath the loaf before baking.

14 Pork Pork is generally much more economical than lamb and beef. Pork fillet is just as tender and as succulent as beef fillet, but costs half as much. There's no waste because it has no fat, skin or bones and a small piece goes a long way when sliced into a stir-fry. Use sliced pork schnitzel as an alternative to pork fillet.

15 Ripening meat All meat cuts used for grilling and roasting should be ripened first to tenderise them. Do it yourself as follows: wipe the meat with a cloth dipped in vinegar and then wrung out, to remove all traces of bone dust and blood. Then place the meat, uncovered, on a rack in the fridge and leave as follows: beef: 1 to 2 weeks mutton: 5 to 7 days lamb: 1 to 2 days .

16 Roasting meat differently Use two peeled large onions, sliced in half (put in greased dish) and place meat on top. In this way, most of the fat is drained and the onions are flavoured. Use the onions as garnish.

17 Roasting meats Roasting your meats fat side up will allow for continuous basting. As the meat roasts the fat will run down the meat as it renders, adding moisture and flavour.

18 Roasting tip When roasting meat try adding a bit of dry cider to the pan juices – the acidity in the cider breaks and softens the meat.

19 Salt and meat Only add salt to meat when it's halfway cooked, otherwise the salt will force the juices out and impede browning.

20 Selecting lamb The meat should be a pinky red in colour with a layer of fat that is creamy white.

21 Turning meat while cooking It's better to use flat utensils or tongs to turn meat as a fork or other sharp object will puncture the meat, allowing the juices to run out.

22 When buying lamb Look for meat with a fresh pinky red colour and a layer of fat which is creamy white in colour. As lamb has quite a high fat content overall it is best to avoid cuts with too much excess fat, but none means that the flavours won't come out as well in your cooked dish.