Baking Versus Roasting

Your recipe for roast loin of pork says to roast in a 350 degree F. oven. Your recipe for yellow butter cake says to bake in a 350 degree F. oven. For either recipe, you open the oven and put your food in. So, is there a difference between baking and roasting?

The short answer is “No.”

But it really isn’t as simple as all that. Baking and roasting are both dry heat cooking methods. This just means that heat is not transferred through a liquid medium during the cooking process. In modern times, we assume that baking and roasting both occur in ovens.

By Definition

Joy of Cooking defines roasting as a specialized type of baking. Roasting is almost always done in an open pan; that is, the food to be roasted is uncovered. Often, when roasting meat, you place it on a rack so it doesn’t sit in its own juices as it roasts. The rack serves as a suspension system whereby the meat is “suspended” in the oven over a pan (shades of spit roasting in days of yore).

There also seems to be a convention associated with the terms “bake” and “roast.” Although the two identify almost identical cooking techniques, in the modern kitchen anyway, “baking” is most generally associated with breads, cakes, pies and casseroles while “roasting” is what you do to meat or vegetables.

Roasting often starts at a higher temperature to create a “crust” on the outside of what is being roasted. Then, the temperature is reduced for the remainder of the cooking time. This is also the case when baking pate a choux (for cream puffs or éclairs) and some breads. In these similar cases, the identical cooking process (high temperature reducing to a lower temperature) is employed for different reasons.

In the roasting example, you’re trying to encourage exterior browning and caramelization of the target food before decreasing the heat and finishing gently. In the baking example, you need an initial burst of intense heat to encourage an expansion of air to make the pate a choux puff up or to encourage optimum oven-spring in the bread (the yeasts’ last hoorah). Then, the temperature is reduced to set and dry the structure of both the pate a choux and the bread.

What’s the Difference?

So, while roasting and baking are almost identical methods of dry heat cooking, the terms roasting and baking apply to two different kinds of foods. You generally roast food that has structure already, solid foods such as meats and vegetables. You generally bake foods that don’t have much structure until they are baked: cakes, breads, pies, casseroles, crème brulee, etc.

In other words, you bake leavened items - items that “puff up” or “rise” during the cooking process. In baking, aside from just “cooking” the food, the goal is to either create steam or expand air pockets within the target food.

Most foods that we roast contain less “empty space” than foods that we bake. These foods are, by and large, already solid. The primary goal of roasting then becomes transferring heat from the surface of the food to the interior at a regulated pace to ensure crusty goodness outside and juicy, tender doneness inside.

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How to Roast
How to Bake Bread
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Cooking Techniques

I started this website over a decade with this concept in mind, “You have to eat, so why not learn to cook and eat well?”

I have really lived by that ever since, so when the wonderful people from LG contacted me about their “Taste of Something Better” cooking competition, where they celebrate top notch home cooks, it was right up my alley.

The three US finalists competed in New York, NY on September 28, for a trip to Bangkok, Thailand to compete in LG’s Global “Life Tastes Good” Cooking Competition.  As far as I know, there were no ingredient restrictions as there are with other cooking competitions (having to use/not use certain brands or ingredients).  This competition was strictly about making the most mouth-watering, judge-pleasing dishes using LG major kitchen appliances, nameley the LG radiant cooktop, wall oven and over-the-range microwave with warming lamp technology.

The three finalists had only thirty minutes to perfect their recipes using the LG equipment.  And each of the dishes definitely sounded worthy of winning.  Up for the grand prize were a Caesar bacon brie burger, a blood orange jerk chicken dish served with spiced rice (which the contestant named “Hakuna Matata rice,” in a nod to The Lion King) and Caribbean Cream, and the eventual winner, a mahi mahi and shrimp dish flavored with soy, lime and cilantro.  I don’t know about you, but I would love to get my hands on those recipes and am working on it!

As with other prominent cooking competitions, the LG Taste of Something Better competition was judged by the only female Iron Chef, Cat Cora, who is also the executive chef of Bon Appetit Magazine.  Chef de Cuisine of Bon Appetit Magazine, Jonathan Lindenauer, and Top Chef, Season 4 runner up and chef/owner of Flip Burger Boutique, Richard Blais, rounded out the judging panel.

For her winning Mahi Mahi recipe, Kristine Snyder of Maui, HI won a trip for two to Bangkok for the Global Life Tastes Good Cooking Competition, a complete kitchen makeover including top of the line LG products and $1,000 spending money while in New York.  The runners up also won great prizes. Jamie Miller from Napa, CA, who came in second won an LG four-door French door refrigerator, double wall oven and gas cooktop as well as $1,000 spending money.  Third place finisher, Lindsey Weiss of Kasas City, KS, won an LG double wall oven and $1,000 spending money.

All in all, it sounds like it was a great competition.  I can’t wait to see who wins the global competition November 10-12 in Bangkok.  LG plans to make this an annual event with a different theme every year, so if you think you have what it takes, check out LG’s Life Tastes Good for news and entry information.

Formaggio La Tur -  A Trio of Milks

I love goat cheese but I also enjoy cow and sheep’s milk cheese and now I can have them all in this meritage of cheese called La Tur. This Italian cheese from the Piedmont area was suggested to me by from my friend Jack who owns the cheese market at our local farmer’s market.

Looking for something spreadable on a French baguette for breakfast but a little stinky, Jack offered up this buttery, bloomy rind little cupcake of a cheese and it was everything I was looking for. It has a creamy consistency with a little bit of tang. You must let this cheese warm up to room temperature before consuming or you will loose all the flavor.

In Short

Type:  Equal parts cow, goat and sheep milk
Origin:  Alta Langa, Piedmont, Italy
Process:  Barely ripened (10 days to two weeks)
Texture:  soft and runny near the rind, almost fluffy/mousse like towards the center
Shape:  Short cylinder—3”x1½”
Weight: 8 ounces
Color:  pale cream to straw-colored
Rind:  Thin and white, wrinkling as it ages.  It can have a thin coat of white mold.
Flavor:  well-rounded, mellow, grassy with a hint of mushroom

The Rest of the Story

One of the most important decisions the cheese makers made regarding La Tur was to pasteurize the milk at the lowest possible temperature allowed by Italian law.  This means that the enzymes present in the milk are not all killed off during the pasteurization process, and it’s the enzymes that contribute to the final flavor profile of the cheese.  While many young, soft cheeses are very mild in flavor, La Tur tends to be pretty complex, definitely something cheese connoisseurs appreciate.

The three milks—cow, goat and sheep—are mixed in equal parts, and the resulting mixed curds are packed into small molds and then allowed to age for ten days.  No one flavor profile dominates.  You can taste the buttery richness from the cow milk, the tang of the goat milk and the mellow nuttiness of the sheep milk.  The three milks complement each other nicely, and this is another reason that La Tur has a relatively complex flavor for a young, soft cheese.

Due to the light mold that grows on the rind of the cheese, it ripens from the outside in.  In a cheese ten days old, the cheese is creamy inside the rind and fluffy towards the center.  As the cheese ages, the outside layer becomes runnier and more pungent while the center becomes creamy.  Eventually, the cheese is runny throughout.  To experience the progression for yourself, buy three small, fresh wheels (they’re cute—they come in pleated doilies that look like cupcake papers).  Enjoy one immediately.  Save one for two or three weeks later, and then eat the last one a few weeks afterwards.

As with most cheese, La Tur is best served at cool room temperature to appreciate the flavor.  You can certainly serve it with a nice un-oaked red from the Piedmont region of Italy, although the tang of the cheese is nicely set off by sweeter dessert wines as well.  Simply spread the cheese on some crusty bread, or if you want to gild the lily, serve with some clover honey, roasted pears or quince jam.

RELATED TOPICS

All About Cheese

Cheese Guide

Conversation with Cheesemonger Jack