John Myers
A roast can be tied so that pork, beef, and poultry retain their stable shape while they are being cooked in the oven. Binding is essential for a rolled roast like our pork roast: This prevents the meat from twisting or falling apart during the roasting process, and the roast stays nice and juicy. But roast poultry also benefits from the procedure, as the tips of wings or legs fit snugly and do not dry out.
Heat-resistant kitchen twine is suitable for the procedure – the stronger version is also known as roasting twine. Before you tie a roast, you should make sure there are no excess tendons attached to the meat. Pare the roast by using a sharp, pointed knife to remove any tendons that may be present. It is important that you take care not to cut off too much meat with the tendons.
Then the roast is wrapped lengthways with kitchen twine from one side and the twine is closed with a tight knot – preferably a double knot. The first loop should enclose the roast firmly, but not cut into the meat. In the next step, wrap regular loops around the roast at a distance of about two centimeters. The roast is then tied again lengthways until a net-like structure has been created, which is finally fixed with a final knot.
If it is too strenuous to tie your roast by hand in this way, you can also use a roast net. This tool is readily available in stores. Roast nets are elastic and available in different sizes so that different roast calibers can be easily tied with them if you want to prepare one of our juicy rolled roasts.
To tie roast poultry such as a chicken into shape, first tie the two thighs tightly together. Then you pull the yarn along the thighs to the body, turn the chicken and wrap the yarn around the wings. Finally, the yarn is pulled together and knotted tightly.
