18AN OVENTEMPERATURE AND TIMEWhen all three shelves are used to cook large quantities of food for home freezing or parties, it may benecessary to increase the cooking times given in the charts by a few minutes to allow for the loss of heat due tothe extra time taken to load the oven, and the larger mass of food. Baking trays should allow an equal gap onall sides of the oven.NB. Recipes in cookery books give times and temperatures for cooking in ordinary ovens. The fan oven makesit possible in most cases to:- Reduce the recommended temperatures 25°C (45°$).- Reduce the recommended time by approximately 10 minutes per hour.- Make pre-heating the oven unnecessary for certain foods.TO PREPARE MEAT AND POULTRY OR ROASTING IN YOUR AN OVENa. Wipe the meat or poultry, dry well and weigh it. Meat which has been stored in a refrigerator should be allowedto come to room temperature before cooking and frozen meat or poultry must be completely defrosted beforeplacing in the oven.b. The weight of any stuffing used should be added before calculating the cooking time.c. Place meat / poultry in the main oven meat pan supplied with your cooker. Small joints weighing less than1.75kg (31/2lb) should be roasted in a smaller meat pan / tin - or they may be 'pot roasted' - a small joint in alarge meat pan causes unnecessary oven splashing and evaporation of meat juices.d. Additional fat should not be added, except for veal, very lean meat or poultry which can be 'larded' with baconfat or brushed very sparingly with cooking oil or melted fat.e. Beef, lamb, mutton and poultry may be dusted lightly with seasoned flour to give a crisp outer surface. The skinof duck and goose should be pricked to release excess fat during cooking and the rind of pork should bescored, brushed lightly with oil and rubbed with salt to give crisp crackling.f. Meat and poultry wrapped in, or covered with a tent of aluminium foil will be juicy and tender. Roasting bagsoffer the same advantage. Always follow the manufacturer's packing instructions and remember to reduce thetemperatures given for conventional ovens by approximately 25°C and the time by approxi mately 10 minutesper hour.g. Potatoes for roasting only require to be brushed with cooking oil or melted fat.h. It is not necessary to baste when roasting in an electric oven and stock or liquid should not be added to themeat pan since this only causes unnecessary soiling, steam and condensation.ROZEN MEAT AND POULTRYJoints of meat and whole birds should be defrosted slowly, preferably in a domestic refrigerator (allowing 5-6hours per 450g, 1lb), or at room temperature (allowing 2-3 hours per 450g, 1lb). $rozen meat or poultry must becompletely defrosted before placing in the oven. It is essential to wash thoroughly and cook meat and poultryimmediately after defrosting.