I generally put garlic, rosemary, and thyme in the pan for a roast. As the meat juices and butter flow into the pan, they make a wonderful infusion of flavour that is well worth bathing the roast in. I'm all for it - I feel the roasts I've made and basted are better than the ones I didn't baste. That said, I haven't done any double-blind studies.
The reason that your basting sauce flopped was the recipe was calling for an emulision (basically, a vinegrette) and by leaving out the vinegar you are changing the one of the basic building blocks of the dish. The sauce will require that you add the fats to the mustard as it will clump as experienced if you don't. The mustard in the original recipe is used as an emuslifer and may need to be cut down without the addition of the vinegar. To build a sauce like this, you should start with the vinegar, add the seasonings and any emulisfers (in this case, the mustard) and slowly drizzle the fats into the resulting mixture until all has been incorperated. You will still get a smooth sauce as long as you keep the order even if you leave off an ingredient or two.
Yes. What you can do is throw the potatoes in with the meat - anything above 85C will eventually cook the potatoes through. Then when you pull the meat out to rest, raise the oven temperature to say 190 - 200 C and possibly add a little fat. They won't take long to finish roasting to a nice golden brown.
Best Answer
I generally put garlic, rosemary, and thyme in the pan for a roast. As the meat juices and butter flow into the pan, they make a wonderful infusion of flavour that is well worth bathing the roast in. I'm all for it - I feel the roasts I've made and basted are better than the ones I didn't baste. That said, I haven't done any double-blind studies.