One of the most common questions we get here is how to cook a roast in advance and then rewarm it. It’s a difficult question because if you attempt to reheat it you need to do so at such a low temperature that it will take as long to reheat as it would to cook to begin with (and if you try to reheat it faster you’ll overcook it). We chefs have discussed this among ourselves and have a pair of answers to.

The best technique is to cook the roast to about 10 degrees below your desired temperature, pull the roast from the oven and cover with foil. allow to rest for 30 minutes and at the same time cool the oven to about 180 degrees. Place the covered roast back in the cooler oven and you can hold it there for about 2 hours — but no more than 3 hours. So if you want a rare roast, cooked to 130 degrees, pull it from the oven at 120 degrees internal temperature, then put it back in the cooler oven to hold.

If you need to delay longer than 2 - 3 hours the only real option is again slightly undercook the roast, then refrigerate. Just before serving, slice the roast and arrange on a platter. Heat in the microwave at medium power for 3 - 6 minutes, depending on how much meat is on the platter and how powerful your microwave is.

As always, don’t rely on time when roasting but instead use an instant-read thermometer to determine the roast’s internal temperature to decide when to pull it from the oven.