I am trying to get properly browned broccoli and carrots, but I often pull out a tray that is tender and damp rather than roasted.
The obvious issue may be crowding. I usually put enough vegetables on one tray to feed four people, and by ten minutes in there is visible moisture. They are not piled up, but there is not much bare metal either.
I have had better results with a hotter oven, preheating the sheet pan and using two trays. The annoying part is that two trays seem to slow each other down in my oven unless I rotate them, so dinner becomes tray management.
I also usually salt before roasting. I have read conflicting advice on whether that pulls out enough water to hurt browning or whether the effect is trivial compared with crowding and oven temperature.
If I change one thing first, I am guessing it should be more space rather than obsessing over when the salt goes on. Is that basically right?
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The biggest change is probably the one you already noticed: fewer pieces per tray and a hotter pan. Preheating the sheet is doing real work...
The biggest change is probably the one you already noticed: fewer pieces per tray and a hotter pan. Preheating the sheet is doing real work there.
If the oven can’t handle two trays evenly, I’d rather roast in one batch than keep rotating trays like I’m on shift.
I’m with you on the tray spacing. The moisture has to go somewhere, and if the vegetables are close together it just hangs there long enough to sabotage browning.
Salt timing matters less than water on the surface and air flow around the food.
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I do salt before roasting, but I give the vegetables a little time after tossing so the extra surface water can redistribute. That seems to...
I do salt before roasting, but I give the vegetables a little time after tossing so the extra surface water can redistribute. That seems to help more than whether the salt went on five minutes earlier or later.
The pan being crowded is still the bigger issue in my kitchen.
Same here. If I’m choosing one variable to fix, I’d choose spacing before I’d touch salt.
The only thing I’d add is to dry the vegetables well after washing, because that initial water matters more than a lot of people think.
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Yes, more space first. The wet tray problem is usually steam hanging around the vegetables, not salt doing something dramatic. Two trays onl...
Yes, more space first. The wet tray problem is usually steam hanging around the vegetables, not salt doing something dramatic.
Two trays only help if they both have breathing room. If one is crowded, it can beat a hot empty tray pretty quickly.
I’d stop worrying about the salt before I blamed it for the whole mess. Salt helps seasoning; crowding helps soup.
Broccoli especially needs room or it just gives up and turns into tender little damp trees.