Submitted 1 year ago by snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Roasting is something you can do with any strong heat source, you can spit roast with nothing more than a campfire, a stick and a hunk of meat.
Baking is a specific branch of cooking where you measure very specific amounts of ingredients and cook them with a usually dry, indirect heat.
An oven is capable of performing both functions. As well as others in addition.
But sometimes the lines a little blurred, like what is the difference for meats? Chicken gets called baked or roasted when it’s cooked pretty much the same in the oven, maybe baked for pieced vs roasted whole?
Colloquially, it just strikes me as language drift. Much like how people say “google” for any internet search, even though the word only really makes sense if you’re using that one company’s search engine.
Because it’s drifting like this, the definition for colloquial usage won’t necessarily be technical, they’re more slang usages. “Baking” probably becomes anything done in an oven. Roasting probably remains something cooked with high, dry heat.
So yes, some overlap if you dispense with technicality.
And some baking isn’t a dry heat, like water baths for cheesecakes! 😆
This comment section is amazing.
TL;DR Most people don’t know. The people who do know disagree with the other people who also know. There is a disconnect between whether we are talking about oven settings, temperatures, sauces, covers, dry heat, open flame, vegetables vs meat, the list goes on…
What a lovely chaotic discussion!
I love how every answer is different. Makes it clear at mud, doesn’t it?
After reading all answers I can confidently say I am now more confused than ever.
I think it’s a clear sign nobody has any clue what the answer really is.
The food and temperature is what makes the most of the difference. Roasting is 400F/~200C, baking is 350F/~150C.
Yes! I think you nailed it.
My oven has a dial for mode that invites bake, roast, and broil, and a second dial for temperature.
What’s happening at less than 350?
It won’t be well roasted.
Depending on the type of food, certain parts of it might still be raw.
Roasting tends to be a very long and low heat cooking done over 6-8 hours usually with thick meat cuts like turkeys or hams or chicken in a covered pan. This makes the meat juicy and tender. Baking is just putting something on a flat sheet pan and exposing it to the ovens heat directly for 20-30 minutes to quickly heat it up and crisp it.
Me and a buddy spit roasted this pig last night.
Can’t spit bake ‘em.
When you roast something, you keep it wet. Baking dries things out.
You’ve got them backwards: roasting dries stuff out (think of coffee beans, for instance). Baking does not (think of a cake)
Which is why you have to baste a roast, to keep it wet.
You bake a cake and you roast meat or potatoes. I think its what you cook.
In my owen i cook both with the same heat mode, not from “top” or “bottom”.
Not sure about this. I’ve baked chicken and fish before. I think the temperature also plays a role in which word we use. I think roast implies a hotter temperature. Roasted chicken would have crispy skin and juicy flesh, whereas baked chicken is kind of the same all the way through.
Roast potatoes
I thought roasting implied directional heat?
roast alaska
Roasting Alaska is pretty easy! I mean, Sarah palin came from there…
Roasting means to cook over a flame. Baking means to cook in an oven.
Then why does my oven have both Bake and Roast settings?
Follow up question: Does broil = roast?
Roasting is heat from the top and baking is heat from the bottom I think.
That is broiling.
Are you referring to oven settings?
If so i have no idea and have also wondered this often.
ominouslemon@lemm.ee 1 year ago
So I was curious about the question, so I asked Bing Chat. This was the response:
Baking and roasting are both forms of dry-heat cooking that use hot, dry air to cook food in an oven. However, there are some differences between them, such as: