In terms of our beef stir fry just heat a wok or frying pan until smoking hot add a drop of oil and stir fry the beef mix for several minutes adding extra vegetables if you wish. Served over noodles or rice it makes a really quick and easy supper. In terms of cookery methods stir-frying needs a higher heat than other methods of frying about the same amount of oil as pan-frying and a deep pan (not necessarily a wok) with plenty of room for the ingredients to keep moving.

Not restricted to an Oriental flavour profile stir-frying is pretty close to saute so the two terms are often used interchangeably. We will always explain the essential differences as the whole business can be confusing enough without ambiguity.

Theoretically, beef olives should be braised so they become really tender but they are also excellent when baked in a sauce; see our recipe for Italian braised beef olives. Browning beef olives first adds flavour and colour to the dish; just cook in a drop of hot oil for a few minutes on either side.

You can cook beef olives without a sauce if you wish and serve with mash and onion gravy for instance. After browning pop them in a shallow dish add a drop of water and cover tightly with foil. Cook in a moderately hot oven (180C/Gas 4) for about half an hour or until the sausage meat is cooked through.

You could also pan-fry them turning down the heat and covering with a lid once browned. Often confused with saute pan-frying is also not to be confused with shallow frying. Pan-frying involves larger pieces of meat say a steak or chicken breast a very small amount of oil and not too much movement. Essentially it has replaced the overhead grill and is a far moister way of cooking meat.

Think of beef ham as a really thin minute steak. Cook beef ham in a smoking hot frying pan with a thin smear of oil. Throw the meat onto the surface of the hot pan and then add salt. Cook for about thirty seconds on one side and then turn. One to two minutes maximum and it is done.

You could pile hot beef ham into a sandwich with plenty of onion sliced gherkin and mayo; perhaps mustard or horseradish. Serve it with fried eggs or a plate of hand-cut home-fried chips. You could remove it from the pan toss in a handful of mushrooms with a good pinch of paprika and add a generous glug of cream. Swirl around put the meat back in and you have a very simple very impromptu Stroganoff.

Use cooking times and temperatures as a guide rather than a fact. Poultry is a natural non-conformist thing so view cooking times as a starting point. If you use a fan oven remember to reduce the heat by 10C. Roast chicken at 200C for 35-45 minutes per kg.

To test for doneness insert a skewer into the widest part of the thigh below and behind the drumstick; the juices should run clear. If you stuff the bird's cavity remember to include this weight in your calculations. A half lemon, onion or bulb of garlic along with a sprig of herbs or a bay leaf is just as good. You can then cook the stuffing separately.

Another way to roast a really moist bird is to cook it upside down even at a slightly lower temperature for a slightly longer time. Stuff with garlic or lemon as suggested and place the bird upside down in the roasting tray. Half an hour before the scheduled time is up turn it the right way up and increase to 200C to brown off the breast. It may look a little misshapen but the payoff is supremely good roast chicken. Use a meat thermometer for complete accuracy; a method far more popular in the domestic kitchen than you may think. The bird should be at 82C to be perfectly cooked. Resting is essential. For all concerned. Left for half an hour the juices redistribute and the fibres relax; easy to carve tender to eat. Don’t worry about it going cold; it will keep itself warm and be all the better for it.

Stew A stew and a casserole are interchangeable; stew being a method and casserole being a pot. For clarity's sake, we can say a stew gets done on the stovetop but a casserole is cooked in the oven. Stewing almost invariably uses small pieces of meat rather than a joint or large cuts.

The liquid covers the ingredients and is served as part of the dish. Most stews have browned ingredients but there are certain instances when they are not. Browning does not seal in flavour juices nutrients or any other such nonsense. It simply adds lots of lovely flavour and a good colour to the final dish. Although you can follow the trend for lean meat the best stews have enough fat and connective tissue to keep them moist and add flavour.

Allow at least 90 minutes for a good stew; low and slow is the way to go. Longer is better so that the liquid can reduce down to something that coats the back of a spoon. And lovingly swathes mashed potato. Essentially other than tenderising the meat it is about reducing the whole lot down until it makes you go weak at the knees.

GRILL
When we say grill nowadays we usually mean either a grill pan that goes onto the hob or a barbecue. Using a grill pan is pretty much the same as pan-frying except that the pan touches the meat in ridges and the fat runs into the grooves.

PAN FRY
Often confused with saute pan-frying is also not to be confused with shallow frying. Pan-frying involves larger pieces of meat say a steak or chicken breast a very small amount of oil and not too much movement. Essentially it has replaced the overhead grill and is a far moister way of cooking meat. You need a hot pan but not searingly hot as pork needs longer than steak. Add a good drop of oil to the hot pan add the meat and then season with salt. Give the chops or steaks about 5 to 7 minutes each side until the juices run clear.

Sausage cooking and therefore eating is often a matter of personal preference. Don't prick your sausages prior to cooking this is just an ancient leftover from the war when sausage was full of water and likely to explode. If you pierce your sausage before cooking all the moisture leaks out. Make sure that sausages are cooked through properly and not at all pink in the middle.

You can fry grill or bake sausages; baking them in the oven is the easiest way and gets them browned all over with a crisp outside. Frying or grilling tends to result in a juicier inside uneven browning and a softer outside; just a matter of preference.

Whichever method you use sausage needs about 15 minutes to cook through; longer in the oven with the indirect heat (about 30 to 40 minutes to crisp up on the outside) Cut the links so that the sausages are separate. That way they can be moved easily and will cook evenly.

Our beef sausage isn't as peppery as many beef sausages. Mild and moreish they go with anything that a pork sausage will. For something different serve with a pile of wet polenta and a rich tomato sauce.

Think of mince not as a separate entity but as the cut of meat that it comes from. Yes because it is broken down it becomes pliable and more tender but that doesn't change the need for educated cooking. Mince from sirloin will cook quickly to make an excellent burger but mince from beef shin will still need long slow cooking to bring out its best side. In the same vein choose the right mince for the job.

Use beef mince because it is beef not because it is mince. To some extent, they can be interchangeable but you would never make a cottage pie with lamb mince or a shepherd's pie with beef. Bolognese though actually suits the soft sweet mince of lamb rather than the more solid aspect of beef. When making a mince dish such as Bolognese do not see it as a quick supper. The best meat sauces are simmered in plenty of water for several hours to make the sauce soft and sensual.

Don't let the rather tarnished reputation of mince put you off. It is a hugely versatile ingredient that is there because it is the best meat for the job not because the butcher had too many offcuts or the mortgage is overdue. Let the recipe and its needs dictate the fat content of the mince; lean and low is not always the way to go. We can always tailor it to suit.

Although burgers grill well on a grill pan or barbecue they really come into their own when pan-fried as they stay lovely and moist. In the US burgers are cooked on the flat top which for all intents and purposes is the same as pan-frying. Once browned they benefit from a cover for a few minutes to steam through stay moist and melt any cheese that you have going on.

Often confused with saute pan-frying is also not to be confused with shallow frying. Pan-frying involves larger pieces of meat say a steak or chicken breast a very small amount of oil and not too much movement. Essentially it has replaced the overhead grill and is a far moister way of cooking meat.

If you treat a burger with as much respect as you would a steak then you will be well rewarded. See steak. It simply cannot be denied that the best way to eat a burger is in a bun. Made of bread. You can, however, stack them up with fillings and no bun or serve with salad like a steak or choose alternative wrappers like our Skinni burger recipe.

Don't be tempted to continuously squeeze all the life from your burger with a spatula. For some reason we just cannot leave a pan well alone; stirring poking and pushing at will. Pressing down on a burger will just push all of the moisture from it and leave you with an old shoe to eat instead of a delicious meaty treat.