Don't buy this book unless you have a self-cleaning oven. The recipes are good, the method produces juicy rare meat, and I've always liked Kafka's opinionated palate. But unless you enjoy cleaning your oven wait until you hire a maid or have a self-cleaning method to rid yourself of the cooked on spatters from this method of roasting. I had a new clean oven, good thermostat, and followed her methods to the letter. I produced juicy meat with crisp skin (chicken) in record time. But the entire oven needs cleaning after each roast. Not fun. If your grill will crank up to 500 and hold that heat for an hour you might be able to make these recipes. Otherwise think twice if you have an ordinary oven. The pan sizes given for various roasts also seem pretty small and tend to drip the fat all over the oven floor.

Great book. For roasting we use our large fireplace insert, during the winter months only, of course. It works great as the inside temp must be something akin to 500 degrees!? With energy prices so high why not use it if you have it. Works great for baking also, but you have to experiment and you have to have a large fireplace insert. Get the fire going good. Let a bed of coals develop. Use a small grate to elevate the cooking pan. Your great great grandma probably cooked like this!
We also have a Traeger smoker which automatically feeds pellets of the chosen wood into a firebox. It has a thermometer and can maintain a set temp up to about 460 in the winter months. You do NOT use this inside the house. Roasted or baked with a hint of smoke flavor....yum! Heck, we even do "take and bake" or homemade pizza on this guy using a pizza stone!
Anyway, this is a useful book. Remember, cooking is as much art as science and be creative!

Perhaps once in a decade there is a book which changes the way we think about cooking. Julia Child's introduction to French cooking did this in the 1960's and started culinary revolution in the United States that still rages. This book's influence may not be quite so profound, but it will forever change the way we think about roasting meats and vegetables. Or at least it ought to do so.

Kafka's implicit thesis is that it is the browning of meat and vegetables that imbues each with the rich 'meaty' flavor we love dearly. Most recipes for roasted meats fail to get the surface temperature high enough to cause browning. This means that almost every recipe for roasting chunks of meat at 350 F cheats both chef and diner. The solution to the problem is to crank up the temperature.

In my own oven, following Kafka's instructions will inevitably set off six smoke detectors, fog the house in thick smoke, and dispatch the local fire company. This is not how I wish to spend my mealtimes; for there is never enough food in the oven to feed them all. So I have adapted one or two recipes from this book. And in any month I will treat myself several times to a perfectly roasted chicken using one of these. (Click on my profile to reach the website that will soon have my favorite poultry recipes adapted from this book.)

Do not be put off by the fire alarm problems. Buy the book and try cooking at 425F or 450F instead of 500F. Make sure the bottom of the pan onto which the drippings fall is kept moist by covering it with vegetables of one kind or another during the entirety of the cooking process and that these same vegetables or a rack holds the meat out of the liquid. Do all these things and roasting will become a painless, economical and delicious way to prepare a meal. You will never look back.