Roast dinners are a British institution. Sunday's simply wouldn't be the same without the smell of meat cooking away in the oven all morning and sitting down to a meal sometime in the afternoon that consists of roast meat, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing, roast parsnips and vegetables all topped off with a lovely thick gravy.

This is the way British family life works on a Sunday. The family sit down to their roast dinner and then proceed to spend the afternoon sleeping it off. It has even become the standard fare for celebrating Christmas. But how to get the best from it?

Roast dinners are, essentially, pretty easy to cook. However, a huge difference can be made to the flavour of the meat when you take time to consider the perfect way to cook it. It's not the cheapest way to eat these days so you may as well get the best out of it.

Many people just wrap a joint or chicken or turkey up in foil and throw it in the oven until it looks cooked. However, this can lead to very dry, flavourless meat. The best option is to use a rotisserie. Many modern ovens come equipped with rotisseries these days yet not nearly enough people use them.

Rotisseries are far from being a fancy gadget to add expense to an oven. They are, in fact, a very healthy way to cook meat.

Skewer your chosen meat onto your rotisserie and baste with your chosen coating. This can be one purchased from a shop or alternatively, there are many recipes to be found on the internet for full flavour rotisserie additions. You could also make one of your own if you are that way inclined.

Basting can be done at regular intervals throughout the cooking process. However, even if you choose not to add any extra flavouring, rotisserie cooking is still the best way to go. The meat will be cooked evenly to perfection with no dry spots. It will also be much healthier as it will not be sitting in fat.
Juices from the meat will drip out and away from it to ensure you get the most tender, healthy piece of meat you could wish to serve your family.

For those who like a bit of an outer crust to their meat, simply increase the temperature of the rotisserie oven for the first fifteen minutes. This will seal the outside, forming a traditional crust and seal in all the flavours of the meat.

If your rotisserie comes with a choice of cooking fuel, then charcoal is a very good idea. You can chose to smoke herbs on the coals which will gently infuse a particular flavour into your meat as well as giving off a wonderful aroma. There are the obvious options like smoking rosemary whilst cooking lamb on a rotisserie but you can play around with anything you fancy and find your own unique combinations.

The rest of the roast dinner can e prepared in the usual fashion but use a rotisserie for your meat and you will be gaining Brownie points all over the place along with a reputation for the best roast meat in town!