Heavens, Tattie, that's quite a recipe. What does the Coke do to the veg? Are they edible when the joint is cooked?

After a bit more than a year of consistent use, I think I've about broken the code on the convection oven in our new stove (cooker). It has certainly taken me long enough.

Baking is easy, since I stick to bread, but roasting has been a bit more of a challenge -- especially chicken, which seems to dry out when the oven is hot enough to produce the crackly skin I like. I had a blinding flash of the obvious the other day and put the battered old pan I use in the barbecue on the bottom rack of the oven and filled it with water, then heated the oven to 375 Fahrenheit with the fan on.

I split a four-pound chicken down the back and flattened it (spatchcocked it), laid it out on a rack in a flat roasting tin, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, thyme and dehydrated garlic. I gave it an hour at 375F, then cranked up the heat to 400F for another ten or fifteen minutes.

Result: perfect chicken, thoroughly cooked in all its parts, even the joints, and with moist, flavourful breast meat. Spatchcocking makes it easy to quarter, so I'm not wrestling with the carving knife and slopping dish gravy all over the table.