It Was Just an Old Flame

Most of us rarely run our ovens at 450 degrees for more than a short time. When you do, make sure it is clean. A bright flash in the oven midway through cooking this high-temperature pot roast had The Times Test Kitchen staff pretty worried--until we talked to Barbara Kafka, empress of high-temperature roasting. She said she’d run into this problem when testing her “Roasting” book. The culprit: a greasy oven interior that flamed for an instant when it got extremely hot.