It only takes one time of preparing a roast to find that you have to have your seasonings, rubs, and what have you ready before your hands are all dirty from handling raw meat. It's simply a pain to wash, say, a chicken only to find that the salt and pepper are still in the cabinets and your hands are slimy. Here's what we do to get things prepped before our hands are dirty:

We put everything we're going to need in sake cups. When we roasted a chicken the other night, we put salt and pepper into one sake cup and olive oil into another. Next, we chunked up vegetables for the "bed" of the roasting pan. Then we washed and dried the chicken and placed it on top of the vegetables. When we were ready to rub olive oil, salt and pepper on the chicken, everything was right there handy.

Why do we use sake cups? For one, they're small. Just big enough to hold what we need. But here's the detail we really love: Our sake cups have litttle finger indentations in their sides to make them easier to grip with slimy chicken hands. No slips or spills here.

How do you handle messy hands when preparing a roast? Any steps that eliminate mess that you'd like to share?

Related: Small-Scale Entertaining: A Roast Chicken Dinner

(Image: Regina Yunghans)