Four Easy Tips for a Better Turkey
Four Easy Tips for a Better Bird, an excerpt from The Science of Good Food by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss, coming out in October of 2008:
The challenge of cooking turkey is keeping it moist and cooking it evenly. Turkey is lower in moisture than other birds, containing only about 58% water.
1. Soaking the bird in brine increases its moisture content by up to 10%. A self-basting turkey is essentially a lightly brined turkey injected with liquid fat, water, and seasonings to flavor and moisten the meat. Brining helps whole birds cook more evenly because it allows the dense legs and thighs to cook through before the tender breasts dry out.
2. You can also cook whole birds more evenly by chilling the breasts with ice packs before cooking so that they don’t overcook before the legs and thighs are done.
3. For roasting, it helps to start the bird breast side down to help shield it from the heat, then turn it breast side up halfway through cooking. On a grill, a vertical roaster keeps the tender breasts farther away from the bottom heat for more even cooking. For the most even doneness using any heat source, it’s easiest to cook poultry in parts rather than as a whole bird.
4. If a bird is stuffed, the stuffing should reach at least 165°F (74°C) to eliminate harmful bacteria. However, by the time the stuffing reaches this temperature, poultry meat is often overcooked and dry. The safest and most flavorful approach is to cook the stuffing separately. To flavor it, spoon some of the drippings from the roasting pan over the stuffing before cooking it.
Thanks to the Lisa Ekus Group for making this piece available)
(photo © istockphoto)
Tags: andrew schloss, david joachim, holiday cooking, turkeyRelated Stories
POSTED IN: Christmas, Thanksgiving
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