**DONOTDELETE**
12-20-2001, 01:57 PM
Pros offer tips for a moist bird
By JUDITH WEINRAUB
Copyright 2001 Washington Post
Consider how a handful of respected chefs and food scientists use very different approaches to produce succulent, safe birds. (We told you there were more ways than one to get that turkey properly cooked.)
Galileo chef-owner Roberto Donna of Washington solves the problem of white meat cooking faster than dark meat by removing the breast from the turkey carcass once the breast is cooked, and returning the rest of the turkey to the oven. (He checks that with a two-pronged fork in the breast near where it joins the wing. If the fork is hot, and the turkey juice is clear, the breast meat is cooked.) "By the time you let the breast sit, and then slice it," he says, "the legs are almost done."
At Washington's The Oval Room, chef Frank Morales reverses that process. To avoid overcooking the breast, he removes the turkey legs and part of the back, roasts them separately from the rest of the bird, but then serves the white and dark meat together on the plate. Before roasting, Morales brines the turkey twice, first overnight, "to draw out the blood," he says. "The salt extracts some of the blood and injects more flavor and moisture." Then he throws out that brine, and submerges the turkey in a second, shorter apple-cider brine, "to inject a flavorful liquid in place of the blood."
More tips, click here... (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/holidays/1132945)
By JUDITH WEINRAUB
Copyright 2001 Washington Post
Consider how a handful of respected chefs and food scientists use very different approaches to produce succulent, safe birds. (We told you there were more ways than one to get that turkey properly cooked.)
Galileo chef-owner Roberto Donna of Washington solves the problem of white meat cooking faster than dark meat by removing the breast from the turkey carcass once the breast is cooked, and returning the rest of the turkey to the oven. (He checks that with a two-pronged fork in the breast near where it joins the wing. If the fork is hot, and the turkey juice is clear, the breast meat is cooked.) "By the time you let the breast sit, and then slice it," he says, "the legs are almost done."
At Washington's The Oval Room, chef Frank Morales reverses that process. To avoid overcooking the breast, he removes the turkey legs and part of the back, roasts them separately from the rest of the bird, but then serves the white and dark meat together on the plate. Before roasting, Morales brines the turkey twice, first overnight, "to draw out the blood," he says. "The salt extracts some of the blood and injects more flavor and moisture." Then he throws out that brine, and submerges the turkey in a second, shorter apple-cider brine, "to inject a flavorful liquid in place of the blood."
More tips, click here... (http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/holidays/1132945)