On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 316

intact, and preserve its leatheriness A crisp skin is easier to obtain with a dryprocessed bird — kosher or halal, for example — whose skin hasn’t been plumped with added water (p 143) It also helps to let the bird air-dry uncovered in the refrigerator for a day or two, and to oil the skin before roasting (Oiling improves heat transfer from hot oven air to moist meat.) The cooked bird should be served promptly, since crisp skin quickly reabsorbs moisture from the hot meat beneath, and becomes flabby as it sits on the plate For some purposes, meats may be partly precooked at a relatively low oil temperature, and then cooked through and browned at a higher temperature just before serving Fastfood fried chicken is prepared in special pressure cookers (p 785), which fry at the usual oil temperatures, but raise the boiling point of water, so that less of the moisture in the meat vaporizes during the cooking The result is more rapid cooking (less cooling by evaporation) and moister meat The Searing Question The best-known explanation of a cooking method is probably this catchy phrase: “Sear the meat to seal in the juices.” The eminent German chemist Justus von Liebig came up with this idea around 1850 It was disproved a few decades later Yet this myth lives on, even among professional cooks Before Liebig, most cooks in Europe cooked roasts through at some distance from the fire, or protected by a layer of greased paper, and then browned them quickly at the end Juice retention was not a concern But Liebig thought that the water-soluble components of meat were nutritionally important, so it was worth minimizing their loss In his book .. .the meat vaporizes during the cooking The result is more rapid cooking (less cooling by evaporation) and moister meat The Searing Question The best-known explanation of a cooking... “Sear the meat to seal in the juices.” The eminent German chemist Justus von Liebig came up with this idea around 1850 It was disproved a few decades later Yet this myth lives on, even among professional... professional cooks Before Liebig, most cooks in Europe cooked roasts through at some distance from the fire, or protected by a layer of greased paper, and then browned them quickly at the end