Even scientists have to prepare an actual meal once in a while instead of eating ramen noodles, stuff out of the vending machine, or whatever they can microwave. Thanksgiving Day in the U.S. is one such time and, true to form, they attack the problem in their own inimitable style as recounted in the following article: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cocktail-party-physics/2011/11/23/a-taste-of-science-for-turkey-day/
Some Tipsters might be familiar with the following method of turkey preparation -- possibly from hanging around the wrong type of faculty on campus (remember: we're people scientists, dammit!) -- which I quote from the article: |My personal favorite recipe for turkey preparation can be found on Cooking for |Engineers: Smoked Beer Can Turkey. Our engineer chef adapted the recipe |from a similar one for chicken, although a turkey is a much larger bird, and |hence a standard 12-oz beer can wouldn’t suffice. What does work is a |“24-oz microkeg shaped can of Heineken.” | |There’s a bunch of preparatory steps outlined in the recipe, but the idea is |that inserting a beer can into the turkey’s derriere provides flavored steam |to the inside of the bird as it cooks, keeping it moist and delicious. | |Our friendly cooking engineer is skeptical that the beer adds flavor to the |meat during the cooking process: “If the beer is giving off steam, then most |of that steam is just going to be water… most of the beer flavor will just be |concentrating in the can.” Nonetheless, he included the beer, along with some |crushed herbs (six chopped bay leaves and two teaspoons of dried thyme), |because hey, it’s all about the principle of the thing. (Emeril, BTW, has |demonstrated beer-brined chicken on his cooking show, which combines |beer-can chicken with the brining process, and in that case the beer really |does impart flavor to the bird.) Besides, any cooking technique that excuses your use of beer while cooking is always a good thing (but be careful if you're deep frying that sucker). I use a beer and olive oil baste during cooking to keep the bird moist. The article also has helpful educational videos on techniques of cooking, my favorites being the first one (with the Three Chefs that was parodied in a South Park episode with John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy, and Jeffrey Dahmer; if you haven't seen it yet, go here but be advised it is not safe for work: http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/155343/the-three-murders-bake-cake ) and the last video clip which is apropos given the current release of the Muppets movie. To everyone who observes U.S. Thanksgiving: Happy Bird Day! -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=14386 or send a blank email to leave-14386-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
