The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 710

I’mgonnacomerightoutandsayit:thisisthebestwayto
cook a bird, hands down. It’s now theonly method I ever
use. I understand that some folks like to see a whole bird
arriveatthetablelookinglikeawholebird,butifIhadmy
way,thegospelofspatchcockedbirdswouldspreadaround
theworld.
Tobutterfly(alessfancytermforspatchcock)abird,all
you’vegottodoisuseapairofsharppoultryshearstocut
out the spine, then flatten it, with its skin side up, by
pressingdownfirmlyonthebreastbone.Voilà,that’sit!It’s
a really simple operation that you’ll get the hang of in no
time,anditevenworksforturkeys.


Here’showcookingthebirdworks:Putthebirdskinside
uponaracksetinarimmedbakingsheet.Blastitinahot
oven(I’mtalking450°F),andyou’llfindthat,miraculously,
thebreastwillreach150°Fjustasthelegsreach170°Fand
the skin reaches delicious. No brining, no salting, no
flipping,noproblems.
As I said, you do lose the prettiness of bringing a whole
bird to the table for carving, but you gain the vastly
preferable prettiness of perfectly cooked meat instead, and
that’s a trade-off I’ll take any day. Its advantages are
numerous.
Advantage1:FlatShape=EvenCooking
Butterflying the bird and laying it out flat, with the legs
spreadouttothesides,meansthatwhatwereoncethemost
protected parts of the bird (the thighs and drumsticks) are
now the most exposed. As a result, they cook faster—
preciselywhatyouwantwhenyourgoaliscookingthedark

meattoahighertemperaturethanthelightmeat.
As an added bonus, the bird doesn’t take up nearly as
much vertical space in your oven, which means that if you
wantedto,youcouldevencooktwobirdsatonce.Thisisa
muchbetterstrategyformoistmeatthantryingtocookone
massivebird.
Advantage2:AlltheSkinonTop=JuicierMeatand
CrisperSkin
A regular chicken (or turkey) can be approximated as a
sphere, with the meat on the inside and the skin on the
outside. Because it’s resting on a roasting pan or baking