The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 711

sheet, one side of that sphere will always cook more than
theother.
A spatchcocked chicken, on the other hand, resembles a
cuboid, in which the top surface is skin and most of the
volume is meat.This leads to three end results: First, all of
the skin is exposed to the full heat of the oven the whole
time.There is no skin hiding underneath, no underbelly to
worryabout.Second,thereisampleroomfortherendering
fat to drip out from under the skin and into the pan below.
Thismakesforskinthatendsupthinnerandcrisper.Finally,
allofthatdrippingfatdistributesheatenergyoverthemeat
asitcooks,bothhelpingittocookmoreevenlyandcreating
atemperaturebuffer,protectingthemeatfromdryingout.
Advantage3:ThinnerProfile=FasterCooking
In terms of cooking, a sphere is the least efficient shape—
that is, for a given mass, it’s the shape that’ll take the
longestforheattopenetratethroughtothecenter.Because
ofthis,aregularroastchickencantakeanhourormoreto
cook, a turkey several hours. But with a spatchcocked bird
and its slim profile, you can blast it at 450°F and it’ll cook
through in about half the time. If I added up all the time I
couldhavesavedinThanksgivingspastusingthismethod,I
couldperhaps—dareIsayit—ruletheworld?
Advantage4:It’sEasiertoCarve
Carving a whole chicken can be a tricky affair. Its shape
makes it tough to find an angle where you can get good
leverage, and I usually resort to flip-flopping the bird
aroundafewtimesasIcarveit.Aspatchcockedbird,onthe


other hand, is simple. The legs nearly fall off all on their

own, requiringjust a little tug and a single slice with the
knife.Ratherthanhavingtofliporturnthebirdtogetatthe
wings, the laid-flat breasts expose them to you, making it
easytogetthemoffwithouthavingtoliftthechickenfrom
the board. Even the breasts are easier to remove from the
carcass,asitliescompletelyflatandstillwhileyouwork.
Advantage5:ExtraBones=BetterGravy
It’salwayspossibletomakegravyor“jus”withnothingbut
canned chicken stock and drippings, but gravy is so much
better when you have some real bones and meat to work
with. Normally that means using the neck and giblets to
flavor the broth while the bird roasts.You can still do that.
Butthisway,youcanaddtheentirebird’sbacktothemix,
resultinginafarmoreflavorfulbroth.