The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 713

POULTRYCOOKINGMETHOD3

(FortheTraditional
Look):TheHOTSTEEL
Say you don’t want to break down your bird for whatever
reason—you prefer the whole-bird presentation, or the
thought of poultry shears makes you squeamish. I get it,
sometimes you just need a different method.Well, here’s a
way in which you can start with a whole bird and end up
withsomethingthatisevenlycookedwithreasonablycrisp
skin, without the need to manhandle it before it enters the
oven.
It does require one piece of specialized equipment: a
pizza steel or stone. Place it on the lower rack of the oven
and allow it to preheat for half an hour with your oven at


full blast. Place the bird on a rack set on a rimmed baking
sheetwiththebreastsfacingup,thenplacethepanontopof
the hot steel or stone. Immediately turn the oven down to
400°F.The retained heat in the steel or stone will give the
legs a head start, and you’ll find that your whole chicken
willcometotherighttemperaturesatprettymuchthesame
time. Pretty easy, right? It won’t crisp up quite as well as a
spatchcocked bird, nor will it cook as fast, but if you want
your bird coming to the table looking like the cover of the
SaturdayEveningPost,it’syourbestbet.

SHOULDIUSETHE
CONVECTIONSETTINGIFMY
OVENHASONE?

A

convectionovenisnothingmorethanaregular

oven with a fan mechanism inside it.The fan forcecirculates air throughout the oven, overriding any
natural convection currents that form through
normal hot and cool zones in a regular oven.What
thismeansisthattheentireovenwillbeheatedtoa
relatively even temperature. The fan also makes
foodcookfasterandcrispbetter.Howso?
In a regular oven, cool zones will naturally form
around foods and in areas that are protected from