12 Days of Christmas
Around the Holidays one of the foods that always gets recognition is Turkey. Yet how does raw food become a delicious holiday treat? How can we maximize the best cooking conditions for our turkey this Christmas!
To begin we first have to have some understanding of what turkey is. By weight raw turkey is approximately 74% water, 25% protein and 1% fat meaning that by far the bulk of our cooking weight is going to be protein and water.
Part of what makes turkey so difficult to cook to perfect is known as the square-cube-law which effectively states that as an object grows uniformly, volume will increase at greater speed than surface area.
What this means for the science of cooking our turkey is that as the size of the turkey increases, ensuring that the heat reaches the inside becomes progressively more difficult. This is essential as the heat reaching the centre of the turkey will denature the proteins.
Cooking the protein of the turkey is chemically known as protein denaturing and occurs as the heat causes proteins to unwind and break down. Water is forced out as collagen, one protein common in muscles as a structural component, shrinks. The water that is forced out of the collagen and other proteins is what eventually becomes the flavorful juice of the meat. Another challenge of turkey is that near the end of cooking the juice near the outside of the turkey can evaporate; that evaporation is why the turkey can taste dry and bland when overcooked.
Between the two problems there exists a delicate balance, ensuring heat reaches the centre of the turkey is vital in ensuring the meant cooks. But allow the turkey to cook too long, or in too high a temperature and evaporation causes dry bland meat.
Like a reaction finding equilibrium it is only when both these problems have been tackled, and the meal has been appropriately seasoned, that you can enjoy a delicious christmas meal.
Happy Holidays we hope you have a better Christmas eve knowing a little bit more about science!
References
The Good One. (Unknown). The Science of Cooking Turkey. Good-One Smokers. Retrieved December 22, 2021, from https://thegood-one.com/content/uploads/2013/10/The-Science-of-Cooking-Turkey.pdf
Ruebush, J., & Fisk, R. (2018, Febuary 13). Cooking a Turkey. Taylor and Francis Online. Retrieved December 22, 2021, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0025570X.1980.11976862?journalCode=umma20
Stefan’s Gourmet Blog. (2016, October 22). Understanding What Happens To Meat When You Cook It, Part 1: Juiciness. Stefan’s Gourmet Blog. Retrieved December 22, 2021, from https://stefangourmet.com/2016/10/22/understanding-what-happens-to-meat-when-you-cook-it-part-1-juiciness/
