How To Cook Poultry : Basic Tips
Poultry meat can be broken into three categories: red meat, white meat and giblets, each of which is treated differently when cooked, baked, grilled, or whatever is your preferred method, in this article I give you my advices to cook the most common types of poultry :)
The ‘red’ meat is the working muscles of the bird, the legs and wings, which produce
a tough, fibrous, dark meat better suited to long, slow cooking (although nothing like the
cooking times required for tough red meat from beef or lamb). Having said that, leg meat
with sinew and gristle removed is tender enough to stir-fry, sauté, barbecue or bake to
shred for sandwiches. The red meat is considered to have more flavour than the white meat—the source of many arguments over the drumstick of a roasted bird.
The ‘white’ meat is the breast of the bird. In chicken and turkey, it is white and
delicate; it must be cooked through, but overcooking will render it dry and tough. The
‘white’ meat of game birds isn’t really considered white meat at all and can be treated like
a beef steak, in that it is best served rare to medium rare. (Asking for the breast of game
to be cooked well done in a restaurant is frowned upon as much as a well-done steak.)
Giblets are the heart, liver and gizzards of poultry. Often sautéed, grilled, fried or
used to make gravy, they can also be steamed or simmered and then ground into a stuffing.
When chicken and turkey—whether whole or as pieces—are cooked perfectly, the juices
will run clear rather than cloudy-white or pink.
As chicken and turkey are soft proteins, they prefer gentle rather than fierce cooking
methods. This allows the proteins to set rather than having them contract too fast and force
out valuable juices.
Skin off versus skin on?
The skin tends to be the fattiest part of poultry so does little for the waistline, which is why it is often recommended to buy skinless chicken breasts. On the other hand, the skin is poultry’s built-in basting mechanism. So, although it takes a little more self-control, I recommend that you buy chicken breast and cook it with the skin on, letting the fat from the skin render, basting the lean white meat beneath, then remove the skin before eating the succulent meat. (This method doesn’t work with poaching and steaming.)
Cooking a whole bird
Preparation— remove any bits and fat left inside the carcass. Rinse in cold running water
and then pat dry, inside and out, with a lint-free towel (paper towel, especially cheap
ones, can leave paper fibres on the meat). If stuffing the cavity, remember not to pack it in
too tight because the mixture expands as it cooks.
Cooking times— when roasting whole birds, the breast will cook faster than the legs. (If
you want to avoid this, try packing a stuffing between the breast skin and breast or cutting
2–3 lines into the leg muscles to allow heat to penetrate.) And a stuffed bird will take
a little longer than one without stuffing because it takes longer for the heat to penetrate
to the centre. Allow 2 minutes resting time per kilogram before you carve the beast, and
remove the wishbone for easy carving. (Hang the wishbone out to dry for the kids to fight
over—the smart child will have figured out that whoever keeps their little finger above their
opponent’s will always win.)
Types of poultry
Battery hen is a term for a practice that will one day end. This barbaric method of
supplying eggs to meet high demand is appalling, and you need only witness the conditions
under which these eggs have been produced to change the way you eat. Once these chickens are deemed useless as productive layers (their lifespan is no more than 18 months), they are transported, bruised and broken-boned, to a slaughterhouse, where their calcium-deficient,
toxin-infused, pathetic excuse for a carcass is transformed into food such as pies, loaves,
soups, pet food and other chicken by-products that conceal the true state of the battery
chickens’ flesh and miserable lives. That’s why you should buy only certified free-range or
organic eggs—and here endeth the lesson.
Boiler hen (or stewing hen in the US) is a tough-fleshed hen reserved for stocks, pies, broth and—if desperate—picked over for chicken salad or sandwiches. Not for roasting, the hen needs to be cooked or boiled for several hours. The flavour of boiler chicken is strong and the flesh firm, making for an ideal stock.
Broiler hen is a US term for a meat-producing hen (as opposed to an egg-producing one); also marketed as ‘fryers’. A broiler’s genetic make-up means it is inappropriate as an egg layer. The broiler is slaughtered at about 6–7 weeks.
Capon is a surgically neutered rooster, slaughtered at 10–12 weeks. It has a heavier carcass than ordinary chicken, yielding lighter, generous amounts of white flesh and is sold
particularly for roasting.
particularly for roasting.
Cockscomb is the often red, fleshy excrescence found on the head of roosters and other poultry. It is traditionally served in France as a garnish or a small entrée. Not likely to make a comeback because of their scarcity apart from anything else—you’ll have more fun with a bag of parson’s nose.
Corn-fed chicken is a label that is occasionally abused. In many cases, it has been shown that no more than 50 per cent of the hens’ feed has included corn or maize during the fattening stage. The best corn-fed chickens are also free-range, fed on a diet of corn and
corn gluten meal (70 per cent) and soy bean meal (15–20 per cent) with the remainder made up of salts, vitamins and minerals. The resulting chicken is plump, meaty and has a yellow tinge, not just on the skin, but also to the flesh. This yellow pigmentation is derived from the natural yellow colouring in corn called ‘xanthophyll’.
Duck in most Western countries is still the meat we go out for. Due to a high fat-to-meat ratio and the expense compared to chicken, duck has struggled to adorn domestic kitchen tables. Duck is processed from 6–15 weeks of age, depending on the breed. Most duck available to the public is the Pekin or Peking duck (this is the name of the breed as well
as the famous dish). For a stronger game flavour, try to source the big-scented Muscovy duck. Duck’s web (the membrane between its webbed toes) is up there with chicken feet and cockscomb when it comes to challenging ingredients.
Free-range chicken is a marketing term that should be broken into two groups for the
consumer. For a chicken to be free-range, at least half its life must be spent outside.
‘Traditional free-range’ requires greater access to outside living, fewer chickens in the space and a higher minimum age at slaughter. Then there is ‘free-range total freedom’: similar to traditional but with no restrictions to daytime open-air living. Be rightfully suspicious of labels such as ‘farm fresh’ and ‘country fresh’; these do not guarantee free-range conditions.
Game bird is generally what you enjoy on your travels through Europe, and is not quite
the same elsewhere. These are wild birds such as grouse, woodcock, partridge, guinea fowl,
snipe and pheasant. Some species, especially quail and pheasant, are now being farmed. When buying quality game birds, look for these points: the beak should break easily, the breast plumage ought to be soft and the breast plump, and the quill feathers (those close to the body) should be pointed, not rounded. Most game birds are hung before cooking to mature and tenderise the meat and develop flavour. Hanging is a matter of taste, however, as some people find that hung or ‘high’ meat has an overly strong gamey smell and flavour. Game meat sold in supermarkets usually has a milder flavour. Quail are too small and gain nothing from hanging, so consume immediately. When cooking game birds, follow a good recipe. Keep ‘medium-rare’ in mind and you’re off to a good start: The lean meat from game birds (including flightless birds such as emus and ostrich) can be dry and nasty if overcooked.
Goose usually only appears, if ever, at the Christmas table alongside many other meats.
Geese are processed at about 20 weeks old and usually only two or three times a year (young geese or gosling are favoured over mature birds as their meat is more tender). The flavour is similar to duck, although wild geese are gamier. Roasting goose is similar to cooking duck, as geese also store plenty of fat under the skin. Season the goose inside and out with sea salt and pepper. Roast at 210°C for 20 minutes, reduce the heat to 180°C and cook for a further 30 minutes per kilogram or 45 minutes per kilo if stuffed. Drain the fat every 20 minutes. When cooled, you can store the fat in the fridge for future use in roasts or casseroles.
Grain-fed chicken is fed on a blend of wheat, corn and sometimes barley, which makes up
about 70 per cent of its feed. The other 30 per cent is made up of mainly protein, such as
soy bean or occasionally canola or fish meal, as well as vitamins and minerals.
Male chicken refers to one of the thousands of millions of those cute, fluffy new chickens that were unfortunate enough to be hatched at a commercial egg farm. No sentiment is wasted on these ‘useless’ animals which are either ground up while still alive for fertiliser, gassed or suffocated in bags or containers. This information may have little to do with your cooking, but it will give you something to mull over next time you order sunny-
side-up.
side-up.
Poussin is a chicken that is slaughtered at 21–28 days old. These young chickens are usually reserved for grilling or roasting and can be served as an individual portion.
Spatchcock is another word for poussin that can also describe a method in which it is cooked—butterflied and grilled—which is both quick and easy.
Pullet is a female chicken under 12 months old. (After that she becomes known as a hen.)
Turkey, like Santa Claus, is recognised only once a year in many countries, with the
exception of the US. Turkey is processed from 4 weeks–10 months old. If cooked properly,
turkey yields succulent, tasty white meat, just as good hot as it is cold. The problem
lies in the fact that unlike, say, roast lamb, that gets a workout several times a year,
turkey is rarely cooked, and the inexperienced cook is scared into overcooking it, thereby
rendering the meat drier than a salted pretzel. Turkey, like chicken, prefers gentle cooking
and its juices will run clear when cooked. Here’s a very rough guide to times for the first-
time turkey roaster: try 30–35 minutes per kg (no stuffing) or 40–45 minutes per kg (with
stuffing) at 170°C. See How to Cook Poultry and Cooking a Whole Bird.
Young roaster is a US term for a broiler-style chicken, generally older and heavier than a broiler, slaughtered at around 10 weeks.
This blog is mainly about chicken cooking recipes, techniques and tips, but I will also publish some other poultry cooking recipes in the future.
Please tell us by commenting about which bird do you prefer and I will publish a recipe to cook you favorite poultry :)
For Further Reading,
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment