Q&A OF THE YEAR
COULD YOU COOK A TURKEY BY DROPPING IT FROM SPACE?
OVEN DECIDED TO BREAK ON CHRISTMAS EVE? DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES
BY DR STUART FARRIMOND
THE QUESTIONS THAT WE’VE BEEN PONDERING IN 2021
ANSWERED BY EXPERTS AND THE BBC SCIENCE FOCUS TEAM
Some 10 million turkeys are eaten every Christmas in the UK alone, yet it is a meat that many of us love to hate. After all, the line between tender succulence and a mouthful of dried sawdust can be wafer thin. Oven roasting, spatchcocking, spit roasting, deep fat frying… each cooking method has its pros and cons. But part of the issue with cooking the perfect turkey is down to the birds themselves.
Since the 1930s, turkeys have ballooned – more than doubling in weight as farmers have bred only the biggest, leanest birds. And because they can be so large and low in fat, the outer meat can be overdone and leathery by the time the middle is cooked. As soon as meat reaches around 65°C, it starts to cook: the proteins unravel and coagulate, or ‘denature’, making the flesh firm and digestible.