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News-Sentinel.com Your Town. Your Voice.
Opening Arguments

Room temperature

For the "learning something new every day" file:

Why is it so challenging to properly roast a turkey?

"The basic problem is that you have two very different kinds of meat, which you want to cook to different temperatures," said McGee, who likes dark meat best at around 165 degrees and the breast meat cooked to 150 degrees. "What I like to do to acheive that is to set the turkey on the counter an hour before cooking and let the legs warm up to room temperature, but put Ziplock bags of crushed ice on the breast to keep the breast cold. The bird goes into the oven and the legs are warmer than the breast, so they're finished at the same time."

Genius!

There are things waiting to be learned lurking everywhere. After years of enjoying red wine, I finally learned the best way to drink it, from The Journal Gazette's Saturday wine column, and it's not at room temperature. You put it your glass of wine into the refrigerator until it chills slightly; about 15 to 20 minutes seems to be about right. Then, as you drink it, the heat from your hand gradually warms the wine up to room temperature. As it gets there, you get the benefit of a whole range of taste complexities you'd never discover if you just start out at room temperature.

Posted in: Food and Drink

Comments

tim zank
Mon, 11/22/2010 - 12:04pm

Leo, In r/e the red wine, wouldn't it be easier to just take the box out of the fridge and leave it on the counter for an hour before imbibing?
heh heh heh...sorry couldn't resist..Happy Thanksgiving!

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