SC - My Feast 2nd Course

[Jehan Yves <robmay@home.com>]

The perception of many people is that if it's not *really* done, it's not
"done". 

I once did ducks for a feast. The thermometer read within the "done" range
(160-165 degrees for medium-rare to medium), the legs were pretty much
falling out of their sockets, the juices were running clear. Know what? I
got complaints about them not being done. It seems that a duck can be
*quite* red near the joints when it's done. Sometimes chicken can be, too.
Pork can have clear juices and be up to temp, and still look a little pink,
too. 

I think it's important to consider that sometimes it's the perception of the
people who are eating. Not always - I've gotten meat that I didn't consider
done, too - but sometimes. The USDA says, "The color of cooked meat and
poultry is not always a sure sign of its degree of doneness." (See
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/pinkturk.htm for more information.) But
people are so terrified of undercooked poultry that they won't touch it if
it looks the least bit undercooked. (I think that the Thanksgiving turkey is
one of the worst victims of "poultry-fear".) 

Maybe some cooks will fail to check more than one bird, or over-fill pans,
but I think it's more likely that people today are just instilled with fear
about everything they put into their mouth! Let's worry more about
cross-contamination of ingredients and proper dish- and handwashing in the
kitchen; I think we'd have a lot fewer problems.  

Maredudd

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Eisenstein [mailto:alban at delphi.com]
> Sent: Thursday, February 08, 2001 16:15
> To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
> Subject: Re: SC - alcohol revisited
> 
> 
> >Olwen the Odd wrote:
> >> 
> >> The funny(?) thing about rare chickens (and other things) 
> is that most of
> >> the cooks have one of those handy instant temp 
> thermometers that they pop
> >> right into the bird.  
> Thermometers? for chickens? Whatever happened to the 
> move-the-leg-and-if-it's
> -loose-then-it's-almost-done trick? Or the 
> prick-the-breast-and-if-the-juices-run-clear-
> it's-done test?
> 
> sheesh! All these new cooks running around, and no-one passes 
> along the tricks
> of the trade!
> 
> <grin>
> 
> Alban
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