Four Easy Tips for a Better Bird, an excerpt from The Science of Good Food by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss, coming out in October of 2008:
The challenge of cooking turkey is keeping it moist and cooking it evenly. Turkey is lower in moisture than other birds, containing only about 58% water.
1. Soaking the bird in brine increases its moisture content by up to 10%. A self-basting turkey is essentially a lightly brined turkey injected with liquid fat, water, and seasonings to flavor and moisten the meat. Brining helps whole birds cook more evenly because it allows …read more