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"No they don't, Kenji. They don't think about that all. And it kills me" (high-pitched
laugh)
So let's say that we're going to cook two chicken breast pieces to the exact same internal
temperature, but start them at completely different times, so that we have one that
goes in hot and cooks for a shorter amount of time versus the one thatÉ you know what,
we should weigh them before they go in as well.
So we got 99 grams and 111 grams, one's going to go into a cool pan, and let's pick a final
temperature.
Let me cool this pan quickly because it's already smoking.
So we notice that he likes to live dangerously by pouring water directly into the hot pan
of oil so that it aerosolizes causing third-degree burns. Duly noted!
Okay, what kind of surface temperature do you want to see?
400? At least. 450?
So it's okay to put your hands on the chicken and then stick em back in the salt. Okay,
also noted. Good sanitation procedures.
What's going to live in the salt? Nothing's going to live in the salt at all. I'm just
giving you crap.
I think the interesting thing's going to be if we cook them both to the same doneness,
if we pick a spot center mass, and we decide on a final temperature, 155, is going to be
the comparison of weight of moisture loss. I'm going to hypothesize that there's going
to be more moisture loss out of chicken breast B.
Right, because we're cooking it at a higher temperature the whole time.
Surface to mass ratio. Reading 161 center mass. #2 is of course way down from that.
Da da da da. 78 grams. I'd say it's about 78%, given that we started with basically
100. 99. But it's not exactly. I mean, if you wanna play all loosey goosey with the
facts, that's your business.
78.78% okay. This is primary research, man. We're in Harold McGee territory. Are we close
to the same temperature? Yep.
It's too bad they don't make chicken *** in completely uniform sizes. We're working
on it...We're working on it.
84.68%.
I was guessing that the piece that went into the colder pan would, because of its reduced
surface area, maybe retain more moisture, but indeed there is a relationship between
time and moisture loss. So the piece that went into the hot pan stayed moister.
In order to quantify anything that's going on with your food, you've got to have measurements.
Yes. Now ideally, we would have been measuring time. Right. We didn't. But, not only did
we weigh things, we weighed things digitally, in metric. In metric, yes. And we took careful
temperatures, not only of the pan, but of the food, so we've got three data points.
But this is still a pretty big trend. 84.68% vs 78.78%. Yeah, that's not insignificant.
Lunch! Lunch is up. This is enough to feed like six girls from New York.
Well, it's impossible to say without bias, because I know that this one lost more moisture,
but... I note it no difference whatsoever. No? So
what we've learned is that it freaking doesn't matter.
Start with a good bird and don't mess it up? Here's the other thing. Food tastes better
when you're hungry. And meat is more tender when you're hungry because you produce more
saliva. As Cervantes said, hunger is the best sauce.