The secret to cooking the perfect turkey

Q. I’ve been trying for years to find the ultimate holiday turkey recipe, but I’ve yet to find the best way to cook it. After hours and hours of cooking, I end up with mostly dried-out meat and a centre that barely cooks in time for dinner. What’s the best way to keep a turkey juicy and flavourful?

A. Here’s what science has to say: there’s more than one way to cook a turkey, but one technique in particular has skyrocketed in popularity over the past couple of years. If you don’t know what we’re about to suggest, you’re in for a real treat. Your life is about to change forever — and it’s all thanks to physics. Reader, meet spatchcocking.

Yes, that gloriously butterflied beast is the best bird you could possibly present to your Christmas guests. Let’s explain the science-y goodness behind the method first.

Turkeys are so plump and round that you can basically consider them spheres of raw (often slightly frozen) meat sitting in your oven. That’s a pretty inefficient shape to cook with, because it means the heat must travel the longest journey from its source to the centre of the meat. You’re trying to coax that meat stuck in the centre into being perfectly done, or at least not a potential source of salmonella, while willing the crispy skin of the bird not to burn in the meantime. Plus, you want to make sure all the meat that’s closer to the oven’s heat doesn’t progress into chewy, dried-out overdoneness.

By changing the shape of your bird, you can change the thermodynamic equation. Spatchcocking starts with the tearing out of an

avian spinal column and ends with a bird that’s relatively thin and flat — a much better shape for efficient cooking than a big old sphere o’ bird.

Food scientist J. Kenji López-Alt explained why the shape is so ideal in an article for Digg last year. “First, all of the skin is exposed to the full heat of the oven the whole time. There is no skin hiding underneath, no underbelly to worry about,” he wrote. “Second, there is ample room for the rendering fat to drip out from under the skin and into the pan below. This makes for skin that ends up thinner and crisper. Finally, all of that dripping fat distributes heat energy over the meat as it cooks, both helping it to cook more evenly and creating a temperature buffer, protecting the meat from drying out.”

We’ll let Martha Stewart guide you through the process of pounding your poultry into submission, but don’t let her intimidate you. We’ve accomplished the feat several times using nothing more than a pair of kitchen shears, a decent serrated knife, and sheer moxie.

Once the gruesome task is complete, the magic begins. If stuffing is your thing, just throw it under your bird. Then pop that flattened fowl into a 450 F oven and blast it for 80 minutes. Yes, 80 minutes.

In addition to super speedy cook time, the spatchcocking method will subject more of your bird’s skin to the Maillard reaction — a delicious way that sugars and amino acids react with one another when conditions are hot and dry to create a savoury flavour.

A spatchcocked bird will have less of its surface area sitting in a puddle of drippings, which prevents the delicious chemical reaction from occurring.

And by cooking the bird hot but fast — something that’s only possible because of its slim profile — you get the benefits of the Maillard reaction without suffering dried, overcooked meat because of the high temperature of the oven.