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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nHave you ever cooked a perfect\nturkey? Were the breasts moist and tender and the leg completely cooked?\nChances are, not always. Why is it so hard to get the dark meat cooked\nperfectly without over cooking the white meat? The reason is that a turkey is\nactually two distinctly different kinds of meat. The breast meat is very\ndifferent from the leg, thigh and wing meat. This can create a real challenge when\nit comes to cooking the perfect bird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The make-up of a turkey: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the biochemical level a\nturkey is a combination of approximately 3 parts water to one-part fat and one-part\nprotein. Most of the meat comes from muscle fibers in the turkey, which are\nmostly proteins – notably myosin<\/strong> and actin<\/strong>. Because turkeys rarely fly but\nrather walk, they contain far more fat in their legs than in their breast,\nwhich results in the strong differences in texture between these sections of\nthe bird – and the difficulty in making sure that all portions of the bird are\nproperly heated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The science of cooking a\nturkey: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you cook the turkey, muscle\nfibers contract until they begin to break up at around 180 degrees Fahrenheit.\nBonds within the molecules begin to break down, causing proteins to unravel,\nand the dense muscle meat to become tenderer. Collagen in the bird (one of\nthree protein fibers that attach muscles to the bone) breaks down into softer\ngelatin molecules as it unwinds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The dryness of a turkey is a\nresult of muscle proteins coagulating within the meat, which can result if it\nis cooked too long. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Temperature differentials in\ncooking a turkey: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Part of the problem, as\ndescribed above, is that the different nature of the light and dark meat in a\nturkey results in different rates to reach the coagulation of the muscle\nproteins. If you cook it too long, the breast meat has coagulated; if you don’t\ncook the bird long enough, the dark meat is still tough and chewy. Harold\nMcGee, a food science writer, indicates aiming for 155 – 160 degrees Fahrenheit\nin the breast), but you want 180 degrees or above in the leg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n White Turkey Meat <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Dark Turkey Meat <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Smoked Turkey <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Smoked turkey has a different color and texture than oven roasted turkey. The meat may appear pink and have a smoother texture. This is normal. The smoking process causes a chemical change in turkey that changes the color of the flesh. If the turkey registers a temperature of 165 degrees F. it is safe to eat no matter the color. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This requires a cooking time: <\/p>\n\n\n\n