Do you find it neccessary to truss chickens for roasting?

[Jenise]

I hardly know a chef who doesn't.

Here's Thomas Keller's take on it (from The French Laundry Cookbook):

Not long after I left Roland Henin's kitchen, I was hired to open a new restaurant in West Palm Beach called the Cobbley Nob. It was my first real executive chef position. I cooked classical French food. I was very proud that I had a repertoire of fifteen different classical potato preparations. I cooked everything in clarified buter. I cooked Lobster Bohemiam--lobster with cream and paprika--which was straight out of FVernand Point's book. But the Cobbly Nob, which was near the jai alai courts, died a uick death, and I learned that the quality of the food does not neccessarily deterine the success of a restaurant.

Fortunately, I found another job not far from there at a restaurant called Cafe du Parc in North Palm Beach where the most important thing I learned was how to truss a chicken.

Is learning to truss a chicken that important? I was alsmost stabbbed because I didn't know. The chef, Pierre, was paying me five or six dollars an hour. It was just him and me, getting ready to open the restaurant for the season. Again, a classical French chef. And there I was, this American kid who thought himof himself as a chef. I'd been a chef. I'd gotten good reviews at the Cobbley Nob.

Pierre told me to truss the chickens. I wasn't going to tell him I didn't know how. I fumbled around. I tied the legs together, like at Thanksgiving--I had no idea what I was doing. Pierre watched me. He couldn't understand. He started screaming at me. How could someone who'd been a chef--I was twenty four at this point; in France a cook learns to truss a chicken before he's old enough to drive--how could I claim to be a chef of anything and not know how to truss a chicken? He became so enraged he threw his knife at me. I don't think he was aiming for my heart, but the knife came close enough.

He maintains that trussing a chicken helps it cook more evenly "as it protects the thinnest part of the breat, the part that is most likely to overcook during roasting. "

No question, Chef Keller knows what he's doing. But I have to admit that I'm not a habitual trusser. I tend to only truss stuffed birds, and I promise you, I'm not serving overcooked white meat or pink thighs.

What's your experience?

Nope, I hardly ever bother. But I am not a chef and don't play one on TV (or the 'Net either).

Just realized that I never truss it for smoking, so (duh) why truss it for roasting?

He maintains that trussing a chicken helps it cook more evenly "as it protects the thinnest part of the breat, the part that is most likely to overcook during roasting. "

Some people can get away with saying anything!! I have never heard of this, nor have I experienced it. I don't truss, and my chickens are always moist and well done!

Nope, not a trusser, and haven't had too many complaints about my roasted chickens. I read a long time ago that it makes no difference what-so-ever. Not sure who wrote that but I'm thinking it may have been the late Laurie Colwin. (I miss her.)

I'm a trusser. Whether in the oven or on the rotisserie where I happen to cook 80% of my chicken.
BP

[Robin Garr]

I'm generally a follower of a third, less-traveled road: I almost invariably split birds down the back, butterfly and flatten them and roast like that. I think this procedure basically solves all the problems that trussing would address, and results in a tender, juicy bird with crisp skin. What's not to like? Stuffing, if needed for the holiday, should really be done separately anyway, if at all.

In my younger days, learning to be a gormay cook from Julia and James and Craig and Pierre and most of all Marcella, I tried trussing and I tried not. I could never see a difference.

I think it's tradition, and only tradition, and I say the heck with it.

Jenise, I never, ever truss a chicken. They lie, lie, lie.



rwj

If I admit I laughed, Robert, will that only encourage you?

Robin, a cooking pal of mine always butterflies too. I think I'll try it next time.

I guess I'll be contrary as usual—I always truss chickens for roasting.

Here's Thomas Keller's take ... Pierre watched me. He couldn't understand. He started screaming at me. How could someone who'd been a chef--I was twenty four at this point; in France a cook learns to truss a chicken before he's old enough to drive--how could I claim to be a chef of anything and not know how to truss a chicken? He became so enraged he threw his knife at me. ...

Here incidentally we see a classic European master-apprentice relationship at work. (US TV-chef Tell Erhardt, 1980, writing of his 1950s apprenticeship to a chef in Germany: The bastard ... he beat me, he kicked me ... BUT he did teach me to like onions.)

The presumption that you always truss is something I've run into in French cookbooks. (Along with phrases like "cut up the chicken in the approved manner" and deliberate omission of Asian recipes -- now popular in Europe -- on the basis that they were "not to European taste" -- Escoffier, early 20th c.) Iconoclasts though, among recent professional cooks who write, argue that trussing is part habit and mostly for appearance. I agree, I've done it but I mostly omit it now -- and the birds come out with legs pointing in various directions. (Though it seems mild once you've witnessed people arm bird-shaped sugar-foam "Peeps" with toothpick swords and cause them to "joust," facing each other inside a running microwave oven, which distorts them in earnest and is very funny if you've never seen it before. Especially after a convivial wine tasting.)

I'm generally a follower of a third, less-traveled road: I almost invariably split birds down the back, butterfly and flatten them and roast like that. I think this procedure basically solves all the problems that trussing would address, and results in a tender, juicy bird with crisp skin. What's not to like? Stuffing, if needed for the holiday, should really be done separately anyway, if at all.

So Robin, do you cook these (sorta) spatchcocked chickens skin side down or up? or do you roll them over half way through cooking? Also, do you cook them direct over the coals, or indirect between two mounds of coals? Or do you do this somehow in the oven?

We've done the split and butterfly bit with turkey. It cooks much quicker that way. Picked up a neat recipe in, of all places, Wine Spectator a few years back.

[Robin Garr]

So Robin, do you cook these (sorta) spatchcocked chickens skin side down or up? or do you roll them over half way through cooking? Also, do you cook them direct over the coals, or indirect between two mounds of coals? Or do you do this somehow in the oven?

Bob, I tend to cook indoors more than char-grill, but if I were to grill the butterflied bird, I'd sear it quickly on both sides over direct heat - just long enough to crisp and brown but not to burn, maybe two minutes per side or less; then move it to indirect heat and finish it skin-side up, mostly.

It really varies, because I roast chicken fairly often and don't always do it the same way. In the oven, though, I'll usually start it skin-side up at high temp, let it sear, then reduce heat, turn it over for a while, and turn it one more time to finish skin side up.

Sometimes I'll pull it and quarter it, then finish the four pieces in the oven or over coals as the case may be. And sometimes not. Sometimes shove garlic, fresh herbs or other aromatics under the breast skin, sometimes not. Usually smear it with olive oil or butter before roasting, sometimes not. Usually dust it with S&P or spice, but sometimes ... well, you get the idea.

Jenise,

The chickens we roast here in Cincinnati are mostly dead when we get them. Consequently, we don't feel it is necessary to truss them. So far, it has worked.....not one has escaped from the roasting pan or the oven.

I'll post again if that changes.

Robin, I frequently use your butterflying method when I cook a chicken on the grill, but I actually cut the bird in half completely. I have found that if I put the two halves up on the grill's top shelf and adjust the grill to medium heat they get beautiful brown crispy skin all over and don't really have to be tended to. They cook perfectly in about an hour. I guess it has something to do with the heat rising that the tops of the chicken (skin side up) get so brown that way.

[Jenise]

Robin, I frequently use your butterflying method when I cook a chicken on the grill, but I actually cut the bird in half completely. I have found that if I put the two halves up on the grill's top shelf and adjust the grill to medium heat they get beautiful brown crispy skin all over and don't really have to be tended to. They cook perfectly in about an hour. I guess it has something to do with the heat rising that the tops of the chicken (skin side up) get so brown that way.

Carrie, I don't know if you brine/marinate your chicken at all, but sometime try an 8-10 hour brine of apple juice, wine and herbs (for additional flavor). The sugars in the juice will turn that skin an incredible mahogany color.

[Jenise]

Jenise,

not one has escaped from the roasting pan or the oven.

LOL, Mike. Well, looks like I have a lot of company in the not-trussing department (again, except when I stuff them), though Peter I was pretty certain how you would answer, and I admire your commitment to classic technique.

Sometimes. But sometimes I butterfly; sometimes I vertically roast.

Depends. If I vertically roast for just the two of us, I don't bother. I love those crisp wings which are a result of not binding to the side of the chicken. In fact, I love my chicken really crispy on the outside. If we are having company, I will tie the wings in and the legs together. It just looks prettier coming out of the oven or off the grill. And, I never know if another wing lover will want those crisp wings.

I always truss my turkeys, because I stuff the inside with lemons, onions, garlic, sometimes apple and celery. The bird just seems to look nicer during the "coming out" party. My personal preference is NOT to truss.

Whilwe I used to enjoy tying up the odd bird in my distant youth.... I do not truss chickens and have never seen any deleterious effect as a result.