Man, you should totally try this and report to us.
Also: "The Chicken of Tomorrow" was the title of an MST3K short subject film about... dunh dunh dunh... CHICKEN FARMING IN THE FUTURE. Oh yeah.
I need to do a little Alton Brownery and decide if I want small ball bearings (high surface area to volume ratio will mean better heat transfer) or large ball bearings (will hold heat better and release over time)
Another interesting concept would be Chicken a la
Gage: ram a hot metal pipe into the chicken and bake it from the inside that way -- and then when you eat it change your personality.
EDIT: Alton Brownery implies large ball bearings and some sort of conductive liquid - the result would be
poaching the chicken from the inside. Since the secret to poaching (after the initial higher-than-boiling temperature to kill off bacteria) is to remain at the optimal target temperature for the meat, having large ball bearings searing the inside to kill germs, and then having the cavity filled with a liquid would leave the meat at its target temperature for a slow poach.
EDIT II: The liquid could be blue (food coloring) to dye the meat from the inside. This will require scoring the inside cavity several times as well as poking several small holes from the inside out (the direction is important as we want capillary attraction to pull the blue fluid OUT of the cavity and INTO the meat).
EDIT III: The liquid should probably be blue curacao. The acidity and heat conductivity will help immensely, plus the dying effect should be pretty apparent, and not to mention as the chicken bakes, the curacao's alcohol will evaporate (
out the scoring holes, providing the geysering needed to dye the meat) thus eliminating any strong tastes; something you can't do with another citrusy liquid like Orange Juice. Perhaps a 50/50 curacao/orange juice+blue coloring solution?
EDIT IV: I wonder if we can sear the outside of the chicken and then put it in the microwave (balls, liquid and all). The microwave would have the dual effect of exciting the liquid to a rapid boil for the poach, and superheating the metal balls to provide a long-lasting heat radiation mechanism to keep the meat at target temperature during the post-boil portion of the poach. Plus it involves MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY which is obviously a feature of the future; perfect for TOMORROW CHICKEN. Plus it could be cooked in ten minutes or less (for a whole chicken!) The down side is, the microwave time has to be calculated fairly well or people will die. Good for exhibition cooking, but we'd probably want to stick to standard heat sources for day to day stuff.
god damn it alton where are you when we need you
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Topic: Tomorrow: Chicken! (Read 4844 times)