Imagine this is your electric oven at home with the oven temperature set at 350º. We place a glass of water in the oven set at 350º and watch the water temperature rise until it reaches 212º and begins to boil. It can get no hotter than its boiling temperature of 212º.
We place a turkey in the oven and check its temperature after 3 hours. The breast meat is 165º (the ideal temp), but the hip joint is only 135º which is not done (the done temp for the hip joint is 165º). We continue to cook for 2 more hours and check the temperature. Now
the hip joint is 165º (the done temp) and breast meat is 195º, which is over-done – making the meat dry and tough. The breast meat has
lost 15% of its weight from purge. When the temperature of meat rises, the fiber in the
meat shrinks and purges the natural juices
out, causing meat to become dry and tough.
We modify your oven so that it can hold a vacuum. We connect a small vacuum pump and reduce the pressure in the oven to cause water to boil at 165º. We place a glass of water in the reduced pressure oven (still set at 350º) and watch its temperature rise until it reaches 165º and starts to boil. It cannot get any hotter than 165º, its boiling temperature.
We place a turkey in the reduced pressure oven set at 350º and check its temperature after 3 hours. The breast meat is 165º and hip joint is 135º. The breast meat is done, but the hip joint is not. We continue to cook for 2 more hours and check the temperature again. The hip joint is now done at 165º and the breast meat is
still 165º. It can get no hotter than the boiling temperature of the moisture in the meat. The breast meat did not purge any more juice out after it reached its ideal temperature of 165º.
It remained juicy and tender. However, some moisture did boil out of the skin (1 1/2%), turning it golden crispy brown.
In The Conventional Oven. You set the temperature to 350º and then wait for all the areas of the turkey to get done.
The breast meat always gets done first and then over cooks while waiting for the hip joint to reach its done temperature.
In The Reduced Pressure Oven. If you want the temperature of the meat to be 165º, you lower the boiling temperature to
165º. The breast meat will stay at 165º while waiting for the hip joint to get done. The breast meat remains juicy.
