Trussing and Carving

Greetings!!! It's Jan Smelk here, doing a guest spot here on the old Some Assembly Blog! I'm stopping in to cover the two things I learned today...trussing a chicken and carving a chicken. Oh yeah, I also learned something else: that Julia Childs loves her some butter.

Ok, to truss a chicken for roasting, one must find a huge mattress needle. Now, in a quick Google search these things are impossible to find. Some bizarre company in New Jersey has them for sale but I cannot for the life of me find a price. Anywho, we used a regular big needle and it was not big enough. But the basic idea is to keep the chicken as contained as possible to keep in the moisture. So you need to sew a loop through the bottom end of the bird, tying the drumstick ends together and closing the hole. Not too hard. Then, you need the BIG needle. The next string should go all the way through the body behind the drumsticks and catch both wings and any extra neck skin, closing the top opening. This is much more difficult. Making sure you have both portions of the wings sewn in was my problem, but I think if i had a big needle I could have done it. With the small needle I could only catch the surface skin on the bottom of Mr. Poultry, not go entirely through the whole carcass, so my tie was much looser. This explanation is in desperate need of a diagram, so I refer you to Julia's in her book. Or trash the needle idea and do it this much easier way: http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--385/trussing-a-chicken.asp
^^^^Hey CCA! We need to Google more often! DUH!

Because, thanks to Google, I got to watch my new friend, Scott Hargrove from Denver who makes little youtube videos about cooking, carve a chicken correctly. He taught me to use a carving knife, not a chef's knife and to start at the drumsticks. Take off those guys with the thighs, aiming the knife for the joint. The wings are next and that joint is a little deeper. The breasts should be started at the top of bird and curved against the ribs and down. My buddy Scott can tell you even better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mYf-QqaecQ

Thanks for allowing me to participate, Ms. Blatty, and I hope I can blog with you again!