Today we have Peeling of Things

[desperance]

There now. I have peeled all the potatoes. All of them.

Now I am going to drink a gin and read this story through, to see whether it is indeed a story, or has anything to say.

And then I will drop it into Dropbox for my beloved, and peel all the fruits - yes, all of them - to make what I think you Americans call a crisp, although I am right to call it a crumble.

In the meantime I am not actually peeling the chickens, for I am fond of chicken-skin; indeed, I am setting them to dry (I would like to say "in sunlight", but you know what prevents that; they are sitting in the oven, and if it had a fan I would be fanning them) in hopes of a crispier outcome*.

And then no doubt I will peel the carrots, tho' not the green beans; and I will peel off the outer leaves of the lettuce (and chop them for the turtles), and I will peel the avocadi, but I will not peel the tomatoes. People can damn well eat the tomato skin and like it.

But now I am to peel back the layers of this story, and see if there be anything within: for today we have Peeling of Things.

*peels away*


*for I have still not resolved the problem of how to keep a chicken's skin crispy if you leave it to rest post-roasting.

Comments

[movingfinger]

I seem to recall that Judy Rogers¹, as part of her dry-brining routine, suggests that after you pat the chicken dry following the several days' dry-brining, you put the chicken back in the fridge, unwrapped, on a plate for a couple of hours. In a self-defrosting fridge, moisture will be taken out of the skin, and the roasted chicken's skin will be the better for it. Then roast at a high temperature (higher, at least, than my mother would ever dare do), 450 deg F or thereabouts.



¹Or someone like her...