True or False: Trussing a chicken or a turkey is just for appearances.

Answer: False.
“It’s actually to give you more even cooking,” says Shirley Corriher, author of CookWise: The Secrets of Cooking Revealed (Morrow Cookbooks, $30, www.amazon.com). “If you’ve got those legs sticking up in the air, they’re going to get overdone.” And while the legs are slowly crisping, the breast will be turning into leather. To deal with that age-old bird-cooking challenge of not drying out the white meat while you’re still waiting for the dark to be done, start the cooking process with the breast down, suggests Corriher, so that the bird’s own juices will keep the breast moist. If the chicken or turkey is just too big for flipping, try covering the breast with aluminum foil for the first part of the oven time.

True or False: Stuffing a bird is unsafe.

Answer: True.
“That’s really dangerous,” says Corriher. The problem is that the raw juices of your turkey or chicken will run into the stuffing, introducing all kinds of nasty bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella — definitely not part of your famous recipe. To kill any germs, you’d have to bring the stuffing up to nearly 170° F (the temperature of the food, not the oven), and unfortunately, this will also kill your turkey, leaving it dry and overdone. “I think the best way to cook stuffing is to do it in a separate pan,” Corriher offers. If you don’t want to sacrifice the flavor that comes from cooking the stuffing in the bird, “you can still use drippings from the cooked turkey, or you can use canned chicken stock and still have ‘drippings,’ so to speak,” she adds.

True or False: Baking ingredients should be added at room temperature.

Answer: True and false.
Eggs should definitely be mixed into your recipe at room temperature. “If you add ice-cold eggs when making a cake, you’re going to chill the batter, and it’s going to take it that much longer to warm up in the oven,” says Corriher. “It also won’t rise as well.” Butter, however, needs to be cold, since this ingredient holds air bubbles that help keep your cake light. “If it starts to melt, it just won’t hold the bubbles,” she says.

True or False: Stirring your dry ingredients is the same as sifting them.

Answer: False.
Although stirring is easier than sifting (and requires one less gadget), you should employ both techniques for optimal results. A general rule of thumb is to sift three times and then stir. The sifting will let air into the mixture, lightening the batter; the stirring will ensure that all the ingredients are evenly dispersed. If you don’t have a sifter, don’t fret. “All flour on the market is presifted, so you don’t have to worry so much about putting air in — it’s more a matter of combining,” says Corriher.

For more cooking myths, go to Cooking Myths Debunked.