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Roast for 45 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F, and turn the chicken breast side up. It’s easiest to use large tongs with one arm inserted into the chicken cavity and the other gripping the outside of the bird. Roast for 30 minutes more, or until the skin is golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 160°F.

Remove the chicken to a carving board and let rest for 5 minutes before carving, allowing the internal temperature to come to 165°F.

Carve the chicken and arrange in the center of a serving platter. Remove and discard the rosemary branches from the roasted vegetables and, using a slotted spoon, arrange the vegetables around the chicken.

Skim off excess fat from the juices in the roasting pan, leaving just a film of fat. Place the roasting pan on a burner over medium-high heat. Add the leaves of the remaining rosemary and the vermouth to the drippings in the pan. Bring to a boil, then spoon over the chicken and vegetables. Scatter the remaining pinches of salt and pepper over all and serve.

ROASTED MARROWBONES WITH SEL GRIS

SERVES 4

For hundreds of thousands of years, we burned bones in the fire and then broke them open to slather our food (and faces and bodies) in the butter-fine marrow. Scooped from roasted veal bones and spread on a wedge of crusty bread, marrow is so rich and flavorful that it threatens to overwhelm. And that’s where the salt comes in. The strident mineral tones of a coarse sel gris penetrate through the fatty richness, letting fly its myriad dimensions—like cutting a ruby from a hunk of Burmese rock. If marrow hadn’t been created by nature, it would have been necessary to invent it just to have a food that strikes so squarely at the core of the eating experience. If it weren’t for sel gris, nature’s felicity would all be for naught.

12 (1½-to 2-inch) center-cut pieces of veal marrowbones Scattering of torn flat-leaf parsley leaves

Lots of thinly sliced crusty bread, barely toasted (see Unsalted Bread with Unsalted Butter and Salt)

4 three-finger pinches sel gris, preferably sel gris de l’Ile de Noirmoutier

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Put the marrowbones with the cut marrow sides up in an ovenproof baking dish or skillet just big enough to hold them. Roast until the marrow retracts and sinks slightly in the center, 20 to 30 minutes. There will be a thin film of melted marrow on the bottom of the pan. Do not roast them too long, lest the marrow melt away. With that said, marrowbones of different sizes roast at radically different rates, so keep an eye on the roasting and remove the marrowbones from the pan as they are done, placing them on a large plate and covering them with aluminum foil to keep them warm.

When all the marrowbones are roasted and arranged on the plate, scatter the parsley over the plate. Serve with the toast and a small ramekin of sel gris.

To eat, dig pats of the marrow from the bone, spread on the toast, and sprinkle with the salt.

ROASTED PEACHES IN BOURBON SYRUP WITH SMOKED SALT

SERVES 4

They say we use only 10 percent of our brains. That assessment is immensely appealing. We are all potential supergeniuses with telekinetic and mind-reading powers, and could easily enjoy Heidegger or Joyce for light reading over coffee and donuts in the morning … if we only tried. But there is an easier way to experience the unbridled horsepower of our full consciousness: try roasted peaches in bourbon syrup with smoked salt. Your first bite will expand the boundaries of sensation separating your mouth from the rest of your body, and you’ll be feeling spiciness in the warmth of your hands and smokiness in the tingling of your toes. And by the third bite your mind will have moved on to peel the black backing off the edge of the universe, filling the unending space beyond with your pounding heart.

4 large, barely ripe peaches

½ cup water

¼ cup lightly packed brown sugar

1 cinnamon stick, broken into 3 pieces

¼ cup bourbon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons unsalted butter