The Culinary Works

Traditional Roast Turkey is the staple for most Thanksgiving tables and for some families, Christmas holiday as well. The thing about cooking a turkey is, although there are some traps you can fall into, it’s really not that difficult and if you follow some basic rules and take a few hints to heart, you should be able to impress even the most finicky of in-laws.

The thing that causes the complications when cooking a turkey is that the bird contains white meat and dark meat. Dark meat takes longer to cook than white meat, yet they are on the same bird so you try to cook them both together at the same time, hence the complication. In theory, to properly cook a turkey, you should break it down and cook the white meat separate than the dark meat, just like you would anything else with varying cooking times…but come on, you can’t NOT have a whole bird to put on the table. So, here are some ways to get your bird evenly cooked and have it come out moist and delicious.

Should I stuff the turkey?

I do NOT stuff the bird with stuffing. I personally think it’s soggy and when it comes to all the food safety concerns, it’s prudent to just do that in a separate casserole dish, there are some better things to be done with the cavity anyway.

To Begin

I start with a bird that has been checked for pin feathers (just run your hands over the bird and yank out anything that pokes you), all ‘things’ have been removed from both the front and back cavities, rinsed and then brined overnight. The brine solution is per gallon of water, 1 cup sugar (we used brown sugar here, hence the color of the liquid), 1 cup salt, a few peppercorns, a few bayleafs. The turkey just soaks up a bit of moisture and flavor, making it MUCH more tender. I do this process in a foodsafe container or bucket, with a lid, that fits in the fridge. Do not leave it sitting out or in an ice chest…the risk of foodborne illness from cross contamination is too great. If you are careful not to splash all over and keep it in the fridge and clean up, you will be fine and the results are worth the hassle.

What to cook it in

Next, you will get better results from a heavy roasting pan that is large enough so it does not touch the sides of the bird. If the pan is not heavy, cooking the bird on a rack will result in mucho problems! If your pan isn’t a pretty heavy duty pan you will be better off just putting the bird directly onto the roasting pan and skipping the rack. It will cook more evenly.

The bird needs some flavor

I begin by sautéing in olive oil and 2 Tbs compound butter from this recipe:

• 1 rough chopped onion
• 4 stalks chopped celery
• 1 chopped apple
• 2 chopped carrots
• 6 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs of fresh marjoram
• Salt and Pepper

I sauté them over medium heat until the vegetables start to soften up. Then I deglaze with ½ cup of dry white wine and let it cook down. I add a quartered orange and allow this mixture to cool. THIS is what I stuff the bird with.  As it roasts, the stuffing creates a lovely aromatic steam that enhances the flavors of the bird and the drippings I will use for gravy later.

I olive oil the bird and salt and pepper him all over. I then loosen the skin over the back and breast to insert chunks of the compound butter, recipe here. I fit a few tablespoons under on each side, and sneak some around the legs. The butter will slowly melt and the flavor from the herbs will add greatly to the meat as it cooks.

The cooled stuffing mixture is placed in the cavity. Any extra just goes into the roasting pan to flavor the drippings. I add a few cups of chicken or turkey stock to the roasting pan so nothing burns on the bottom, put the bird on the rack, and make what I call the Turkey Bikini or Foilkini!

All joking aside, this is a critical step that slows down the cooking of the white meat to more evenly match the cooking pace of the dark meat. This will prevent the undercooked dark meat/desert like white meat syndrome. You take the foilkini off 1 hour before you calculate it should be done. So, 20 minutes per pound gets you your final estimated cooking time, remove the foilkini 1 hour ahead of that to allow the skin to brown.

Time to COOK

Into a 350 degree oven it goes. I don’t baste it, the compound butter under the skin takes care of that for me BUT I do rotate it a couple times during the cooking process. If I had a super state of the art oven, I may not need to, but for good measure, I recommend you carefully turn him atleast once during cooking, but not more than twice.

He is done when you insert a probe thermometer, see tips here, and it reads 160 degrees farenheit from the thickest part of the bird in both the breast and the thigh area. The juices should be clear, the joints get loose etc. It will climb another 5 degrees, easily, as it rests.

This process also works for chickens and the like, so give it a try and let us know how your traditional bird turns out.

Happy Thanksgiving!