turkey in covection oven

[wakaba]

hi all,

this is my first post. i'm going to cook a turkey tomorrow in my japanese countertop convection oven, and i'm a little nervous. i've done a lot of online searching in english, but mostly i find US-based articles based on cooking in convection ovens that may or may not have much in common with japanese appliances. my japanese isn't good enough to google it in japanese though.

can anyone give me advice on roasting a turkey in my sharp convection oven? this is it: http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/rewb1

it's got a cookbook / manual and the closest i can find is the section on roasting chicken wings and thighs. for those, it uses the hellish-sounding setting of 300 C. but normally turkey roasting is supposed to be around 375 F or so, and I don't want to ruin it. the US-based articles on convection roast turkey says to reduce temp to around 300F. hmm...

so far as i know, there isn't a lot of tradition in japan of roasting whole birds, so it's not mentioned in the sharp booklet.

i don't want to stuff it or anything too ambitious, but i don't want to undercook or burn or otherwise mess it up.

any experience out there to guide me?

[prasantrin]

Your link isn't working, so I don't know what kind of oven you have.

I've roasted a number of birds in Japanese convection ovens, and just use the usual temperature that I'd use in Canada. I also have a probe thermometer, though, so I rely on that to tell me when my bird is done, not on time.

If you have a very large bird (size being relative to your oven), you may have to cover the top of the bird with foil to prevent burning. Because Japanese ovens don't leave a lot of room for air circulation, the skin browns much more quickly, and it may burn before the meat is cooked, so also make sure you rotate the bird or put it on the round turntable (if it fits).

[wakaba]

thanks for the tips! will try the foil trick at least at first. the oven is a sharp re-wb10 convection. i bought it a couple of years ago. it's wider than the usual ones, and features the high temperature setting which i agree sounds bad for turkey roasting. maybe it's good for wings though.

[helenjp]

How did it go? Your oven capacity is 31 liters, so it's big enough that you have a good chance of success.

I don't alter the temperature in conventional recipes when using a Japanese convection oven. Maybe because Japanese ovens are pretty small, I find that food doesn't seem to dry out the way it did in large western convection ovens I've used in the past.

Prasantrin's tips for baking large items in a Japanese oven are spot on!

As for Japanese oven manuals, frankly, I think it's better to ignore them and go with your own experience and trusted recipes. The manual recipes seem to be written for people who are scared of doing more than heating a frozen pizza in their new ovens. I just got my new oven delivered, and the manual recipe for pie pastry raised my eyebrows till they were practically stuck to the ceiling!

[wakaba]

thanks to both of you! it was delicious.

i wanted to see if it would brown too quickly so i put it in for about 20 minutes without foil and the wing tips starting looking burnt (i don't care but a bad sign), so i tented it in foil. the temp was 170 C and it ended up roasting for about 2 hours all told. i took it out when one thigh was at 165 F (with my instant read) but the other thigh never did get hot enough even though i rotated it several times. we'll just have to figure out what to do with the slightly undercooked thigh meat on that side. but the breast meat was amazing--juicy and firm, not dry at all.

the skin didn't crisp much but it's a nice golden brown. i guess we could've taken the foil off at some point to crisp it more, but it's so hard to tell when it's almost ready. i do this so seldom it's hard to have a feel for it. but the turkey was great--a "natural" one from national azabu, much better than the hanamasa one last year, which had all kinds of additives in it.

it was great with the cornbread oyster shiitake stuffing too. we were very full! thanks to all the eG'ers advice!

[v. gautam]

Here in the USA, Taylor sells a thermocouple probe thermometer where one end can remain in the meat while a thin wire connects it to a meter sitting outside the oven where you can read off the real time temperature changes

The Peltier thermocouple ensemble is electronically adjusted, to correct for the oven temperatures. This is a small, light device that should ve available in Japan, failing which, an expatriate friend might be glad to ferry over to you. They are found off the shelf in supermarkets these days.

You might stick this in, rub the skin with some butter and/or lemon juice [creates a deep golden color later, season if you wish, and cook without covering as you did, for 20 minutes, at least. Then, the probe will tell you as you near 135F in the thigh, that you start you final browing, or even earlier.

You may consider removing the bird earlier than a reading of 165F, provided you have started the browning earlier and have gotten a nice, reasonably crisp skin, because you may wish to let the roast rest under a tent for 20 minutes more in a warm kitchen and watch the probe climb to 160F, while you make gravy with the drippings

Instead of plain or Wondra flour to produce laden roux, substitute pat of the flour with high quality Gingersnap cookies. S start with flour in the turky fat, but in very low proportion; flour can happily swim around in fat and cook well. Toward whatever degree you want to take the flour to, crumble in gingersps to restore proportionality and cook slightly longer to add a tiniest touch of caramelization, not even barely perceptible. Add boiling, PLAIN chicken broth to create thick bae, then the roasted base, which should be of a thinnish brothy consistency.

Last add the deglazed fond, because you want to preserve the fresh roasted flavors. You can deglaze with a tiny bit of brandy+ water or just plain water. Add chopped roasted giblets, neck meat, that you had thrown in right at the bottom with an onion quartered, 2 cloves garlic with the turkey, .

One way to assure crispness is:

1. Near the neck, there will be a large pocket of skin. Either stuff it with dressing or put an onion or something to make it rounded and exposed to the convection oven. The fat will melt, and it will become golden toothsome morsel, instead of a pale, rubbery horror.

2. Before you stuff and tie. sew off this pouch, you may wish to take a littlle extra trouble for crisp skin and juicy breast: in the abdomen you will find lumps of fat. If you are extra extra perfectionist, you might choose to seek out pork caul fat from a Chinese-type butcher, wash it out in a little vinegared water, and add it to the turkey fat. If not, chop the turkey fat, alone fine, adding in some butter, and a pinch of herbs if you must.

Carefully, using your fingers ONLY, loosen the skin around the "pouch" and gently insert the fat/butter lavage as far as you can, smearing it all over the breast with your fingers. This loosens the skin, and later helps to crisp it a bit faster. Wipe your hand off on the outside of the bird.

Stuffing the bird may have caused your temperature problems. Consider keeping the cavity open, just a few parsley stalks, a bit of onion, S&P, maybe a quartered lemon OR a splash of vinegar.

You may consider baking the stuffing beforehand in covered casseroles. Thus you can have more than 1 sort of stuffing for guests, just as moist, if you moisten with chicken broth. Indeed, you should make gravy beforehand as well from roasted pork bones, chicken bones, roasted onions & carrots. Incorporate the roux from drippings and fond deglazed into this base.

Edited November 26, 2008 by v. gautam (log)