Putting Butter Between Skin/Meat of Your turkey

[pastameshugana]

I remember reading somewhere (now I can't find it) a recipe in which they made a mixture of butter and truffles (chopped I believe). He then carefully peeled back the turkey's skin and 'stuffed' it (between the skin and meat) with the mixture before baking.

I must say, it sounds entrancing. Of course, truffles are not to be had here, but I was thinking about some other mushroom/spice combos with the butter. I have this vision of a crispy/buttery skin, and all that yummy goodness running down into the drippings below.

Has anyone ever tried anything along these lines - how did it turn out - what do you recommend?

[plum tart]

I used to do it frequently with mixtures of butter and garlic and herbs - tarragon and garlic were especially good. I always wanted to try Poulet en Demi Deuil (sp?) but never had enough truffles.

[runwestierun]

I always do this. It works with any compound butter. I don't peel the skin back entirely, I try to leave some of the connective tissue between the skin and the turkey intact and slide the butter between the membranes. I chill the butter in logs and cut it into discs and slide it in that way.

Once I froze the butter in discs because I thought they'd be easier to force under the skin. They stayed solid a little too long and the turkey browned up polka dotted! It looked like a Twister game and to this day is known as Twister Turkey.

edited for spelling

Edited November 23, 2010 by runwestierun (log)

[heidih]

Along the same lines I often tuck bacon slices or loose raw sausage meat under the skin. People tend to fight over it at carving time.

[pastameshugana]

It looked like a Twister game and to this day is known as Twister Turkey.

You know, you could market that to kids...

Along the same lines I often tuck bacon slices or loose raw sausage meat under the skin. People tend to fight over it at carving time.

That sounds wonderful! We're doing two turkeys this year, so maybe I'll do a couple varieties...

Thanks for the tips!

[runwestierun]

Along the same lines I often tuck bacon slices or loose raw sausage meat under the skin. People tend to fight over it at carving time.

That bacon idea is genius. I want to do it this year. Does the turkey skin crisp up OK with the bacon under it?

[pastameshugana]

Ok - I prepared my compound butter with garlic, portobello, and garlic. I also fried some leftover (store bought) pancetta and poured the drippings in and ground the meat really fine into it. It smells heavenly, hopefully it turns out as good as I hope!

[heidih]

That bacon idea is genius. I want to do it this year. Does the turkey skin crisp up OK with the bacon under it?

Both the bacon and the skin!

[Jaymes]

I used to do bacon and butter. Like runwestierun, I didn't completely separate the skin from the flesh - just kind of crammed stuff up under there.

Definitely does make for a moister turkey.

If you've ever bought a Butterball turkey, you can see through the skin that something's been shoved up there. I think it used to be real butter in the olden days (hence the name), but am not sure what it is now.

But I haven't done it in a while. The family 'young folk' started deep frying the turkey, so I kind of got out of the habit of doing much myself.

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Edited November 24, 2010 by Jaymes (log)

[John Rosevear]

I have done it, both with my own compound butter (garlic, the usual herbs, a bit of shallot) and with a 1:1 mix of Kerrygold's herbed butter and good unsalted butter. It works, though I've found that it works best if the butter's a little soft and you can mush it around a bit so that it's more or less evenly spread across the breast.