Fried Turkey

[slkinsey]

i would suggest you folks try to do a turkey "galantine" which is basically a totally "deboned but still in one piece" bird biggest advantage is that you

loose most of the "volume" and it therefor is easier to handle while frying and gain a nice flavor transfusion from the stuffing to the meat, last not  least you cant fuckup the carving since it cuts like a big sausage...

Can we get a detailed explanation on how to do this? I've read about doing this before, but it seems you'd have to be a serious bird surgeon to pull it off... or pull all those bones out as the case may be. Could you then roast the bird conventionally? Perhaps by stringing it up into a large more or less uniform "sausage"?

Schneich, I don't think you mean to say a galantine, which is forcemeat stuffed into poultry skin, poached and surved cold, but rather a ballotine which is deboned meat, fish or poultry that is stuffed, tied into a roll, roasted and served warm.

Al... it really isn't that hard. Basically this is a turducken, only with only one kind of bird. All you have to do is cut the backbone out with scissors and spread the bird open. Then slide a sharp knife under the breastbone and slide it upwards scraping under the rib bones. Do this on both sides. Once the rib bones are free, slide the knife in the other direction, scraping against the breastbone, until you reach the center of the breastbone near the skin. Do this on both sides, disarticulating the wings from the breastbone up at the front along the way. Once the breastbone is almost entirely separated, lift the breastbone up with one hand while teasing away the last little bit of meat with the knife until the breastbone comes free. This is the trickiest part. Now, all that remains is to scrape the meat away from the larger wing bones from the inside. You can even use scissors for this. Cut away the remaining part of the wings once they get small enough to be tedious. Don't worry about any small holes, as they can be closed when you tie up the bundle. Now, using the tip of your knife, carefully scrape the meat away from the thighs taking care not to pierce the skin. When you get to the joint, you can disarticulate the thigh bone and put it aside. Now all that remains are the two drumsticks. I find that the easiest way to handle these is to stand them up with the knuckle on the table, take a pair of poultry scissors and snip around the bone all the way down to the end rolling the flesh down as you go. Once you get near the end, just lie the drumstick on the table and whack the knuckle off with a heavy knive. Voila! Boneless poultry! At this point, all you have to do is cut down the meat a little to distrubute it evenly (with turkey this involves cutting away quite a bit of the breast and relocating the meat to other areas), putting on a layer of stuffing, then rolling it into a sausage shape and tying up the whole works with butcher's string. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it. I can bone out most any bird in less than 10 minutes.

I hadn't ever thought of deep frying a ballotine, but I bet it would work pretty well.

[schneich]

sure kinsey, i was wrong.. its the other way round..

but i think your technique is far too complicated.... (thats the reason why few poeple do it)

its much easier.. ----)

first you lift up the skin on the "head" side and cut & break out the wishbone couse

it makes things easier... then you trun over da bird and cut along the backbone.

next you wiggle the wing to find the place to cut inbetween. once you cut both

wings free you pull the wing as if you would help the bird out of the jacket... pull

till you see the oyster, cut out the oyster (the TRUE filet) carfully, do this on both sides

then turn over the bird grab under the tip of the breast and pull off the breastmeat...

if you done it right you just need to turn over the legs ancut between, do this on both

sides and voila... carcasse is gone. now cut around the first articulation of the leg, then

scrape the meat until you are at the next articulation also cut carufully around this one too.

when you reach the tip, stop scraping and put bone back in. use a cleaverback to break

the tips of the leg (you do this to prevent loosing too much juice while cooking & it looks nicer)

then you can pull out the bone easily.. do the cut around & scrape thing to the wings to, put

everything in place after your finished & push the two remaining filetpieces from the carcasse just

with your thumb gentle!! then lay the whole deboned bird in front of you put the filets where they belong and cut & fold over at those places where is just skin and no meat, the idea is to

get two even layers of skin and meat. now its up to you howto stuff the bird, you could use apples, spinach, with a duck you could use marrons, you could use a veal mince & foie gras mixture.... you could use most everything and the flavors will combine beautifully... after

you did your filling (dont forget to stuff the legs rite!) you fold over left n right side and grab a

loong piece of kitchenthread put it around one end make a knot then you want to make a loop

pull it over pull tight but not too much, again loop and pull.... do this to the whole bird when you

are at the and turn the bird sideways and turn thread into each loop till you are where you started knot again and voila your ballotine is ready to jump into the oven....

as j. pepin says with this technique the lesser you use the knife the better...

cheers

t.

Edited November 8, 2003 by schneich (log)

[Al_Dente]

I'll have to give this a whirl.

[tommy]

a coupla questions for the experts:

1) bird in upside-down or right side-up.

2) my turkey fryer "kit" says to score the skin down by the legs to let the oil drip out. thoughts?

[fifi]

It is easier to put the turkey on the rack right side up, sort of like on a beer can. It also drains a lot better that way. I wouldn't do it the other way arond because you want it to drain readily when you lift it out.

No, we have never slashed the leg skin. Oil really doesn't pool anywhere under the skin. Properly done with the frying temperature maintained, the turkey is remarkably not oily or greasy.

[tommy]

thanks fifi.

also, it seems obvious that the lid should not be on the pot during cooking. any tips on how to keep leaves from blowing in!

if i sound urgent, it's because i'll be lighting the thing up in about 2 hours!

Edited November 8, 2003 by tommy (log)

[fifi]

No lid. Leaves blowing in? Hmmm... I haven't had that problem, really. I do remember one or two blowing in and we dipped it out with a spyder. I suppose you could put one of those metal splatter screens over it. You just don't want to use a lid where the steam from the cooking turkey will condense, drip back into the pot and cause all kinds of havoc.

Let me know how it goes. PLEASE be sure you have the safety issues covered. I worry about beginners doing this. We learned by assisting experienced turkey friers so we weren't on our own.

[tommy]

Let me know how it goes. PLEASE be sure you have the safety issues covered. I worry about beginners doing this. We learned by assisting experienced turkey friers so we weren't on our own.

don't worry. i'm used to playing with fire.

your tips have been invaluable. although i figured i had it all figured out, i picked up a few good pointers on this thread. i'll be sure to report back. and if i'm not on egullet by, say, tomorrow night, well, you'll know it didn't go as planned.

[tommy]

for those on the edge of their seat, this 10-12 lb bird was a huge success. details to follow.

[maggiethecat]

for those on the edge of their seat, this 10-12 lb bird was a huge success. details to follow.

No lie: I came up here hoping you hadn't incinerated your hands and had posted something.

I've never been tempted to deep fry a turkey because of the mess, geekiness and the fact that (Er, sorry Jinmyo, hang head) I like plain 'ol roast turkey , stuffing and gravy just fine. But seven minutes a pound? That got my attention. Plus, I have an extra bag of kitty litter handy.

Tell all, Tommy. (And I wanna know about Rome, too!)

[fifi]

Whew! glad all went well. Details... Did you inject it? Put rub on it? Was it as good as you tought it would be?

[tommy]

No lie: I came up here hoping you hadn't incinerated your hands and had posted something.

afsdjkl fadsjklguior rigrn/' lb oi'jgj[iongr 'grnkl'abgjiop' k'l/

[fifi]

asshole

[Toliver]

asshole

fifi, the deep frying of crudite in the seasoned oil is briliiant! And my mom is very "old school" so there will be a crudite platter on hand.

And you're right, the taste of a deep fried turkey is very unlike an oven roasted bird. I find the texture to be reminiscent of a pork roast.

I would llike to nominate you to host a deep fried turkey eGCI class (don't you just luv me? ). This has been a great thread and would make a great class, as well, especially with all the safety precautions covered so far.

I'd also like to suggest to anyone deep frying a turkey, especially for the first time, do NOT allow children anywhere near the fry pot before, during or after the frying has taken place. The oil remains quite hot for a long time after the frying is finished. Make the area off-limits to children and drunks.

I think if all the safety precautions have been observed, there's no reason to be afraid to deep fry a turkey.

[tommy]

Make the area off-limits to children and drunks.

too late.

[hjshorter]

Tommy, where did you get your kit?

[tommy]

Tommy, where did you get your kit?

Home Despot.

they have a few from bayou classic.

[pete ganz]

They also sell big containers (3 gallon?) of peanut oil at the Depot.

[tommy]

They also sell big containers (3 gallon?) of peanut oil at the Depot.

20 bucks for 3 gallons. i have no idea if that's a good price, though.

[sammy]

Which is better for the cooking vessel, aluminum or stainless steel?

[pete ganz]

I'd imagine you would want to use the heaviest substance you have available to deep fry that volume of oil. That being said, I'm pretty sure the Bayou Classic sold in Home Depot is aluminum (I bought one last year), but it worked fine. A stainless steel version of that pot would be big bucks.

[sammy]

This may be a silly question but what if you are planning to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving and it starts raining?

Just doing some contingency planning.

Edited November 10, 2003 by sammy (log)

[Dave the Cook]

I'd imagine you would want to use the heaviest substance you have available to deep fry that volume of oil. That being said, I'm pretty sure the Bayou Classic sold in Home Depot is aluminum (I bought one last year), but it worked fine. A stainless steel version of that pot would be big bucks.

I think it's a moot point. I can't recall ever seeing one that wasn't aluminum.

This may be a silly question but what if you are planning to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving and it starts raining?

You're out of luck, unless you've got a Nomex suit.

Just kidding -- don't fry a turkey in the rain without some kind of roof or other sheltering structure. Even then, keep in mind that water can make things like concrete and metal really slippery.

[fifi]

This may be a silly question but what if you are planning to fry a turkey for Thanksgiving and it starts raining?

Just doing some contingency planning.

Uuuuhh... Get a really big, FIREPROOF, umbrella?

Seriously... I have only been present at one turkey frying session where this happened. It was only a passing light shower, not one of our Texas toad stranglers, and we literally stood by with a golf umbrella. The only issue was keeping the rain drops from plunking into the hot oil so this was ok. I have thought about the rain issue for my new place. I am planning to set up a BBQ, shrimp boil, turkey fry, fish fry area in the yard. I am thinking to size it to fit one of those temporary tent things for use on rainy days. We have enough of those here that you have to think about it. While you coud possibly move a BBQ or boiling operation under a covered patio or into the garage (with a lot of caution... you still have that big flame going on) I wouldn't THINK of doing that with turkey frying.

[tommy]

My deep fried 10-12 lb bird was a great success. I got a fresh bird from a local farm, and brined it for about 18 hours.

Total cooking time was 35 minutes. The skin was crispy and the thing was evenly cooked throughout.

We were very careful with handling the oil and the bird. A coupla pairs of welder’s gloves came in handy. We also used the handle of a metal rake to make dunking and removing the bird a two-man project. Oddly, with all of the precaution I was taking, it didn’t occur to me to not put the rack on the grass. You see, as I was walking around, I stepped on the rake part, and, not much unlike what you’d see in a cartoon, the handle came flying up at about 100 mph and whacked me in the arm and shoulder. Almost spilled my wine. My friend got a very very big kick out of that.

The set-up. From Home Despot.

The bird. And the offending rake.

Cooking.

The bird’s back. The front looked even better.

There was very little oil that dripped off of the bird after we got it in the rack

also made a simple gravy from 2 turkey legs, onion, carrot, celery, wine, chicken stock, etc.

also, the temp dipped to about 300 (from 350) after putting the bird in. it took about 10 or 15 minutes to get back up to 350, where it stayed without much of a problem.

thanks to all for the great suggestions.

Edited November 10, 2003 by tommy (log)