Roasting Turkey

[andiesenji]

For Canadian Thanksgiving I did Alton's High then low and it Pretty well. I too love the taste stuffing gets from the bird, so I did exactly what ianeccleston suggested, and adding stock to the stuffing. I had made a turkey stock from the giblets and with chicken stock added, and then just added some of that to the stuffing before putting it in the oven. It tasted great.

For American Thanksgiving, we have a lot more people coming, so we're cooking a bigger bird. For the 13 lb'er I brined for 6 hours and air-dried overnight. Does anyone know how long a 20 lb bird should be brined for?

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For anything over 18 pounds, I brine for 12 hours then rinse, dry and allow to rest for 24.

[aliwaks]

I'm freakin' out here, brining has been banned in my household due to a foul-up last year which was not entirely my fault/ For some reason my father refused to purchase a new 5 gallon bucket (last years had been filled with some sort of pool related chemical) and I had to use a garbage bag/plastic tub contraption that did not work out too well.

So now I have a 23# turkey, too big I think ( I send my Dad a list he shops I cook when I get there on Wednesday night...I know it kind of sucks not being able to hand select my produce also he is not as discriminating a shopper as I am and tends to "forget" things he doesn't want to buy...last year the bucket and chives he claimed he had chives what he had were dried chives and some scallions that were past thier prime)

anyhow...lots of ideas floating around but still have no idea what is best

I usually do a compound butter under the skin (this year sage, orange zest, shallots) stuff the cavity with cooresponding aromatics...should I tent the breast? Should I try to flip the damn thing? I know there will be some sort of freak out if i attemt to ice the breast.

How many hours per pound do I cook it? I'm thinking 5 hours @ 350, I'm a high heat cook so I get really confused with the long slow.

I'm dying to butterfly the f**ker but the Kitchen Taliban has also banned this option.

[andiesenji]

aliwaks,

The easiest way to brine a turkey if you don't have a bucket is in the plastic bag in a cooler.

That way you can seal the bag and just use the "blue ice" things to keep it cold and not have a mess of water from melting ice.

Even the cheap styrofoam coolers are sturdy enough to hold the bag, brine and turkey and you can toss it out after the holidays.

[andiesenji]

Don't try to turn a turkey this size, simply tent the breast with foil until the last hour.

You want to use a thermometer to check the temperature in the thickest part of the thigh. I take it out of the oven when that hits 165 degrees, making sure the probe is not near the bone.

The temperature will continue to rise after it comes out of the oven.

I use a meat thermometer that is meant to stay in the oven - I don't place it in the turkey until about 2/3 of the way through the cooking time and I check on it every half hour once the temp climbs past 130.

If you click on this Melinda Lee's Turkey Basics

You will find loads of information about turkey prep.

I'm freakin' out here, brining has been banned in my household due to a foul-up last year which was not entirely my fault/ For some reason my father refused to purchase a new 5 gallon bucket (last years had been filled with some sort of pool related chemical) and I had to use a garbage bag/plastic tub contraption that did not work out too well.

So now I have a 23# turkey, too big I think ( I send my Dad a list he shops I cook when I get there on Wednesday night...I know it kind of sucks not being able to hand select my produce also he is not as discriminating a shopper as I am and tends to "forget" things he doesn't want to buy...last year the bucket and chives he claimed he had chives what he had were dried chives and some scallions that were past thier prime)

anyhow...lots of ideas floating around but still have no idea what is best

I usually do a compound butter under the skin (this year sage, orange zest, shallots) stuff the cavity with cooresponding aromatics...should I tent the breast? Should I try to flip the damn thing? I know there will be some sort of freak out if i attemt to ice the breast.

How many hours per pound do I cook it? I'm thinking 5 hours @ 350, I'm a high heat cook so I get really confused with the long slow.

I'm dying to butterfly the f**ker but the Kitchen Taliban has also banned this option.

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[divalasvegas]

The biggest bird I've ever cooked was about 21 lbs, and I've found that the breast-side-down method produces good results.

But I wanted to ask about that high-heat-to-start, then low-and-slow method.  Alton Brown touted this on an episode of "Good Eats" that was recently repeated in time for Turkey Day.

His instructions were 500F for 30 minutes, then down to 350 for the remainder, tent the breast with foil, don't flip the bird, and skip the stuffing.

My problem:  I love stuffing, and I love the flavor it gets when it absorbs juices from the bird.  I understand that current fashion is to leave the bird unstuffed, as the stuffing may not reach a high enough temperature inside the bird, but what do I do to get that flavor then?  Add pan juices to the mix and bake it while the bird sits?  Something else?

And is it possible to cook a bird by the high-then-low method with stuffing inside?

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For God's sake MarketStEl stuff that turkey! I love Alton Brown and I saw the rebroadcast of the show you mentioned and thought it was excellent. I may even do the high heat thing too. And like him, I never baste, ever, haven't for years long before I ever heard of Alton Brown. But for the life of me I do not understand this phobia about stuffing the turkey. I've always stuffed my turkey, as did my mom, my grandmom and so on. One year I stuffed the bird with the regular/traditional breadstuffing and made a cornbread-sage-sausage dressing in the oven. Well the cornbread dressing was good, but the one regular one that cooked inside the turkey was better, especially the parts at either end of the turkey, you know in the front where it gets all crispy and in the back under a crispy layer of turkey skin. If you use a thermometer--again something else that I have never used--I suppose that you could use that to make sure it was hot enough. I do remember an Alton Brown show where he relented a bit about his prohibition on putting stuffing inside of the bird by doing this really convoluted thing where he put the stuffing inside some kind of cheese cloth bag and tied it and then put it in the bird and then took it out and then............................. who knows? Anyway, the result IMHO was kind of creepy I thought since the damn thing resembled a giant tampon. Not appetizing in the least.

So just stuff it man, stuff it. And have a happy Thanksgiving.

[zilla369]

I did not brine. Dried rinsed bird to room temp with an ice pack on the breast. Rubbed over and under the skin and in the cavity with a mixture of butter, bacon fat, fresh parsley, rubbed sage, salt and pepper. Stuffed the cavity with fresh herbs, onions, and celery.

5 hours at 325F. Perfect...actually, the breast temp came in at 170F and the thigh at 177 ( a little higher than I aimed for). I think the ice packed breast kept the breast from drying out. Resting now. Beautiful, brown bird.

Leg meat tastes juicy. (I cheated during the resting).

[lapasterie]

I always buy an Empire Kosher Turkey about 19 pounds and don't have to brine.

For the past few years I followed the AB method and they always come out great.I stopped stuffing the turkey also and like the way the dressing comes out in a casserole dish..not mushy

[MarketStEl]

Sorry I didn't read your post prior to fixing Thanksgiving Day dinner, Diva. I might have gone ahead with my usual practice and stuffed the bird anyway.

Instead, I prepared a box of Bell's Stuffing using leftover chicken stock in place of the water and left it in the cast-iron stock pot. I then cooked the bird exactly as Alton Brown had instructed: no stuffing, no basting, 500F for the first half hour, then cover the breast with foil and roast at 325F for the next five.

At about four hours, I added some of the pan juices from the turkey to the stuffing, covered the pot, and put it in the oven.

The bird looked gorgeous. And the breast meat wasn't all dried out either.

The stuffing was almost as good. There were two problems: it had scorched on the bottom and sides, where it came in contact with the pot, and it was a little moister than I wanted it, though far from mushy or soggy. I think the problems would have been remedied by putting the stuffing in the oven only while the turkey was resting (about 20-30 minutes) and leaving the pot uncovered. I could always add more pan juices if it was getting too dry.

The interesting thing about the stuffing was that this particular brand's packaging makes it clear that it is intended for cooking inside the bird. Yet the bread crumbles were small enough that I don't think it would have turned out badly at all cooked on the stove top.

[julski]

I tried icing the breast as well with great results!!

28-pound fresh killed organic turkey (from Whole Foods)

I brined for about 16 hours (kosher salt, brown sugar, bay, peppercorns, cloves, etc.)

5 a.m. removed from brine, rinsed well, iced breast but left the rest to dry

8 a.m. rubbed with butter, in the cavity went a quartered lemon, several cloves of garlic and a few sprigs of thyme. Put breast-side down on v-rack at 400, scattered trinity beneath (carrots onion celery) + water

9 a.m. flipped bird, turned oven down to 325, added more water as necessary

noon - took bird out, took his temp and let him rest

1 p.m. dinner is served right on time!

VERY nice !! Excellent flavor. The trinity made for the most delicious gravy I've ever had, but it was a tad salty.

[ianeccleston]

The Cook's Illustrated version worked well for me:

21 pound bird

Overnight brine - 1/2 salt to one gallon water

6 hours out of brine to dry off

buttered & salted outside of turkey

roast, unstuffed, at 1 hour at 425, breast-side down, with carrots, onions and celery inside the bird and in the roasting pan

2 hours at 325, breast-side up

1/2 hour rest.

Great!!! Although I still have 4-5 small burns on my hands from flipping that damn piece of meat....

Ian

[Eden]

One (tardy) warning re cooking really large birds:

If you don't have a really good quality oven, you should be prepared for it to be too heavy for your oven rack. I had a 20+ pounder (stuffed) bend the rack so it crashed down to the bottom of the oven I couldn't find any bricks to put it up on at the time, so we inverted muffin times (to allow some air ciruclation underneath) propped the turkey pan up on those & let the lazy racks take the day off.

[rjwong]

You would think that after forty-plus years, I would have cooked a turkey already. Well, here it goes ...

I roasted my first turkey last weekend!

Instead of driving up north from Los Angeles and fighting the traffic, I decided to have Thanksgiving dinner in Southern California with my immediate family members who live down here as well. And because my SIL had to work on Thursday & Friday, Thanksgiving dinner was on Saturday.

The week before, I bought a 17-pound Foster Farms turkey at Costco, and that was the smallest one I could find. When I got that bird home, I tried to fit it into the Granite Ware roaster that I had. It didn't fit. So, I checked in the LA Times Food Section to find a couple of places where I can buy a bigger-sized roaster. Everyone else had the same idea. Mind you, there were several smaller-sized Granite Ware roasters available, but not the bigger sizes. By the time Wednesday night rolled around, I decided to go back to Costco and see what roasters they had left. There were two roasters left. It wasn't the plain old Granite Ware roaster that the LA Times Food Section mentioned. As it said on the box, it was a heavy gauge hard anodized aluminum roasting pan ... 13 x 16 x 3.75 in. ... easily accommodates a 25 lb. turkey. And the price was great: $29.99!

It's Friday night, the day before my Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey has been resting in the refrigerator for over a week. It should be defrosted by now, ehh? I took out the turkey from the frig to wash it and pat it dry. I found the neck that was hiding inside the turkey cavity. And yes, I did remember to take out the giblet bag that was hiding inside the other end of the turkey. After the rinsing & drying, I covered the turkey and placed it back in the frig for Saturday morning.

It's just after 7:00 a.m. on a Saturday, and I don't do mornings. Somehow, I managed to get up and started the preparations for roasting the turkey. I seasoned the turkey, both inside and out. Then, I did my best to rub the butter onto the turkey. Do you know how hard it is to apply room-temperature butter on a refrigerated turkey? After that mess, I stuffed the turkey cavity with a couple of carrots cut lengthwise, a few long stalks of celery, and one whole onion cut in half. I tied up the turkey with a long piece of string. It's hard to tie it tight when you don't have an extra hand! To try and keep the breast as moist as possible, I took Marlene's advice & placed bacon strips over the breast. And on top of that, I covered the entire turkey with a cheesecloth that was soaked with olive oil the night before. While all this was going on, I pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Here's the turkey, sitting on the rack inside the roasting pan, seasoned, buttered, baconed, and covered with an olive oil-soaked cheesecloth, all set and ready to go into the oven:

And the time is 9:07 a.m., Los Angeles time. After 30-45 minutes, I turned the oven temperature down to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. After about three hours, it was time to take the turkey's temperature. I inserted the pocket test thermometer into the turkey breast, as indicated on one of the pages in the William Sonoma booklet that a co-worker let me look at. I basted the bird about a couple of times. By about 3:00 p.m., I turned the oven off and let the turkey rest inside the oven for a moment. Preparing myself physically and mentally, I lifted the roasting pan on the stovetop. Hey! We're talking a 17-pound turkey and a rather sturdy roasting pan here, with very hot drippings inside! I slowly took off the cheesecloth and the bacon from the turkey but left the string intact. Afterwards, I first wrapped the turkey with several pieces of foil. Then I wrapped the entire roasting pan with foil. I placed the roasting pan into a big, heavy box, ready for transport from my apartment to my brother's house, about a 30-45 minute drive without traffic.

The turkey arrived at my brother's house safe and sound. I brought the box into the kitchen, and the carving board was ready to be used.

Here is my first turkey, before the carving:

This was also my first time carving a turkey. My brother guided me through the process. His instructions were similiar to the ones I was reading in the LA Times. That was reassuring. With seven of us eating, I carved one-half of the turkey and placed the meat onto the platter:

Dinner went well! We all brought other dishes and enjoyed eating them. As for the turkey, my first turkey? Pretty good. Everyone liked it. That means a lot to me. My family, we like to eat good food.

I took the rest of the turkey back to my apartment. I carved the other half, divided the meat into three packages of dark meat and four packages of white meat. I split the turkey carcass in half, foiled each half and bagged them into the freezer, along with all the packages of turkey meat.

My brother was pleased with my first turkey. As I was leaving his house, he asked me, “So what's next? A rib roast?”

[Gifted Gourmet]

Bravo to the chef on a job well done! The photos are testimony to your devotion to the turkey roasting process from beginning to end .. thanks for sharing this experience, Russell ... no longer a "roast turkey virgin"!

[KatieLoeb]

Very nice!! That turkey is one that anyone would be proud to serve. Nice tan on the bird too.

Considering how many turkeys are sacrificed each Thanksgiving to the God of Newbie Turkey Chefs, you should be very proud.

[fiftydollars]

...Nice tan on the bird too...

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No kidding!

This is the George Hamilton of roasted poultry.

[Gifted Gourmet]

This is the George Hamilton of roasted poultry.

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and no Man Tan Bronzing Cream in the recipe either!

[BarbaraY]

You did a good job. Congratulations!

[piperdown]

I used the Cook's illustrated method as well, and got really good results too. The only issue I had was that my mom didn't have a V-rack (I should have asked and just brought mine), so I had to use a flat wire rack set on some carrots and celery. Ths didn't work all that well, bu whatever. This method (or maybe it was the bird) produced an excess of pan juices. So much in fact that the bottom of the bird was swimming in it, and I had to drain the pan 3/4 of the way through. It did make for some kick ass gravy though.

[ianeccleston]

I used the Cook's illustrated method as well, and got really good results too. The only issue I had was that my mom didn't have a V-rack (I should have asked and just brought mine), so I had to use a flat wire rack set on some carrots and celery. Ths didn't work all that well, bu whatever. This method (or maybe it was the bird) produced an excess of pan juices. So much in fact that the bottom of the bird was swimming in it, and I had to drain the pan 3/4 of the way through. It did make for some kick ass gravy though.

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I too did not have a v-rack. I made an impromptu rack out of two burner grates wrapped in tin foil. It worked pretty well.

Ian

[Sugarella]

Yep, that's a beauty! Congratulations......

I have to ask a stupid question though. What are those yellow and green spinning top shaped thingamies on the platter?

[Diner Girl]

You did a great job with the turkey!

We grilled our turkey -- brined it for 12 hours with the Steven Raichlen brine recipe and then put it on the grill over indirect coals with a drip pan underneath for 2 hours and 45 minutes. Crispy skin. Juicy meat. And, it didn't taste smoked at all. Until we made the gravy. That's where the smoky flavor came out and it was a little slice of heaven.

I have to admit that I was skeptical about doing our Thanksgiving bird (a 15 pounder) on the grill. So, we did a test run on Monday night. Had the neighbors over for a "clean out your fridge" dinner to make space in all our refrigerators for the upcoming dinner preparations that week.

If anyone is ever interested in trying it, I highly recommend it.

Happy holidays, everyone!

[raxelita]

^ patty pan squash.

[rjwong]

Yep, that's a beauty! Congratulations...... 

I have to ask a stupid question though. What are those yellow and green spinning top shaped thingamies on the platter?

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Those came from a package called "Mixed baby squash" that I bought from Trader Joe's.

[Sugarella]

Of course! .... baby squash......

Thanks raxelita and rjwong...... that was driving me nuts!

[Ling]

Your turkey came out beautifully!

I've seen the cheesecloth used on TV, but I haven't tried it out yet. Will do so this Christmas.