Turkey bags. Anyone use them?

[savvysearch]

Anyone have experience with cooking a turkey using a turkey bag? What were the results? I'm curious to know how the skin turns out. I might consider using one rather than brining.

[sparrowgrass]

I have. The meat is moist, the skin is pretty flabby.

[dls]

I have.  The meat is moist, the skin is pretty flabby.

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Same results here. To my way of thinking, it's more like "steaming" the bird rather than "roasting" it. I continue to use them however, to hold the bird when brining it.

[kiliki]

Yes, flabby skin, and there's nothing else to recommend the method, either, in my experience. My parents have always been convinced you can't roast a turkey in a reasonable amount of time without one (despite the fact they've seen a turkey roast in less than 2 hours at my house w/o one). Reynolds must have had a fabulous marketing campaign at some point.

[Toliver]

Replying after the fact...

My mom uses them every Thanksgiving. The turkey cooks in a shorter amount of time when compared to normal turkey roasting that she's done in the past. One year she tried the "jiggle the turkey leg through the bag to check for doneness" method and the leg bone came completely out of the meat. It was fall-apart tender.

The skin does get browned but it's not crisp. The last couple of years we've split the bag open the last 30 to 45 minutes which seems to help. But the skin won't compare in any way shape or form to a turkey roasted without a bag and that has been properly basted.

edited to add: This year's turkey was 22lbs. and was completely cooked in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Edited November 28, 2006 by Toliver (log)