Thanksgiving Recipes 1 – The Turkey
[This is part of a multi-post series on Thanksgiving. Start from the beginning.]
In my mind, there is no such thing as a Thanksgiving without a turkey. I just don’t get it. I know some people, even one of my good friends, don’t like turkey. And while I cannot understand that, I suppose I can forgive it. But it will never cause me to replace the Thanksgiving turkey with easier little hens or the more authentic venison. For all of my life (and most likely all of yours), Thanksgiving means turkey.
I entered the Thanksgiving season having already decided that I wanted to make a brined bird. I had seen that episode of Good Eats, and had tried my hand at smaller scale brining in the past (pork chops). So I started my research early, by reading the transcript, so helpfully provided by Good Eats Fan Page, a site that I have frequented for quite some time. Soon after, I set up a wish list item on my TiVo to pick up Romancing the Bird as soon as it showed up.
I then watched the episode no less than 4 times.
I said I was obsessive, didn’t I?
I also watched the “Dear Food Network” episode that was hosted by AB twice. The recipe was the same, save the lack of the turkey triangle. I decided that I really wanted to experience the turkey triangle, so I went for it.
So ultimately, when it comes down to it, I made the Good Eats turkey brine, exactly as described in Romancing the Bird. Well, except for the bucket. Instead of a 5 gallon bucket, we used a 12 gallon square cooler. I would recommend the bucket. In order to fully submerge the 13.87 lb. bird, I had to add two gallon sized zip top bags filled with water, to provide more displacement.
After a 9 hour soak and the good rinse under cold water, I did deviate from the standard recipe. I am not a huge fan of rosemary, and I have a strong dislike for sage. I know, I know, for some of you, Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving unless the air is filled with the smell of sage. But it’s not my thing, so I didn’t use it. I was also wary of shoving a cinnamon stick in a turkey, so I didn’t do it. Instead, I shoved a Fugi apple (cut into large chunks), about 2/3 of a sweet onion (also in chunks), two cloves of garlic (smashed and skin removed), and about a half a bunch of curly parsley up the butt of the turkey. (Note that the “bits” that come in bags in the turkey had been removed pre-brine, and all but the neck had been thrown out, because I am a wuss.)
I then placed the turkey, ready to roast, back in the fridge, seeing as it was 9 in the morning, and it doesn’t take 6 hours to cook a bird. It did take me more than the 2 and a half that AB said it would take, however. But I don’t blame AB, I blame my squash-n-apples, which needed to be inserted in the oven (one door opening), checked (two door openings) to be found not done, and removed (three door openings). But the bird still came out darned good, despite the extraneous oven door openings.
But I did cook the bird to 161 degrees in the deep part of the breast meat, and then set him on a carving board to rest for about a half hour after he hit the target temperature. He rested under a “piece of Mir,” a.k.a. two huge pieces of aluminum foil pinched together. And while he rested, I made gravy.