Thanksgiving Week: The Turkey

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I'm not sure how we divvied-up responsibilities, but I knew I wanted to take a crack at the turkey.  Why?  Well, turkey is intimidating.  It's the largest carcass we've ever had in our kitchen and when it comes to Thanksgiving, you're not just serving dinner, you're delivering an American icon.  When done well, the cook gets oohs, aahs and adoration from his or her guests.  When done poorly, all the cook can do is hold his head down in shame as the guests try to console him as they try to remember if the White Castle down the street is still open.  In short, there is glory to be had in a well cooked turkey, and I intended to reap it.


The Supplies

I started my research a couple of weeks before the big night.  I trolled through LTHForum, America's Test Kitchen and Alton and Ina's recipes on the Food Network.  After all the research, we settled on a few things.  First, we decided on a roasting pan, the All-Clad full sized Roti.  Thankfully we still had some gift certificates left over from the wedding and we didn't go deep into our pockets for the "forever" pan.  Next we decided on a bird.  I wanted a locally raised HoKa turkey, but most places in our area delivered them a few days before Thanksgiving which wasn't going to be early enough for us (our dinner was the Saturday before Thanksgiving).  We ended up with a 14lb. fresh turkey from Trader Joe's, which worked out nicely.  Hopefully next time we'll be able to go the HoKa road because the reviews those birds were getting were great.

The Plan

Once we had that done, I chose a recipe.  Never having been let down before, I went with Alton Brown's recipe (with slight modifications) from the "Romancing the Bird" episode of Good Eats.  Aside from a bit of fun with the turkey, this was an easy recipe to follow that gave great results. 

The Brining* -  We brined the bird the night before our dinner and I left it in for 14 hours.  The turkey took to the allspice berries quite well.  Also the salt, sugar and pepper were noticeable but not overpowering.  One lesson we learned though, was to not assume those styrofoam coolers at the grocery store are leakproof.  We learned that one the hard way when the brine started to seep through the oh-so-porous bottom of the cooler.  Luckily we noticed it early on and were able to salvage almost all of it.  

A Slight Deviation - Alton's recipe called for canola oil to be rubbed on the outside of the turkey before being put in the oven.  Well, I took a page out of Ina's book and went with butter instead.  I made a compound butter using one stick of unsalted butter plus parsley and thyme.  I rubbed this under the skin of the bird and the outside.  I may refrain from using an herbed butter next time, because until the turkey shield goes on, those herbs are being subjected to some serious heat and may potentially burn. 

High heat to start, low heat to finish - I thought this strategy worked perfectly.  The entire bird takes on a golden color and slapping on the heat shield definitely helped the breast keep from over cooking.  One thing did concern me though, and that was the relation between thermometer placement and cooking time.  The instructions call for placing the probe in the thickest part of the breast.  Well, never having done this before, I aimed a little too high in my placement.  This resulted in some of the meat closer to where the limbs join the main part of the carcass being slightly pink.  The overall cooking time for our bird ended up being 2.5 hours, which was about 20 minutes less than my instincts told me it should have been, but going by the book, I pulled it out of the oven.

The Results

I couldn't have been happier with the way the turkey turned out and judging by the reaction of our guests, they couldn't have been either.  The meat was tender and juicy and full of flavor.  It was subtly perfumed by the fresh herbs that were placed within it and the butter crisped the skin nicely while adding to the succulence of the meat.  I was amazed that creating something as flavor full as this was as easy as it was.  The bird had been conquered and this cook received his accolades.  Not a bad way to celebrate our first Kentuckipino Thanksgiving.

Good Eats Roast Turkey

Ingredients

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
  Personal note: I completely forgot to grab the candied ginger when we went out to the store.  Given how much the allspice permeated the bird, I can only imagine that the ginger would have added another sharp, yet subtle note to the final product. 
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
  

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced We went with honey crisp apples. 
  
• 1/2 onion, sliced In his new book, Alton's recipe has changed this to quartered. Same with the apples.
  
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil
  

Directions

2 to 3 days before roasting:

Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.

Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Very important if you don't want the bird to come out too salty.

Discard the brine.

Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and 1 cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Add steeped aromatics to the turkey's cavity along with the rosemary and sage.  In case you're wondering, you don't need to add the water. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil.

Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving.

* A side note about the brining, I was surprised at the sheer number of people that asked if I was going to brine the bird.  The cashier at Trader Joe's asked, the salesperson at Macy's asked and I think the turkey even asked when I first bought it.  Suffice it to say, brining is no longer a secret tip and it seems to have become the go-to tip that people offer up first-timers.  If you want to learn more about it I suggest watching that episode of Good Eats or reading this write-up in Serious Eats.  (Mmmmm...denatured proteins!).