Cooking For Engineers

[dc]

I brine overnight with 1 gal of vegetable stock, water, salt, peppercorns, and allspice. I cook a 25 lb bird each year.

Once in the roasting pan (breast side up) I drape with cheesecloth soaked in a mixture of 1 stick of butter and 1 bottle of white wine (heated together). I keep the cloth moist during roasting with the butter/wine mixture. Then remove the cloth for the last 30 min of roasting to brown the skin.

[Gobbleitallup]

I have never brined my turkey. A little thyme, salt and pepper, and perhaps a dash of allspice. Flip at the start, and a silly foil tent near the end and yum-yum. For stuffing, I get the seasoned bag stuff, add some melted butter and juices from big bird, and some chopped onion and celery, and perhaps a squirt of gravy. Bake. Yum-yum. Throw in some buttery smashed potatoes, smothered in sweet corn and gravy. Some buttered hot cross buns. And a lucious green bean casserole. Cranberry sauce. And for dessert, we have pumpkin pie drowned with cool whip. As I stuff myself, I fully expect my Packers to be merrily thrashing those poor, poor Lions. Who could ask for anything more?

[Sara]

What a great read! I'm a novice at turkey roasting, & it's intimidating , but after reading the recipe & all the comments & variations, I feel a real sense of freedom & hopefulness! I laughed out loud at all the confusion (I could relate) & various strong opposing opinions. I learned SO MUCH! Thank you ALL for the entertaining enlightenment on all my options! I'm not an engineer, but am very analytical , & this is my kind of thing--thank you Michael! I'll let you know how my bird turns out after I decide how to prep & roast it ... gobble gobble!

[Guest]

I just bought a new oven. It is a convection oven. I can of course switch from regular to convection. I really want to use the convection aspect to cook my turkey. Any comments, suggestions or last minute instructions? Please Help!

[Dan]

At the ripe age of 34 I had my first 'Thanksgiving boss' opportunity. I asked my Belgian wife to get the smallest turkey she could find for our two Russian friends who were coming over. We cooked an 8 lb turkey using standard methods. After it's appointed cooking time, I took it out to find it had basically fallen apart into a pile of bones and very tender meat. I took the bag out of the trash and it was, in fact, a very large chicken. With two Russians and a Belgian as my guests, I just didn't tell them this was out of the ordinary. And it was a great chicken!

[Marco]

New Product Flash... I just bough 20 Gallon Zip Lock bags to brine my 30 pound Turkey... They're called "BigBags" and come in 10, 15, and 20 Gallon sizes. They zip and they're safe for food.

[Liz]

I would like to use my large Rival roaster to make my 23 pound turkey, but I've heard and read that it will not brown. Can I cook it part way in the oven until it is browned then transfer to the already heated roaster? Any comments?

[Michael Chu]

[jkarle1106]

My experience with a roaster is they do a lot of steaming and not much browning. They are great for making "pulled" meat. I'd cook the turkey most of the way in the roaster, then brown it in the oven to finish.

[visiter]

I loved the read here! I am more confused as to how I wish to proceed than I ever was. I Have decided to go ahead and use my convection oven to cook tomorrow. It has worked excellently on many other foods including frozen pies and lasagna etc (no preheat in same time as label)

As to the Bird itself.. I am going to leave the legs untrussed and the wings tucked under. I have made a vegetable stock already and added the nechk and gizzard but I know that there is only one true way to make stuffing. It can NOt be called stuffing if it isn't stuffed! THere is too much flavor involved inside the bird. Yes I will use my instant thermometer.

I think that I am going to the store on Friday and buy a few turkeys (usually very cheap after TG). I will then debone them and sew them for cooking, leaving room for the stuffing and then vacuum pack them. The bones will be used for stock to make the stuffing with (turkey fat and all), and reduced to the minimum required stock. and then stored in the freezer as well in canning jars (yes they can be frozen, just don't overfill.

I am actually excited about trying a stuffed boned turkey myself. It sounds too easy and too good.

After that..I think I will return here and check out more ideas and recipes

[visiter]

There were several references to cooking very large turkeys. I have raised a few broad breasted bronze turkeys that got this large. As I was killing on Wednesday and cooking on Thursday, the turkey never even got chilled thoroughly.

The cooking times were actually severely reduced because of the fact that they were not chilled through (the same as a 25 pound bird!). I would suggest that anyone who has a very large bird make sure to bring thier bird evenly to a non-refrigerated status, probably at 40-45 degrees or even warmer . The issue with a large bird is that the internal temperatures might be much different from the surface temperatures and cause uneven cooking and dryness (especially at the breast). Maybe leaving the bird in a portable cooler to let its temperature slowly and evenly rise would work?

One of my huge toms was stuffed (which I do NOT reccommend as lifting that amount of weight from a HOT oven is NOT easily accomplished and dangerous), and was extremely delicious but a little dry at the outer breast

I have also considered splitting a huge bird like this down each side, removing hte back and leaving just the legs, wings and breast. The bird could then rest easily on the stuffing and cook more evenly in a roasting pan. Doing this would allow the use of the back for stock to make the stuffing.

[Guest]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1999/11/17/FD99547.DTL&type=food

I thought I'd link this article which is interesting and sort of confirms the method in this recipe. I was wondering if 400deg vs 325deg would be better. From the article, it was pretty clear to them that 400deg gave the best results.

[snawrocki]

Every year it seems we wait until the last minute and go looking for a new and exciting method to roast our annual bird. I, too, have tried Alton Brown's recipe for brined bird and also tried brining with the pre-made mix from Williams Sonoma. We were not able to discern any significant difference in taste or texture from either. We tried Turducken (a $100 mistake we were afraid to feed to the dogs as we thought it might increase the cost when adding in the vet bill), high roasting method (set off every smoke alarm in the house and scared the hell out of the guests when it appeared the house would burst into flames at any minute - very tasty though), stuffed and unstuffed, slow roasted overnight etc. I WAS going to try a countertop roaster until reading all the postings here so today we will use Alton's roasting method, unstuffed and unbrined (not sure this is a word). Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and good luck. Remember - there's enough food without the turkey.

[Guest]

does anyone know if brining a 6 1/2 lb turkey breast for maybe 3 hours vs. the suggested 4-8 hours will make a huge difference, or completely defeat the point of brining in the first place? Im already an hour off of my cooking schedule and dont want to wait if i dont have to! thanks have a great thanksgiving!!!

[Wayne Bengston]

I repeated last year's fresh Diestel bird in a 300F convection oven, set to convection roast, and Tony Chachere's Jalapeno Butter Marinade.

I injected the marinade 12 hours before cooking. I then covered the bird with Tony's seasoning and sprayed it with olive oil. I put the turkey on a a V-Rack on a shallow pan, breast side up and baked it until the temp was 160F at the coolest part, then let it sit for an hour while finishing sides. It was as good as last year, with crispy skin and pefectly cooked light and dark meat. It took 3 hours and 45 minutes to do a 24 Lb turkey. I used no foil or basting. Easier than pie.

Once more, it got rave reviews.

Wayne Bengston
Houston TX