A Fortunate Turkey
Nov. 25th, 2007 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
browngirlSo, Thanksgiving kinda fell through. My roommates had another Thanksgiving dinner last night at Wolf's parents' house, to which I was kindly invited, but I didn't end up feeling well enough to go. Still and all, we have turkey in our fridge, and I think I finally know how to cook one.
One cooking task I always find difficult is roasting whole chickens so all parts are perfectly cooked; white meat and dark meat are just really quite different. I often butterfly my roast chickens, thus putting the legs at the periphery and the breast in the center, which helps a lot except when it comes to presentation. Cooking-wise, turkeys are giant chickens, and every time I've had to cook a turkey I've wished I could go the Jamaican route and fricassee the thing, but that is really not the Traditional American Presentation.
So, we had a lovely small turkey in the fridge (10.24 pounds; kosher) because Wolf had wanted our household to have one even though we were going elsewhere for Thanksgiving. Wolf having burned his hand, I decided to cook it, but I consulted with him about it, since he makes the best roast chicken I've had. This is what I did, including what he told me, and it's fairly simple, but it worked beautifully so I figured I'd write it down. I think this would work with a turkey up to 15 pounds, and in my experience if I have more people to feed than that I'd buy a second turkey rather than a giant pterodactyl.
Set oven to 425 degrees. Remove turkey from fridge/cooler/conveyance. (If not using a koshered turkey, use a brined one.) Rinse, remove giblets, and place breast-side-up on a greased cooking rack in a roasting pan. Don't truss it (how are the legs supposed to cook if they're all trussed up?); don't stuff it (and it makes my heart bleed to type those words, but I don't think this would have worked with a stuffed turkey). Do tuck a few chunks of aromatics into the cavity (I used onion slices and parsley stems dusted with dried sage and dried thyme). Cover the breast tightly with two layers of foil (and only the breast); cover the turkey loosely with foil or plastic and leave at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour (to take the chill off so it cooks a little more evenly; also, to let the oven walls as well as its internal air heat to 425 degrees).
When 45 minutes are gone, remove loose wrap (but not foil on breast) and roast turkey for 30 minutes. Remove foil and roast turkey another 30 minutes. Remove turkey from oven (if using a probe thermometer, insert it now), set oven to 275 degrees, open oven door and fan some of the hot air out. (Yes, this is hot. No, you don't have to be precise. Just fan with a potholder for a few seconds.) Put turkey in oven and roast for a total of 10-12 minutes per pound (I started checking it with my instant read thermometer after 45 minutes, and it took about 2 hours total). Let it rest 30 minutes (and right on cue, Wolf came home at the end of those 30 minutes and started carving apace).
What I ended up with from this was a lovely golden turkey with juicy breast meat and nicely cooked thigh meat. I've roasted turkeys before, but I was never satisfied with my results; the breast meat was dry or the thighs squidgy, or I had to flip the thing (which is terrifying, let me tell you, trying to turn fifteen pounds hot from the oven and dripping with scalding juices). So I'm saving these notes for next time.
As for the stuffing.... did you know you can make stuffing out of english muffins? Go figure. I baked seven of them on a sheet pan till they were brown and dry, broke them into bits with a Heavy Implement, and added a chopped shallot, a chunk of onion, a handful of parsley, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, a squished garlic clove, an egg, and two cups of chicken stock. And a drizzle of olive oil. It looked like soupy goop when I covered it with foil, but after a half hour of baking it was fluffy and puffy, and after an uncovered further half hour it was brown and savory and tasty if I say so myself. *beams* I've just written that down in case I need to make dressing again. My usual stuffing recipe is cooked beneath a butterflied chicken, but this did work with far fewer food safety issues.
One cooking task I always find difficult is roasting whole chickens so all parts are perfectly cooked; white meat and dark meat are just really quite different. I often butterfly my roast chickens, thus putting the legs at the periphery and the breast in the center, which helps a lot except when it comes to presentation. Cooking-wise, turkeys are giant chickens, and every time I've had to cook a turkey I've wished I could go the Jamaican route and fricassee the thing, but that is really not the Traditional American Presentation.
So, we had a lovely small turkey in the fridge (10.24 pounds; kosher) because Wolf had wanted our household to have one even though we were going elsewhere for Thanksgiving. Wolf having burned his hand, I decided to cook it, but I consulted with him about it, since he makes the best roast chicken I've had. This is what I did, including what he told me, and it's fairly simple, but it worked beautifully so I figured I'd write it down. I think this would work with a turkey up to 15 pounds, and in my experience if I have more people to feed than that I'd buy a second turkey rather than a giant pterodactyl.
Set oven to 425 degrees. Remove turkey from fridge/cooler/conveyance. (If not using a koshered turkey, use a brined one.) Rinse, remove giblets, and place breast-side-up on a greased cooking rack in a roasting pan. Don't truss it (how are the legs supposed to cook if they're all trussed up?); don't stuff it (and it makes my heart bleed to type those words, but I don't think this would have worked with a stuffed turkey). Do tuck a few chunks of aromatics into the cavity (I used onion slices and parsley stems dusted with dried sage and dried thyme). Cover the breast tightly with two layers of foil (and only the breast); cover the turkey loosely with foil or plastic and leave at room temperature for 45 minutes to an hour (to take the chill off so it cooks a little more evenly; also, to let the oven walls as well as its internal air heat to 425 degrees).
When 45 minutes are gone, remove loose wrap (but not foil on breast) and roast turkey for 30 minutes. Remove foil and roast turkey another 30 minutes. Remove turkey from oven (if using a probe thermometer, insert it now), set oven to 275 degrees, open oven door and fan some of the hot air out. (Yes, this is hot. No, you don't have to be precise. Just fan with a potholder for a few seconds.) Put turkey in oven and roast for a total of 10-12 minutes per pound (I started checking it with my instant read thermometer after 45 minutes, and it took about 2 hours total). Let it rest 30 minutes (and right on cue, Wolf came home at the end of those 30 minutes and started carving apace).
What I ended up with from this was a lovely golden turkey with juicy breast meat and nicely cooked thigh meat. I've roasted turkeys before, but I was never satisfied with my results; the breast meat was dry or the thighs squidgy, or I had to flip the thing (which is terrifying, let me tell you, trying to turn fifteen pounds hot from the oven and dripping with scalding juices). So I'm saving these notes for next time.
As for the stuffing.... did you know you can make stuffing out of english muffins? Go figure. I baked seven of them on a sheet pan till they were brown and dry, broke them into bits with a Heavy Implement, and added a chopped shallot, a chunk of onion, a handful of parsley, salt, pepper, sage, thyme, a squished garlic clove, an egg, and two cups of chicken stock. And a drizzle of olive oil. It looked like soupy goop when I covered it with foil, but after a half hour of baking it was fluffy and puffy, and after an uncovered further half hour it was brown and savory and tasty if I say so myself. *beams* I've just written that down in case I need to make dressing again. My usual stuffing recipe is cooked beneath a butterflied chicken, but this did work with far fewer food safety issues.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-25 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-29 03:02 pm (UTC)*makes note*
Maple turkey
Date: 2007-11-26 08:34 pm (UTC)Re: Maple turkey
Date: 2007-11-29 03:02 pm (UTC)Re: Maple turkey
Date: 2007-11-29 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-27 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-29 03:03 pm (UTC)