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The best way to prepare a turkey....


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A few years ago it seemed that everyone was brining the turkey. Then it was frying it. I usually stick with just plan old roasting, but even upside down Tom comes out just so-so.

 

So, if you make a delicious turkey, share your technique so that those of us that are stuck in the mud can try something new this year.

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Keeps the oven free, roasts a delicious turkey with a great smokey flavor and a beautiful skin, and it just smells soooooo good.

 

:iagree: I agree absolutely 100%! My dad has been preparing them this way since I was a little girl. I think I talked him into coming out here to have Thanksgiving with us next year (for the first time in my adult life) and showing me how to make "rotisserie bird" as my best friend in high school called it.

 

I also can't wait for my kids to experience chewing on the cotton twine after it's been cut off the turkey. Sounds gross but it tastes soooo good. :lol:

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Turkey bags get the job done fast & moist! http://www.reynoldspkg.com/reynoldskitchens/en/home.asp

 

:iagree:This is how I make my turkey too. Every year our church has a Thanksgiving dinner and every year I make a turkey in a bag for it. The dinner coordinator always remarks that my turkey is the best one of the bunch (she cuts them all up to serve on platters). I just stick the turkey in the bag, rub olive oil over it, salt and pepper it, and place a couple ribs of celery and a quartered onion in the cavity.

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I roast mine breast down. I coat the inside of the turkey with the juice of half a lemon. Stuff the inside with a quartered half of a yellow onion, some celery (tops included), and a couple of carrots. I tie the legs closed. Then tie the wings to the body. Stuff some rosemary and thyme into the pockets created by the wings. Stuff the neck with parsley and skewer closed. Slather the whole turkey with butter (under the skin, too). Butter makes everything better. I start at a high temp, then lower the heat after 2 hours, then I lower it again for the last hour. I start checking the meat temp about 1/2 an hour before it should be done.

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Well, the best one I've ever had, I didn't actually cook (I know y'all aren't surprised by *that*), but I was a witness.

 

Turkey bag. A brand of poultry seasoning no longer available (& I can't remember the name--I think it had been in our cabinet a good 10 yrs before, to, er, breathe, lol).

 

The key to this moist, flavorful turkey, though, was NOT cutting holes in the bag. The moisture just built & built.

 

And then exploded. The oven was expensive to replace, but boy the turkey was good. :001_smile:

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One year when I lived in California, I had to do the turkey myself, and as I recall, she had very good instructions. My father was really upset that I was able to do this myself - he liked being the only guy who could grill a turkey, lol.

 

My girlfriend was sure that it couldn't be done, and actually brought an extra turkey to my house "just in case." She found out, though, how great a Weber Kettle turkey can be.

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I salt the cavity and then put TONS of granulated garlic and some onion quarters in the cavity and brush the outside with melted butter. Then I turn the oven up to 500 and roast at that temp for the first 20 min. I think I read about this on FlyLady? It locks the juices in. Then I turn it down to 325 for the rest of the time. I cover with foil until the last hour.

 

Turkeys cooked in the bag do taste good...but the skin isn't browned. I just can't get past that. lol

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I don't like turkey. I hardly ever eat meat at all. But last year & the year before I got stuck with the turkey job over and over again as my relatives were all having some issues & all the big doo-dah dinners each year all ended up here. So it was turkey after turkey after turkey.

 

Really funny given that I honestly didn't eat more than a bite of each.....

 

and that I usually did shove them in the oven with a bit of resentment (none of that 'love is the best flavouring' business here)

 

and that before this turkey marathon, I had never made it before & it was not a family meal while I was growing up so I'd never seen it prepared. Duck, yes. Goose, yes. Turkey, nope.

 

But every single time the turkey was a stunner. (and this is a family who will tell you if something sucks. Apparently these didn't suck.)

 

I used the instructions here:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/19/FDGFQ33E3N1.DTL

At the bottom are two recipes: brined convection oven turkey & unbrined convection oven turkey.

 

Seeing as I really didn't want to spend much time with this animal, it was unbrined for us. Convection is GREAT.

 

I also think starting with a really good turkey is critical. They're not all created equal.

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Guest Virginia Dawn

A friend told me about roasting the bird covered with cheesecloth that has been soaked in butter. I'm going to try that this year. She says it browns nicely under the cheesecloth. I always cook my bird stuffed the old fashioned way.

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It is just us this year (no extended family:lol::lol:) so I'm trying something I saw on America's Test Kitchen. The prick the breast with a fork, lay pieces of pork fat back over the breast and cover with wet cheese cloth and aluminum foil. Then they roast it long and low before taking the pork and cheese cloth off and then roasting at 450 to brown it. Can't go wrong with pork fat!!

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I salt the cavity and then put TONS of granulated garlic and some onion quarters in the cavity and brush the outside with melted butter. Then I turn the oven up to 500 and roast at that temp for the first 20 min. I think I read about this on FlyLady? It locks the juices in. Then I turn it down to 325 for the rest of the time. I cover with foil until the last hour.

 

 

:iagree: This is just the way I do it except it's 450 and 350 degrees, and I think the higher temp for 30 min? And then cover with the tinfoil. Only takes a few hours even for a giant bird. Nice and juicy every time with no basting, and nice browned skin.

 

I didn't read it at Flylady though - my mom always did it that way, and she learned it from her dad who was a chef and raised his own turkeys for the restaurant he owned.

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I follow Alton Brown's methodology religiously, and ever since, we've always had fantastic, juicy turkeys. He does brine, which you could skip, though I think brining helps keep turkeys moist (AB has a scientific explanation for what the salt and sugar do that is fascinating, by the way). But the true key, I believe, is that he urges you to get your oven super-hot, like 500 degrees, and put the turkey in for 30 minutes or so at that temperature. He insists that doing so creates a crispy skin by melting the fat right away, then you add a "breastplate" of foil to keep the skin from turning black and reduce oven temp to 350 and cooking the bird until it reaches 161 degrees in the thickest part of the breast. The resting process brings it up the rest of the way.

 

You can search Alton Brown Good Eats turkey for more details, though that brine has changed and is now a lot more elaborate than I use (kosher salt, brown sugar or honey, broth, water and maybe some herbs, garlic, and peppercorns is about as fancy as I get with it). I also cut lemons and put them inside the cavity after rubbing the whole thing down with a little canola oil.

 

Good luck creating a fabulous turkey! :001_smile:

 

Oh, and we had a turkey completely cave in and explode using a bag, so I can't personally recommend that method, though I know many love it. It was crazy, though! :tongue_smilie:

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We inject our turkey and cook right side up to get that beautiful brown. We have used many things over the years to inject the meat, just about anything can be used. Two years ago we found Tony Chanchere's Creole Style Butter Marinade. It is amazing stuff, I don't know if we will ever cook a turkey any other way again LOL.

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Last year I chilled the breast meat with ziplocks filled with crushed ice for an hour before roasting. This step did SO MUCH for the texture and juiciness of the white meat. I'll do this again for sure.

 

I love what brining does, but it is a pain.

 

Per an old Sunset Magazine recipe from 2002 (I think it was called "An Ojai, California Thanksgiving", I just stuff mine with quartered yellow onions, 4 or 5 sprigs of rosemary, a few quartered lemons, some whole garlic cloves, lots of kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper. I then massage the exterior with buttah. Lots and lots of BUTTAH. :) :) :) Finally, I squeeze quite a bit of lemon juice over the top, kosher-salt it and freshly-cracked pepper it generously. I do the hot oven (450 I think -- whatever Alton Brown's recipe calls for) first, then reduce the temp. During the last hour of roasting, I throw large chunks of carrots (2" chunks) and quartered onions into the bottom of the pan to caramelize for the gravy. I follow the Cook's Illustrated gravy recipe that calls for a nutty brown roux, homemade vegetable stock amended with good quality purchased chicken stock.

 

I don't stuff with the stuffing, I cook the dressing separately. All of the interior stuff is just discarded upon completion.

 

ETA: I found the old Sunset recipe online! Edited in the link.

Edited by BikeBookBread
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Turkey bag. A brand of poultry seasoning no longer available .....The key to this moist, flavorful turkey, though, was NOT cutting holes in the bag. The moisture just built & built.....And then exploded. The oven was expensive to replace, but boy the turkey was good. :001_smile:

 

Oh, and we had a turkey completely cave in and explode using a bag, so I can't personally recommend that method, though I know many love it. It was crazy, though! :tongue_smilie:

I'm not usually the one who cooks the turkey, but Thanksgiving is at my place this year and I'm using an oven bag. Several years ago I cooked a turkey in an oven bag and it turned out great--very moist and tasty. I did poke the holes in it, though. From the sounds of it (the quoted posts), you definitely want to poke holes so the bag doesn't explode. Maybe the turkey caved in from the pressure inside the unvented bag?

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We have been making turkey this way for 9 years now and anyone who eats it LOVES IT! Stuff the turkey with;

 

a cut apple

sprigs of rosemary

1 lemon

1 onion

 

rub outside with butter and cloves of garlic

sprinkle with salt and pepper

 

Cook in a turkey bag according to Joy of Cooking directions.

 

We'll be trying the icing down of breasts after reading the information of a previous poster.

 

Enjoy!

 

Julie in Monterey

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Last year I chilled the breast meat with ziplocks filled with crushed ice for an hour before roasting. This step did SO MUCH for the texture and juiciness of the white meat. I'll do this again for sure.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree::iagree:

I got this tip from some magazine years ago and it really does work!

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How Cyndi Bakes a Turkey

 

By Cyndi

 

(ahem....) After thawing the bird I put honey all over it (an entire bottle!) then put bacon all over it (a whole pound!), then put it into a brown paper bag that I have buttered.

 

On second thought, put the turkey in the bag BEFORE you put the honey all over it. I'm just saying..........a honey-slickened bird could be difficult to wrestle into a buttered bag. (Don't ask me how I know that....) unsure.gif

 

Then chop celery (a couple of ribs) two carrots and an onion (I just cut the onion in fourths) and throw it all in there. Bake at whatever temp it says on www.butterball.com for however long it says for how many pounds he is.

 

 

It is sooooooo good! That honey bacon is DELICIOUS!! (and we fight over it!)

 

I used a regular brown paper bag that the groceries come in!~And the honey adds a GREAT sweet flavor to the turkey and the bacon bastes it as it bakes. I never had to baste it at all.

 

 

Oh, and YES, it WILL catch fire if you let the bag touch the heating element. That happened our first Thanksgiving at this new house. I did not realize at the time that the size of our oven is known, unofficially, in home-building circles as "one step up from Easy-Bake". No joke. A jellyroll pan won't even fit in there!

 

 

So, be forewarned. Or, have a fire extinguisher handy!

 

It doesn't make for an especially attractive turkey, as it looks like it's wearing a pork parka, but it is TASTY!

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My turkey is now ready to go into the oven in the morning. I'm using a tukey bag. For those of you who have used a Reynolds turkey bag and it exploded, I'm wondering if you floured the inside of the bag like the instructions say (the instruction insert in the box, not the instructions on the back of the box). I just noticed that tonight. It specifically says to use 1 tbsp. of flour inside the bag to keep the bag from bursting (put the flour in, hold the bag closed and shake to coat).

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