November 22, 2004

• Turkey, My Way

  Derek asked me to send him a message detailing how I prepare a turkey the easy way. Rather than go to all of that effort for one person one time, I decided to make it a Weblog entry.

  I have enjoyed slow cooking for many years. The secret is that meats and most other foods will cook at any temperature over 140 degrees. This is also the temperature that kills most bacteria. The lowest temperature slow cooker I used had three settings, the lowest being 145 degrees, and it would do the job even at that low a temperature provided the temperature was never allowed to drop. That meant the lid had to be kept in place.

  Most authorities say turkeys should be cooked until they reach 185 degrees. Ovens turn on and off, their temperatures fluctuating wildly in the process, so I've found that setting the oven somewhere in the range of 200 to 225 degrees will keep the contents at 185 degrees or more. It will depend on the particular oven you are using. Some ovens do the job better at the lower temperature, some work better at the higher temperature.

  You will be cooking for much longer than you would by conventional methods. I usually try to get my bird in the oven the night before I intend to serve it, set the cooking timer for nine hours and let the oven keep the bird warm with residual heat until I need to cook something else in it. It doesn't have to cook that long but it can cook longer with no harm.

  The result will not be a showpiece you can place on the table for carving. It will be an overcooked bird that is falling apart, too well cooked for carving. The meat will be juicy, though, rather than dry, particularly if you inject the breast with an appropriate mixture.

  The following steps should be followed:

  1. Rinse your bird inside and out. Remove any remaining feathers or pinfeathers. Toss a shot of scotch, brandy or aromatic gin into the cavity, rotate the bird to distribute the liquid throughout the cavity, then toss in another shot. Cover the bird with a clean cloth and pour a shot or two over the cloth. Set aside in a cool place.
  2. Put the neck and giblets in a pot with enough water to cover, add sage, pepper and other spices, a quartered onion, some garlic and celery, and cook at a low setting, to be used later in your stuffing or gravy.
  3. Prepare a mixture of two parts brandy to one part butter, warming it enough to keep the butter liquid. Warning: do not add salt to the injected mixture or the meat will become dry when cooked. Get the largest hypodermic needles you can find and inject the warm mix generously into the breast and thighs. This used to be what they did with the Butterball turkeys before they switched to a cheap substitute that doesn't work as well. You will find that the liquid cools quickly and the syringes become slippery, so it is better to have two people working together, one filling syringes while the other injects. Inject only the turkey, not each other or yourself.
  4. I always make at least twice as much stuffing as will fit into the bird. It doesn't matter what kind of stuffing you use. I've used bread stuffings, cornbread stuffings and rice stuffing. Just make sure the stuffing has lots of flavorful goodies in it. Sausage, prunes and nuts go well in the stuffings I make. Stuff the body and neck cavities loosely, then place the remaining stuffing in a Corningware or other container and cook it in the microwave. The neck cavity usually has a generous flap of skin you can sew up to hold the stuffing in (don't use dental floss; get a lacing kit with a length of linen cord). The body cavity can sometimes be sealed with a simple buttered slice of bread, particularly the heel, or you can use the skewers and lace from your lacing kit.
  5. Turkey skin is a delicacy which should be enjoyed by the cook. Mix together some flour with pepper, sage, garlic powder and your favorite spices, oil the top surface of the bird generously (I use olive oil) and cover it with the flavored flour mixture. The bottom of your cooking bag or roasting pan should be lined with chunks of onion and celery. Place the turkey in the bag, seal it and punch a few steam vents. Place the cooking bag in a large, high-walled pan or place the lid on the roasting pan.
  6. Place the turkey on the lowest rack of the cool oven, set the temperature and timer and do something else for a while. This is when I usually go to bed. This is also a good time to consume a preview sample of the dressing you cooked in the microwave.
  7. When the turkey finishes cooking, remove it from the oven and set it aside to cool. Trying to carve or divide a hot turkey is a frustrating task, so give it plenty of time, better than an hour. When you can safely handle the bird, remove it from the bag or pan, gobbling the skin when nobody is looking. Throw out the used bag, onion chunks and celery chunks, but save the liquid to combine with the giblet liquid for making the gravy.
  8. When everything else is ready, you remove the dressing from the turkey, mixing it with the microwaved dressing, then cut the turkey up into serving-sized chunks you can arrange on a platter. Turkey and dressing should still be warm at this point.
  9. The very last thing you do before serving the meal is to make the gravy.

  Doing a turkey this way avoids the problem of critical timing. Your meat is guaranteed to be well-done but juicy and flavorful. Preparation is broken up by a period of sleep or other activity, reducing the stress levels. By starting earlier, the process is made less frantic.

  It works for me.

  • 23:37
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