I've followed my own advise and I have my little turkey (only 12.3 pounds) resting comfortably on a rack in my fridge after a nice rub-down with salt, sugar and herbs.
So now I have to decide how to actually cook this bird come daybreak tomorrow. My grandmother actually used to start her Turkey Wednesday night and roast it overnight at 200 degrees. People in my family still have fond memories of that tasty treat and it must be admitted that no one ever got ill after eating it, but I just don't think I'd feel comfortable cooking that slow and low myself. Let me take that back - I'll try it sometime, but not for Thanksgiving. There is a lot riding on the Thanksgiving day Turkey.
My plan - as of this moment, but believe me it is subject to change - is to start my turkey off at 450, breast side down for 20 to 30 minutes. Then I'll turn the turkey over - always tricky - and maybe lower the heat to 400 for another 20 minutes and then lower the heat to 350 until the end or maybe I'll lower it to 325, or 300 sounds good. I can never decide. The idea behind this is that the high heat at the start will give me my very crispy skin, but the low heat to finish will cook the meat more gently and produce a better finished texture.
I did something along these lines last year and, due to a few miscalculations, had my turkey completely done and out of the oven at 11:30. We weren't eating until 1:00. I was a bit stressed out about this at the time, but I covered it in foil and put a hot damp kitchen towel over the foil to hold in the heat. The turkey was absolutely the best one I've ever served... the long rest did it wonders... although I don't know if I'd plan that long a rest intentionally. The USDA would certainly not approve, but don't let that scare you off. I'm aiming to have my bird done by noon so that it can rest for a least an hour before I carve it.
I'll let you know how things turn out.
1 comment:
I ended up not using your dry salt method because I chose economy over quality. I know, I know; but Freddies was giving away turkeys if you spent over $100 - so I got a free 19 pounder but already seasoned. I followed the recipe in the Basics cookbook ;-) and it turned out great - almost 5 hours (it was still slightly frozen which caused a slight panic) at 325 degrees. We spent the last hour basting every 10 minutes with its own juices and a tawny port. Very crispy, almost sweet outside, very juicy inside. The stuffing called for apples, sausage, chopped hazelnuts and dried cherries (I used craisins instead) it was great and well received too! Looking forward to those left-overs!
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