TURKEY TALK
I'll be honest, I'm not sure which I like better, swapping Thanksgiving turkey recipes or swapping stories about wrestling with Thanksgiving turkeys (and I mean that literally in one case).
MEAT TO EAT
Didyaknow, you'll get the best meat-to-bone ratio on turkeys weighing over 12 lbs.
The one thing people seem to forget when buying turkey for a gathering is that you need to factor in the bone weight when planning how many lbs. to purchase.
Fr'instance, in college, my roommates and I decided to host a turkey dinner with all the fixin's for our friends who had not yet left for the holidays. So we bought a 15-lb. turkey for 15 people... :/ Being the gracious hosts we were, we gave our guests the bounty from the bird and made do with the bone scrapings for ourselves. We were like hyenas picking the bones cleaned. Not pretty, but lesson learned.
I usually count 2-3 lbs. for bones and then plan accordingly after that. In looking around online, I found a useful site at USA Today to help with that and any other T-day math needs you might have.
GIBBLES and Other Fun Parts
okay, I know they're called giblets, but seriously, isn't "gibbles" more fun to say?
You want to make sure the first thing you do is locate the packet of extraneous parts and remove it from the bird before cooking. You laugh, but it's amazing how many people forget about that and consequently how many birds are inedible as a result of that (because they are usually encased in plastic).
Just a heads up, the body cavity isn't the only place they get tucked away. For the above mentioned turkey dinner, I came home to find one of my roommates and a friend of ours conducting a cavity search...with a flashlight...on our turkey. It was under the neck flap, on the other end of the bird. It was not a good year for that bird.
Some people I know roast the extras when they cook their turkey and then add them to the gravy for bonus flavor, or you can boil them up separately, drain it and use it in making your gravy.
IS IT CHILLY IN THERE?
So for those of you who fly fresh when it comes to turkeys, kudos on saving yourself a lot of headache and super bravo for planning so well in advance. I'm not familiar with many places that you can procure a fresh turkey without having to pre-order it several weeks before the week before Thanksgiving. Heads up though, if you haven't purchased fresh turkey before, it does cost more than frozen.
For the rest of us, who despite our better intentions, do not plan that far ahead, the challenge of the best way to defrost a bird lies ahead. It's still going to take some pre-planning, so don't expect a day of miracle.
The two most recommended ways to properly defrost a turkey are in the refrigerator or using a cold water bath. The foodsafety.gov has a handy chart that breaks down time/days to bird weight, so definitely check that out.
De-frigeration (don't know if that's a real word, but please feel free to use it) takes longer, but doesn't require as much attention. Pop it in the fridge (breast side up) still in its wrapper and let sit for the per weight allotted amount of time.
Cold water bathing doesn't require as much time and does require a bit more attention because you'll need to change out of the water every so often so that it doesn't get too cold which becomes counter-productive to the whole defrosting process.
In my family, we usually go the bath route, quite literally one year. Was at my brother's house and my sis-in-law and I decided to toss the bird in the kid's bathtub. Turned the water on and let it fill...only we kind of forgot that we left the water running until one of my young nieces came by and made a comment about how much fun the turkey was having in the tub. We got there before things go too messy (and the turkey enjoyed a nice cold bath).
NO DRY GUY
Universally, I think the biggest challenge to preparing a turkey is keeping it moist. All the gravy in the word can't disguise a dry bird.
One method is using fat. Fat = flavor. Fat = moisture. A bird's natural fat is one way to maintain moisture, but oftentimes because fat has become a less than pleasant word when associated with food, your bird may have already been cleaned of excess fat. A couple of ways to introduce this back is by using butter or bacon or fatback.
Barding is adding a thin sheet of fatback or a layer of bacon across the top of your bird. The drippings will soak into the bird, keeping it moist and add a nice flavor to the pan drippings which can be turned into gravy. The thing to remember about using bacon, though, is that you are going to have to fight off family to claim the crispy goodness from the top of the bird. Trust me, it's worth a few bruises.
Larding is inserting fat into the food, I've done this before by putting butter under the skin of the turkey and it melts into the bird. Again, gives some nice flavor to your drippings.
Another way to keep the turkey moist before cooking is to add moisture to it.
Brining seems like the trendy thing to do this year as I've seen lots of brining packets available at various shops. It's similar to marinating, but takes much longer (up to 10 hours) so does require some serious planning ahead. At it's most basic, a brine is a mixture of salt, sugar and water, but usually folks will add herbs and spices to help infuse the bird with more flavor. Brining hydrates the uncooked bird in such a way that it not only adds flavor, but helps to tenderize it and can shorten the cooking time.
There are several sites online, including one by Butterball which provides instructions on how properly brine a bird.
Okay, this seems like as good a place as any to stop right now. As I was researching this I discovered that there's a lot of be said about turkey prep, so I am going to continue this discussion on Wednesday...or possibly Tuesday because I know most of you will be busy getting ready for the big day on Wednesday...but in either case, there will be more to come. Plan to talk to you about cooking methods and hopefully provide some helpful hints along the way.
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