The Ultimate Turkey: More Tips

Posted by ReelTym

November 28,
2013

Some other recipes for a great turkey and tuber dinner

Latkes this year

This year Thanksgiving and Hannukah fall on the same date for the first time in more than a century. So why not swap out the mashed potatoes for latkes?
They are the absolute most perfect use of potatoes, better even than French fries, is to turn them into potato pancakes, which have crunchy mahogany edges, crispy golden midsections, and tender, rich, meaty interiors. They are hash brown on steroids. Click here for the story of why latkes are part of the Hannukah tradition, and the Rabbi's wife's recipe.

Enter the Pretty Bird Turkey Shoot Photo Contest

The picture here was taken by a reader, Brenda Gaston, and it won her first prize in my annual Pretty Bird Turkey Shoot Contest. Send me a picture of your bird and you might win one of four great prizes from Thermoworks, maker of some of my favorite thermometers and timers including the Thermapen, and you know how I preach thermometers. Click here to read more about these very cool tools. Click here to see the rules prizes and previous winners.

Why Thanksgiving is the most important American holiday

The following is excerpted from a commentary that ran in the Chicago Tribune on 11/27/2013, the day before Thanksgiving. Click here to read the whole article, Fight Back Against The War On Thanksgiving.

Why are we whining about a "War on Christmas" when it is really Thanksgiving that is under fire?

This year Macy's and many others will be open Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday starts on Thursday. It was bad enough that scores of stores opened at midnight, leaving little time for sleep, but now employers are forcing their "valued" employees to leave their food, family, and fellowship, and work through the meal and through the night, not to mention that they are enticing shoppers to leave the dirty dishes in search of bargains.

There are a lot of reasons to love Thanksgiving, chief among them the food, family, and fellowship. But think about this: Most of us, across the vastness of the nation, across all age groups, across politics and religion, across time going back 400 years, share a menu of turkey with dressing made from bread, the humblest and noblest of foods; potatoes, the most earthy peasant food; cranberries, a bauble sweet and sour like life itself; something green because it is good for us; and All-American apple pie.

OK, at your house you might skip the cranberries or prefer pumpkin pie, but the thought that so many of us are sharing this feast, this similar menu, this celebration, this unique national cultural touchstone, is enough to make me weep, all the more because food, my great love, is at the center of the action, even more so when I realize that thousands of you are eating my recipes.

The Thanksgiving ceremonial repast makes us all part of an unparalleled time-space continuum. It is truly the most important American holiday. Don't let them win the War on Thanksgiving. I look forward to dining with you every year.

My #1 top tip: Use digital thermometers

Turkey is unforgiving and your guests are unforgetting. Undercook, and turkey is slimy and after dinner everyone is praying to the porcelain god. Overcook, and you have attic insulation. The most important thing to do when cooking turkey is to hit the target temps on the money. Good news: It's easy with the right tools.

Take a look at the calendar. This is the digital age. Bi-metal dial thermometers were invented in the 1800s, and all but the most expensive models can most charitably be called indicators, not precision measuring instruments.

Cooking without a good digital thermometer is like driving without a speedometer, flying without an altimeter, building furniture without a tape measure, filling your tires without a pressure gauge, or repairing the reactor without a Geiger counter. Digital thermometers are inexpensive, fast, and accurate. They will pay for themselves in one steak dinner or one trip to the doctor.

You simply cannot trust the cheap bimetal dial thermometer that the manufacturer installed in your cooker, shown on the right. Grill manufacturers compete to undercut each other's prices so they are not about to install a high end thermometer, especially when most of their grills are used for hot dogs and burgers. They buy bargain basement. Even the top brands use cheapo thermometers. Look at the picture above. That dial thermometer is off by 50°F. This is common. And Hasty Bake is one of my favorite grill makers. They don't make junk grills.

Grill thermometers are not only inaccurate, but they are mounted in the lid, waaaay above the cooking surface. Well, the temp in the dome can be a lot different than the temp at the grate. The grate is much closer to the heat source and the dome is closer to the ambient air. If you are cooking on Thanksgiving Day north of the Mason-Dixon Line, that air temp is cold.

Neither can you trust the popup thermometer that comes inserted in the bird. The plunger that pops up is anchored in metal that melts at 185°F. At that temp a turkey breast is more particle board than party. We do not want our meat to go above 165°F so that 20°F difference is the difference between succulent and sucky. Worse still, if you stuff your bird, it is not measuring the temp of the stuffing which is several inches further away from the heat than the tip of the popup.

Neither can you trust the bi-metal "instant read" dial thermometer in your kitchen drawer. In most cases "instant read" means 30 seconds to get at best a ballpark reading. You need to be able to poke a breast and read it right now. You need to be able to pull it back gently and see how the temps vary throughout the meat. Then you need to move on and test the thigh. And then close the lid before all the heat escapes. If you have a bi-metal dial thermometer in the kitchen drawer, right now, go and throw it out.

I use two thermometers when I cook indoors or outdoors: The Maverick ET-732 and 733 have two probes. One that can be inserted into the breast and left there throughout the cook. The other has a clip so it can hover just above the cooking grate. Both are attached to cables that run from the probes to the outside of the grill so I can monitor the temperature of both the meat and the oven at any time without opening the lid. It even has a wireless monitor that I can sit on the coffee table while I watch the game, and alarms in case I snooze. There is another good one, the iGrill (above), that communicates with my iPhone and iPad via Bluetooth.

And just for good measure I use one more digital when I'm doing turkey, the super fast Thermapen, that I can use to spot check the meat in multiple locations.

Good therms will save you a lot of money and grief in the long run, and nothing will improve your cooking more, outdoor or in. Please click here for a in depth buying guide to thermometers.

Make muffings!

Now here's an outside the bird concept: Try cooking stuffing in well buttered muffin pans so each individual "muffing" will brown all around making lots more crunchy bits! If you want your stuffing wet and juicy, there will be lots of gravy from this recipe to pour over it.

If you absolutely positively must have the stuffing in the cavity, then make it very moist, heat it in up to 165°F and stuff the bird with steaming hot stuffing. Then the meat won't overcook while waiting for the stuffing to heat up.

If you must stuff the bird, then cook it at a lower temp, like 225°F so the exterior will not dry out as much. But you still must get everything up to 160 to 165°F before you take it off the heat because juices from the bird will get into the stuffing. For my favorite stuffing and muffing recipe, see chapter X.

Want some tips on how to amp up your stuffing? Want a good stuffing recipe? Try David Rosengarten's Classic Bread & Butter Stuffing With Cranberries.

What is the difference between white meat and dark meat?

As much as we are fascinated with breasts in this easily titillated society, I should set the record straight: Technically a turkey has one large breast divided by a breast bone. So as to not confuse, I shall be technically incorrect in this article and refer to each pectoral muscle as a separate breast.

Turkey breasts are called white meat because the muscles are paler than the meat of the legs and thighs. That's because domesticated turkeys can't fly, so their legs and thighs get more exercise than the breasts and wings. As a result, the muscles of the legs and thighs must be more efficient at using oxygen for continuous muscle contractions over an extended time. These "slow-twitch" muscles fire slowly and fatigue slowly, so they need more oxygen for fuel. To supply this oxygen they have more myoglobin and fat in them. Myoglobin is a pink protein liquid that stores oxygen brought to it by the blood, and fat is a storehouse of fuel. The pink liquid in the plastic bag the bird comes in is myoglobin. Dark meat is pink when cooked medium rare just like pork, but for safety reasons we cook it well past pink until it turns gray.

Breast meat is made of "fast-twitch" pectoral muscles that are good at short bursts of rapid contraction, but they fatigue quickly. They don't need much oxygen so they have much less of the pink myoglobin leaving the meat white when cooked.

Since domesticated birds are largely confined and get little exercise, none of their muscles have nearly as much myoglobin for storing oxygen as red meat animals such as beef.

Salt, brining, and injecting

Salt is important because it amplifies flavor and because it denatures the protein in the muscles helping it hold moisture in during cooking.

Nowadays most grocery store turkeys have a salt solution injected and say so on the label. Kosher birds have also been salted at the factory. If your bird has salt added, you're good to go. You don't need to add any more.

For years I have advocated wet brining unsalted turkey, but I have changed my tune and I now prefer dry brining and/or injecting. Yes, I am a flip-flopper, so don't vote for me if I run for President.

Wet brining involves submerging the meat in a tub of salt water. I quit wet brining because it wastes a lot of herbs, spices, salt, and with some recipes, fruit juice. Salt gets in, but only a little salt. The rest are wasted because most of their molecules are too large to penetrate the skin or the meat which are already at water holding capacity. They just settle on the surface. You can have the same impact with a good rub. Then the brined bird must be kept chilled, occupying fridge space or in a cooler that must be watched. Very little water from the brine enters the bird although some chefs say they think the meat tastes diluted. Finally, drippings from the bird are salty and can ruin the gravy. Click here to read more about the science of wet brining.

Nowadays I dry brine. I simply sprinkle salt on the surface of the meat 24 hours in advance. It dissolves and gets sucked into the meat. Click here to learn more about dry brining.

Research for AmazingRibs.com by Dr. Greg Blonder is fascinating. He took a 12" long tube of lean pork loin and soaked it in a 6% brine for 24 hours in the fridge. Periodically he lopped off a cross section and treated it with an indicator that showed salty meat. After 2 hours the salt had penetrated only 1/4", and after 24 hours the salt had traveled only 2/3" deep in the meat. When you wet brine or dry brine, the salt remains pretty close to the surface.

But when you start cooking the meat, the brine starts moving deep down, seasoning the meat pretty thoroughly.

Another technique that works well is to inject a brine. Injecting is a sure fire way to get the salt down deep. It is the only way to get fats, herbs, spices and other large molecules deep into meat. By injecting, you don't have to worry about oversalting, you can do it at the last minute, you have less waste, less cost, no huge containers are needed, no refrigeration space problems, and the biggest safety issue is making sure you don't stab yourself.

To inject, you need a special hypodermic for food. For more on the subject and for my poultry brine injection read my article on The Zen of Injecting.

In recent years I have hit upon the perfect solution. Rather than dilute the meat with water by injecting with a brine, I dry brine and then I inject with butter. Read on:

Butterballing the meat

If your bird has had a salt solution injected at the factory, or if you dry brined like I do, you can still amp it up and add richness and flavor by injecting melted butter into the breasts. This is especially effective because breasdts are so lean. Yes, that's how Butterball got its name. Alas, they no longer use butter.

Melt 1 stick of butter (4 ounces) over a low heat. If the bird is salted, unsalted is best, but the small amount of salt in salted butter won't make things too salty. If the bird is unsalted, then use salted butter and dry brine. Use the same tools and methods described in my article on injecting.

I usually inject only the breasts because dark meat is moister, but you can give it a shot or two if you wish. Because the meat is pretty full of natural water to begin with, it will not absorb much butter. You can shoot her up the day before or at the last minute. It won't make a big difference.

If there is butter left, add it to the gravy. It has been contaminated by the needle, so do not put it back in the fridge. Resist the temptation to put it on the skin because it will turn to a thick goo and you will be unable to properly rub on the spices and herbs.

Wet brining

As I have said elsewhere, although I did it for years, I am no longer a fan of wet brining. It takes up too much space, is a major hassle, wastes a lot of juice and spices, doesn't work better than dry brining and/or injecting, and even pulls juices out of the meat. But I know a lot of you like to do it, so here's how I used to do it.
You can start this process up to two days in advance, even on a partially frozen bird. Brine for 12 hours, air dry in the fridge for 24 hours.
Remember, don't wet brine a bird that has been pre-salted at the factory. I know from first hand experience, and my wife won't let me forget it. Birds that have been pre-salted are labeled "basted", "self-basted", "enhanced", or "kosher".
For the brine
1 cup [237 ml] hot water in a 2 cup measuring cup
1 pound [454 gm] salt (any salt will do)
1 cup [237 ml] white sugar
8 tablespoons of garlic powder (not garlic salt)
6 tablespoons ground black pepper
2 gallons [7.6 L] cold water, apple juice, chicken stock, vegetable stock
About the salt. The method we use to mix the brine doesn't care what type of salt you use becuse we are going by weight not volume. The volume will vary significantly depending on whether you use table salt, kosher salt, pickling salt, or sea salt, but the weight remains the same. Sounds weird, but you'll see how it works.
About the sugar. If you are diabetic, you can skip the sugar, although truth be told, very little actually gets into the meat.
Method
1) Add one cup of hot water to a two cup measuring cup. Then pour in salt, any salt, until the water line reaches 2 cups. It doesn't matter if you have table salt, kosher salt, or sea salt. The volume may differ when it is dry, but the weight is the same, and the displacement of the water is the same. It's called Archimedes' principle.
Pour the slurry into a very clean container large enough to hold the meat and 2 gallons of water. The best tool is a plastic insulated cooler. If the cooler is large, you may need to scale up the brine recipe to make sure the bird is submerged. You can use something like a large stainless steel pot, but the ice will melt quickly if it doesn't fit in the fridge and you'll need to add more ice. Do not use an aluminum pot. It can react with the salt and create off flavors. If you only have an aluminum pot, line it with a food safe plastic bag such as the Ziploc XL. But the best tool by far is an insulated plastic cooler. You can use it later when the bird is done to keep it warm. Just clean it thoroughly with hot soapy water.
Then add the sugar, garlic, and black pepper. Stir until most of the sugar is dissolved. The garlic and pepper will not dissolve. Then add the cold water.
2) Submerge the meat in the brine breast side (the large humped side) down and refrigerate. If you can't fit it in the fridge toss in a gallon zipper bag filled with ice. Or two. The bags should be tight so that when the ice melts it doesn't dilute the brine. If you use a bag of ice from the store, make sure it is tight so the ice won't melt and dilute the brine. Clean storebought bags of ice thoroughly with soap and water and rinse them completely. People often walk on them in the delivery truck. Another option is to fill a quart juice or soda bottle with water and freeze it. Then screw on the cap. Wait til after the bottle has frozen because water expands when it freezes and it can blow off the cap. Wash off the outside of the bottle thoroughly and toss it in the brine.
Move the bird around and get the air bubble out of the cavity. You may need to weight the meat down to submerge it. If you cannot submerge it, make sure you turn it periodically and extend it's time in the bath. Let the bird swim in the brine for up to 12 hours in a refrigerator or other cool place. Keep the brine under 40°F, adding more ice when necessary. If you can see unmelted ice, it is probably below 40°F.
3) After no more than 12 hours, remove the bird, rinse it thoroughly inside and out so the exterior will not be too salty, and pat dry. Be sure not to leave it in the brine longer than 12 hours. Rinsing is crucial!
4) While the skin is soft and elastic, insert your fingers carefully between the skin and the meat and loosen it all around so later you can put the wet rub in there. You can work from both the front and rear, and reach down to the thighs and wings.
5) If time permits, place the bird on a rack in the refrigerator for 3 hours or more so the skin will dry. You can even leave it there overnight. This will help make the skin crispy. Make sure you put a pan under the bird to catch drips.

Too tall a Tom? In a hurry? Butterfly that bird.

If the lid on your your grill is too low then butterfly (spatchcock) the bird. If you are in a hurry the bird cooks more quickly when cut up.

The cavity will brown better, the bird will cook faster, and it is easy to get your hands under the skin where the backbone came out. Butterflies are also easier to carve when done.

You'll need good pair of poultry shears. A knife will work, but shears will work better. Get sturdy stainless blades so you can cut through the ribs. The best models come apart at the hinge so they can go in the dishwasher. Try OXO Good Grips Professional Poultry Shears, above. In a pinch, tin snips from your tool kit in the garage will do the job.

1) To butterfly a bird, remove the backbone by cutting along both sides of it. You don't have to be precise. Rinse off any dark brown organ parts and discard them, and throw the backbone in the drip pan.

2) Cut off the wing tips and toss them in the drip pan, too.

3) From the front cavity, either remove the wishbone for the kids, or cut through it with your shears. This will help you flatten it.

4) Now you can open the bird up and squish it flat. You may need to take a knife and make shallow slits on either side of the breast bone in order to flatten it, but it doesn't have to be perfectly flat.

5) Put rub/seasoning on the underside and skip the onion, garlic, etc. for the cavity.

Total control: Cut the bird in 6 parts

If you don't feel obligated by tradition to serve a whole bird, then consider cutting it into parts. You can then get the light meat and dark meat cooked perfectly because they are independent of each other. Try this:

Remove the backbone and toss it in the gravy. Then remove the wings. Cut the tips off the wings and throw them in the gravy. Cut off the thighs at the ball joint where it meets the body. Bend the drum and thigh away from each other so it is easy to find the knee joint and cut them apart. Now remove the breasts by running your knife along the sides of the breast bone and follow the bones with your kinife along the rib cage until you have two big breasts. By removing the ribcage you can brown the meat on all sides and it is easier to slice. Those puny ribs are not effective in keep ing the meat moist no matter what you have read.

Preheat the grill in a 2-zone setup and shoot for about 325°F in the indirect zone. Start the thighs and breasts first on the indirect side. After 15 to 20 minutes, add the drums and wings. Watch their temps individually with an instant read thermometer. Remove the breasts and the thick part of the wings at 160 to 165°F and the dark meat at 170°F. When the meat hits about 150°F, if the skins aren't crisp, move the meat over to the direct side. If you want, you can even go crazy and paint on a sauce. Everything will be tender, juicy, and finished in about 1.5 to 2 hours because parts cook more quickly than a whole bird.

Cooking turkey breasts only

If you don't want to do a whole bird, you can get turkey breasts. They come in three forms, a double breast cut off the bird with bone in (above), a single boneless breast (below), or two breasts de-boned and rolled together and held tight with a mesh. The mesh is a pain to get off after you are done cooking. I much prefer the bone in breasts or boneless breasts. A 3 to 6 pound breast will be done in 1.5 to 2 hours at 325°F, and larger breasts will be done in 2 to 2.5 hours. Boneless double breasts tied as roasts take about 2 to 2.5 hours.

Just follow the same basic concept as for the whole bird. Inject or dry brine, watch the temp like a hawk circling a flock of turkeys. You will need to add chicken stock to the gravy because there will be few drippings and no neck and skin to throw in there. Another option is to paint them with a Teriyaki or Yakitori sauce.

But if you're going to the trouble, why not cook the whole bird and savor the leftovers in sandwiches, salads, pot pies... ?

Is pink meat safe?

Yes, it can be, according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), if it has been cooked to a temperature of 165°F in the center of the breast.

First of all, some turkey meat is naturally pink. According to the USDA "The color of cooked meat and poultry is not always a sure sign of its degree of doneness. Only by using a food thermometer can one accurately determine that a meat has reached a safe temperature. Turkey, fresh pork, ground beef, or veal can remain pink even after cooking to temperatures of 160°F and higher. The meat of smoked turkey is always pink."

In addition, smoked meat turns pink due to a chemical reaction with the combustion gases and the smoke and the meat. For the Ultimate Turkey, we take the bird off at 160°F and it will rise to 165°F even if it is off the cooker.

Click here for more on what are ideal meat temps. Click here for more on meat science and the thermodynamics of cooking.

What about red or pink juices?

Because of the speed with which commercial turkey farms grow their birds, it is not uncommon for there to be red or pink juices in the thigh joints even if the meat is properly cooked to 165°F. That's because the joints bones have not had a chance to properly harden. If a little red makes you nervous, even if your thermometer is at 165°F, after carving, a minute or two in the microwave will take care of it.

Rotisseries

Rotisseries are a good way to cook meat because the process of rotating it between hot and cool zones retains juices and insures even cooking, but I don't recommend them for turkey.

The problem is that you need to truss the bird up tight on a spit or else the wings and drums go flopping around and get burned. If you truss your bird, the skin beneath the wings, thighs, and drums never darkens and stays rubbery. And because the thigh is pressed tightly against the side, it takes too long to warm and cook through, so by the time it hits ideal temp, about 170°F, the breast is overcooked. That's why I recommend cooking turkey untrussed.

In addition, it is difficult to balance the bird on the spit. If it is imbalanced it puts serious strain on the motor. I've heard of them burning out. Replacement motors are usually north of $100. Some rotisseries come with counterweights that you put on the handle to balance the whole gizmo, like the weights you put on tires to balance them. That is a good thing.

Finally, the bird can rip loose of its moorings, and then you have torn breasts. I say fogeddaboudit.

Vertical roasters

If your cooker is tall enough, and most eggs, kamados, and ceramic grills are, you may wish to roast the bird vertically. The device you want is a wire armature that supports the bird like the Spanek Vertical Roaster (at right).

The advantage of a vertical roaster is that you get much better airflow up into the cavity than when the bird is reclining and that means better smoke penetration from the inside as well as more even and faster cooking. The disadvantage is that you can't easily put aromatics in the cavity which you can do when the bird is horizontal. Just make sure the tail sits about 3" above the drip pan for proper airflow.

Don't put a beer can up your bird's butt

You don't want a beer can type arrangement or anything with solid sides because the metal blocks airflow to the cavity and impedes smoke and heat. And no, the liquid in the can will not add moisture to the meat, especially where the can is in contact with meat. Click here to read the science explaining why beer can chicken and turkey are bad ideas.

Breasts up!

Some people like to cook breast side down because they think fat and juices will percolate down and keep the breast moist.

But juices simply can't travel much through muscle fibers which confine them. They are not straws and the breast is not a jug of juice that flows with gravity. When you sleep on your stomach, your chest doesn't swell does it? Especially since the fibers in the breasts run horizontally, not top to bottom. And if they could flow, pressure would push them up, away from the heat, like the liquid in a glass thermometer.

And where would these juices come from? Visualize an upside down turkey. The breast is maybe 3" thick at most. What is above it? The cavity. No juices there! Even if the cavity was filled with liquid, there are no pipelines for juices to travel through. In fact, the breasts sit on the rib cage and beneath that is the pleura, a semi-permeable membrane that would hamper flow.

If you turn your bird upside down because you want fat to baste the breasts, alas, breasts have little fat. It's in the skin, which would be below the breasts if they were upside down, so melting fat would just drip out, not bathe the meat.

Finally, if you cook breast down, you smush the breasts and put marks on the skin, and if you put the bird in a roasting pan, the skin will probably not brown properly. Ugly.

Give your bird a lift

You'll need something to lift the hot turkey out of the cooker. You can buy specialized turkey lifters, but they are mono-taskers. I use my bear paws (shown here).

They were designed for pulling pork, but they can do double duty as lifters. Click here for more info about these handy tools.

If you don't want another gadget in the kitchen, you can lift a turkey with two wooden spoons. Just stick the handle of each into the front and rear cavity.

Don't sweat the timing with a faux cambro

If you are unsure about what temp your cooker will settle in at, and variables like the ambient temperature, sun, and wind can really muck things up, I recommend you put the bird on 30 to 60 minutes early, and when the probe says it is 160 to 165°F, put the bird into a faux Cambro to keep the bird warm until dinner time. A real Cambro is an insulated storage box popular with caterers. A faux cambro is a beer cooler.

The meat temp will rise about 5°F at first, and an hour later the temp will have dropped only about 5 to 10°F! Just don't let it drop below 150°F. If you have a good cooler, it should stay safe for up to 3 hours. This technique will soften the skin a bit, but that's better than going cold turkey. So get that cooler cleaned up before you start cooking.

The faux cambro is especially handy if you need to take the bird over the river and through the woods. Click here to read more about how to use a faux Cambro.

Over the river and through the woods

I know you want to show off, but if dinner is more than 2 to 3 hours away, you need to cook the bird to 160°F, then chill the bird and re-heat it to 160°F when you get there. This is called "serving leftovers for Thanksgiving dinner." Now why would you do that? The meat will be dry and you'll need a lot of my thin gravy to moisten it. I strongly recommend you serve freshly cooked meat or let somebody else cook the bird. If you have to cook the bird and travel more than two hours, then get there early and cook it there. Re-therming a cooked bird can take almost as much time as cooking it from scratch.

You will not enhance your rep with dry meat.

Granny's gravy

If you absolutely must make traditional thick gravy, here's how:

1) Take about 4 tablespoons of the turkey fat and/or butter and put it in a saucepan over medium heat with 4 tablespoons of flour (the ratio is 1:1). Flour tastes better than cornstarch if you do this properly. Whisk the flour until the mixture is smooth, and keep whisking until it starts to turn pale amber, about 3 minutes. This is called a medium roux. The browning cooks the flour and kills the pasty flavor. You can make it richer by cooking it longer and letting it get darker, but don't let it turn brown.

2) Slowly pour 1 cup [237 ml] of the smoked gravy into the roux, whisking it over medium heat as you pour, and keep whisking until it thickens and all lumps are gone.

3) Taste it before you add anything. You will probably want to add another cup of the thin gravy. You should not need to add salt and pepper. This should make the traditionalists very happy because this smoky, enriched stock will make a better gravy than any they ever had.

Talking turkey trivia

A mature male is a tom, a female is a hen, an immature male is a jake, an immature female is a jenny. Some people believe hens are slightly more tender than toms, but because most turkeys are slaughtered when young, usually 4 to 5 months old, there is no noticeable difference according to taste tests by Cook's Illustrated magazine.

Wild turkeys can fly short distances to escape hunters. They can run fast, too. Domestic turkeys are too heavy to fly.

The old saw that turkeys are so stupid that they will look up in a rainstorm and drown is a myth. They can, however, be drowned in gravy.

The flap of skin on top of the beak is a snood, the flap under the beak is the wattle.

The gizzard can contain stones to help the turkey with digestion.

Turkeys are native to North America. They were exported to Europe in the 16th century.

Stop blaming the tryptophan. The reason you fall asleep after dinner is not because of tryptophan in the turkey. It doesn't have much more of this essential amino acid than other meats. According to research, the ratio of tryptophan to food is about the same as a pork chop, chicken, salmon, beef, lamb chops. You fall asleep because you are exhausted from cooking, cleaning, inlaws, chasing kids, stuffing your face, and watching the poor pitiful Lions.

Turkeys are nervous, but like being stroked and cuddled. Just like Meathead.

Ben Franklin and the national bird.
Was he serious?

It is often said that Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) prefered the turkey to the eagle as our national bird, but it is not clear that he was serious. The notion comes from a letter he wrote to his daughter, Sarah Franklin Bache (1768-1807), on January 26, 1784. In the letter he is critical of the eagle's habits and the artwork depicting it, perhaps mocking the fact that it took six years for Congress to chose a national bird. It sounds to me as if Franklin, known for his wit, was exercising it well:

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perch'd on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

"With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward...

"I am, on this account, not displeas'd that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turky. For in truth, the Turky is in comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America... He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on."

Wine for turkey: Match the sides, not the bird

Turkey, gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie. No other meal has such a set menu. So what to serve?

When cooked properly, turkey can be tasty and moist. When overcooked, as it often is, the dry meat is neutral and unexciting. So we moisten it with gravy and cranberry sauce and surround it with sweet dishes to enliven it.

If the task of selecting the beverage to accompany the annual eat-in has fallen to you, remember the sweetness of the sides, the fact that you are buying for everyone, not just yourself, and the fact that the average American does not like wine that is very dry.

What is needed is something quenching to wash down overcooked white meat, something with a hint of sweetness so it will not taste bitter beside the sweet side dishes, something tart enough to cut their sweetness, and something friendly that everybody will love.

Below are my recommendations for different types of wines. Ask your wine merchant for specific recommendations. They will rarely steer you wrong because they want you back.

With a hint of sweetness

German Riesling Kabinett. German Riesling is light and fresh, and Kabinett is a grade of wine that is slightly sweet, but not too sweet. It can be floral and like a handful of fresh grapes.

Austrian Riesling, New York Riesling, and Washington State Riesling. Occasionally as good as the best German Rieslings, Austrian Rieslings are good values, and the best New Yorkers and Washingtonians, although not cheap, can be shockingly good.

Alsace Riesling. Similar to German Riesling, but often a bit more complex from aging in wood barrels.

Alsace Pinot Blanc. Refreshing, tart, complex, with just a hint of sweetness.

Alsace Pinot Gris and Oregon Pinot Gris. Light and tart. Steer away from California Pinot Gris. It is usually dull and boring.

French Rhone whites, American Viognier, American Rousanne, and American Marsanne. These are bigger wines, richer, complex, but rarely too sharp or harsh. Often reminiscent of tropical fruits.

Rosé and other pink wines. These wines are very refreshing and delightful. Alas, most are too sweet. But if you can find a good one that is off-dry, it will go well with your meal.

Drier wines

If your guests are into wine and prefers them bone dry, and if your meal is more savory than sweet:

Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. I love these wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand and white wines from Bordeaux, but they are usually bone dry, and are not great matches to all the sweet stuff. If your meal is mostly savory, and your guests winos, go this route.

Pinot Noir and French Burgundy. The best of these are expensive, but they can be lighter than Cabernet and Merlot, and more tart, making them great foils for rich savory foods.

Click here for some websites that are good sources of specific wine recommendations.

If you must fry it

Frying a turkey is fast, captures a lot of moisture in the meat, and produces really crisp skin. It is also a great way to burn down your house or put you in the hospital. I don't think fried turkey is as tasty as smoked or grilled, so I don't recommend it and I will not share a recipe for it, but as a safety precaution for those of you who insist on taking the risk, above is a photo from the nice folks at ThermoWorks showing the proper way to do it.

Notice the bird is suspended in the oil on a rope so it can be gently lowered and raised. The worst thing you can do is drop a cold bird into hot oir rapidly. It practically explotedes the oil out of the pot and onto the flames.
Notice that there is no lid so steam will not build up under the cover.
Notice the foil protecting the gas tube.
Notice the asphalt floor.
Notice the Two-Channel Thermocouple Thermometer with Alarm #TW8060 with two 5" Penetration Probes with Flat Cables (103-160), one in the bird, and one clipped to the side to measure the oil temp.
Here is a video and a song on the subject:

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 28, 2013 and is filed under BBQ, Recipe, Smoking . You can leave a response and follow any responses to this entry through the Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) .

Filed under BBQ, Recipe, Smoking

0 comments

Pronounced

[ ree - uh

l- tahym , reel - ]

–noun Fishing .

of or pertaining to the period in which a fisherman must leave to go fishing.

–adjective Computers .

of or pertaining to applications in which the computer must respond as rapidly as required by the user or necessitated by the process being controlled.

ReelTym

The Ultimate Turkey: More Tips

0 comments

Post a Comment

Categories

Recent Posts

Archives

Favorite Links

Favorite Tunes

Pronounced