Turkey Essentials

Every year, as thanksgiving and the holidays approach, people start asking me for tips to preparing a good turkey. As if I was some sort of poultry expert. I guess I've cooked a few turkeys and I've learned a couple of things along the way. Here, all in one place, are my tips for preparing your bird.

By the way, there are no less than a bazillion pages on the internet devoted to cooking turkey. You should search them out. Some of the better ones are hosted by poultry manufacturers. I guess this just makes it a bazillion and one.

Disclaimer

Your milage may vary. This page won't tell you HOW to cook your turkey, just how to prepare it. You may choose to roast it in the oven on a rack. You may choose to use one of those convenience products like the oven roasting bags. I like to put mine in the barbecue pit and let them have a bit of hickory smoke. You could even deep fry your bird. Your on your own when it comes to cooking your foul. You can find plenty of advice regarding the best temperatures and times based on your product weight on the internet, so you won't find it here. I will give you my tips for preparing your bird for cooking. Maybe you'll find something in here that works for you.

Product Selection

First thing to consider is how much turkey you need, and what parts of the bird you want to serve. In the food service industry this is known as product specifications, and you would be very detailed about it so you could solicit bids from different purveyors. In the home kitchen its just you heading to the local grocery store, still you have the same decisions to make. White meat only, or white and dark? Whole turkey, or just a trimmed breast? Do I really need the drumsticks, wings, neck bones, giblets and all that mess? How many portions do I need? How much can I spend?

You should also understand the difference between white and dark meat. The darker meat is a result of muscles that the bird uses more frequently, like the legs and thighs on a turkey. Fat deposits develop here and that results in more flavor, but can also produce a tougher meat. The white meat is a result of not using a muscle very often. A domestic turkey raised for market doesn't fly very much, but will still develop large breast muscles due to the hormones in its diet. Turkey breast meat will be very lean. Dark meat and white meat cook differently. The white meat will become done sooner and can dry out before the other parts of the turkey are done. You can overcome this through various cooking techniques, like injecting the bird, keeping the bird covered, or basting it as it is cooking.

You'll have to make your own decisions here. For me, I like to use the breast meat only, still on the bone. This makes a convenient size to fit in the smoker, everyone likes white meat, and there is not much waste. Butterball makes a nice, whole, bone in turkey breast. You may have it in your mind to cook the whole bird because your accustomed to seeing it photographed in enticing ways in food magazines, and it seems like the traditional thing to do. It can certainly be done, but remember they don't use real food in those pictures.

Product Preparation

You'll want to prepare your bird for cooking, regardless of which cooking method you have chosen. This is where you can make your product stand out by spending a little extra time in the prep'ing.

The Brine

This is probably the one thing you absolutely should do. You will thank me for this if your not already doing it. Brine all your poultry before cooking. The brine not only brings additional flavor to the meat, it helps tenderize it as well.

Start with a simple brine, combine 3/4 cup of sugar and 3/4 cup of Kosher salt in about 2 quarts of water. Let your throughly defrosted bird rest submerged in this solution for about 6 hours, or overnite depending on the size. Don't over brine your product. If you leave it in too long you'll end up with a corned beef version of turkey. Use your head. If its a really large bird, put it in the brine the last thing the night before you cook and take it out in the morning. If you are just cooking a breast, you can brine it early in the morning and still cook and serve the meat for dinner. Of course if you were brining a whole chicken you could do this in about an hour or two. Remember to keep it in the refrigerator during this time, you always want to brine using a cold solution. I like to add a few tablespoons of crushed red pepper flakes to my brine. Resist any urge to adjust the brine according to taste, a brine solution isn't supposed to taste good, its supposed to be salty. Just mix it up and get on with it. When you remove your product from the brine, be sure to rinse it throughly in cold water before proceeding any further.

The Injection

You can bring a lot of flavor to the meat with the use of a simple kitchen syringe. You can buy one of those fancy metal things with the glass syringe and big thumb loops that looks like a syringe outta some horror movie that they sell at places like Sur La Table, but in the end you get the same results with a crappy little rubber bulb syringe.
I like a honey butter injection. Take about a quarter cup of honey, and about 2 tablespoons each of whole butter and white wine. Heat it gently over the stove or in the microwave. Inject the bird in the biggest muscles and try to get some just under the skin layer. You should be able to get the bird to swell up noticably with the injected fluid. This operation is best performed on, or as close as possible to the cooking utensil you will be using. When you try to move the bird after injecting it you may find it a bit messy. It's best to disturb it as little as possible after injecting, get it straight into the oven, the barbecue pit, or wherever your going with it.

The Stuffing

Ok, I have this argument every year with someone who insists that is it perfectly fine to cook a stuffing inside the bird. This is one of the worst things you can do. Anything you stuff deep down inside the bird will be the very last thing that becomes fully cooked. This leaves an awfully long time for bacteria to fester in a nice, moist, warm environment while your waiting for your precious bird to reach its moment of perfection. Don't do it! Cook your stuffing outside the bird on the stovetop or in the oven in a seperate dish. No one will get sick. Remember, infants, small children, the elderly and people who are already in ill health are most susceptable to food borne illnesses. Don't put your guests at risk because you have some homey feeling about stuffing the bird the way grandma did it.

It is perfectly ok however to stuff your turkey with mire poix and matignons, that is aromatic vegetables and flavorings. Make a simple mire poix by rough chopping equal parts onion, carrot and celery. Add some crushed garlic gloves if you like. Quarter some lemons and add them. You can also add some bouquet garni. Use dried or fresh rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, dill, marjoram, sage, tarragon. Don't over chef it. Use a few simple ingredients and then get out of their way. Stuffing the bird with mire poix and matignons will help flavor your meat, and make the drippings simply wonderful for producing a pan gravy to serve with your turkey. When your done cooking, and prior to slicing, remove this stuffing and discard it.

The Seasoning

If you look at the pictures of perfectly cooked turkeys they show in food magazines, invariably the skin is a wonderful golden brown and there are bits of perfectly colored little seasonings adorning the skin. Nice for picture taking but not really practical. First, the skin is an impervious membrane. Putting expensive spices on the skin of your bird will have no more effect on the flavor of the meat than if you had seasoned the outside of the plastic oven roasting bag you cooked it in. Further, your spices will burn and turn black. Keep it simple. Rub the outside skin of your bird with vegetable oil. Don't waste your expensive extra virgin olive oil for this, you just want to help the skin brown evenly.