Let’s talk turkey

When I think of a turkey in its natural setting, I picture colorful autumn woods, falling leaves, pumpkins and acorns. I don’t visualize tropical foliage, sun-drenched fields, blue water and a cactus. We learn, as children, that the turkey is native to North America, but that covers a huge area. It turns out that the Aztecs in Mexico domesticated the turkey years before they introduced it to the Spaniards in 1591. Their counterparts in Massachusetts were still picking them out of trees when the Pilgrims arrived in 1630. To further disillusion you, the birds we prize today for their plumpness, are bred from a Dutch strain. Oh yes! And I saw as a child, when visiting a farm on a class trip, the birds grown for the markets are white, not brown.  It seems the common, sedate turkey has a bit of mystique that would make it a good topic for True or False quizzes, from its history, through choosing, to preparing, to cooking to carving one. So let’s start from the top, bearing in mind that this discussion is “Roasting a Whole Turkey 101”. To widen it further would allow enough information to fill a book.

Misconceptions aside, there is one glaringly TRUE fact about turkey in the marketplace right now. Following an annual pattern, its pre-Thanksgiving sale prices make a whole turkey the best meat deal in the stores all year, and it will disappear after this holiday. In our climate of rising prices, currently it’s about $0.20 more per pound than in 2011, but with a forecast of a general increase of at least a 5%  in 2013, and no change until after 2020, turkey prices are probably lower now than we will see them for years. Still, it costs less than any other meat, and compared to different roasts which can be featured as the center of a special occasion menu, it provides more servings per pound with less waste. The large Toms are especially cost effective, even for a small family, requiring no additional labor, yet providing many future meals, when properly stripped. I have cooked a 25lb bird for as few as three, and happily frozen enough cooked meat for 20 dinners. So give some thought to getting a big turkey this year. It’s an investment your budget, and your menu planning skills, will appreciate in the coming weeks.

IN BUYING A TURKEY follow the poultry rule that if two birds seem about the same size, but one weighs more, that will be the meatier bird, because their bones are the same weight. The best flavor and texture is to be found in organic, or free-range birds, and in fresh rather than frozen. However, much depends on availability and your schedule, because those birds should be prepared and cooked right after purchase.  Frozen birds are a great alternative. They can be stored until you’re ready to deal with them and the thawing time gives you a chance to prepare the rest of the meal around them. I can attest to the fact that a well cooked frozen turkey can’t be told from fresh.  In my humble opinion, and that of every chef I know, it’s best to avoid the pre-basted, and especially the self basting turkeys.  They are injected with butter, vegetable oil or broth and seasonings to keep them moist and add flavor. Even the experts warn that these are apt to be birds of poorer quality, tougher perhaps older. The few times I’ve had to deal with one of these products, I’ve found they had a slightly altered taste, and the broth rendered was greasy almost like Crisco. They often cost more, and require the same amount of time as the non-injected, so why choose them?

ONE IMPORTANT NOTE, do not buy a fresh turkey expecting to freeze it yourself. Nothing signals “BAD” faster than the odor of refrozen poultry thawing. There’s always the chance that the birds were chilled to the point of being partially frozen in transport to market. One year I picked up a fresh turkey I’d ordered from a specialty butcher shop on Dec.24^th. Our Christmas dinner was scheduled later than usual. So instead of staying up to start it roasting after midnight as usual, I decided to set my alarm and get up early.   I cleaned it, and brined it, but rather than leave it soaking in the laundry tub, because I was afraid of it sitting at room temperature, I moved it to a plastic tub, with some water, covered it with foil and put it in the garage around 8 P.M. It wasn’t frozen when I brought it in at 5 A.M., but within 15 mins. in the warm house, the odor had reached the second floor. The “fresh” turkey had been over-chilled enroute to the store, and chilled just enough overnight to spoil it.

PREPARING a turkey for the oven is a more time consuming procedure, at least the way I do it. Of course if it’s frozen the first order is to thaw it. I do this in the refrigerator for small 10-15 lbs birds, but the large 25lb.+ ones for the Holidays, are just too big. I thaw them in my wash tub in cold water, which I change often.  I follow the time table for defrosting which requires about 3 ¼ hrs per pound in the refrigerator and 35 mins per pound in cold water. For generations my family has always “soaked “  poultry before cooking it. Nowadays it’s called “brining”. More about this in a minute, but I calculate the time for it into my prep schedule.

Once the turkey is pliable enough to be handled, I remove the leg bindings take out the giblets and neck and make sure there is no organic matter left in the main cavity. Often small bits remain that can be pulled out. Then I trim the main and neck cavities of any large fat deposits that cling to the skin, leaving as much skin as possible and cut off the oil gland at the base of the spine.  Some people like it but we have found that, roasted with the bird, it makes the rendered broth, and hence the gravy, too greasy. I do boil it with the giblets though.  Once I’m satisfied the bird is clean,  I put it in a container large enough to immerse it and using a bit over 1/3  cup of salt, I put about 1 Tbs. in the neck cavity, about 2 Tbs. in the main cavity, cover it with cold water and pour the rest of the salt over. I add the giblets and neck to the water with a bit of extra salt, and let everything soak for 3 to 5 mins. per pound. If the bird tries to float, weight it to keep it submerged by placing a heavy pot up-side down over the breast bone.  Then rinse it well under running water until there is no trace of salt. If there’s a gap in your schedule, the bird can sit in cold water for several hours until you’re ready to cook. The brining keeps the bird moist, and also draws out any last traces of blood. Unlike other meats, where blood tenderizes, in poultry it toughens and taints the taste. In fact, my daughter gifted my dog with a large oven roaster chicken once. Being rushed she thought she could skip this step and simply popped the bird in the oven only to cook it and find it totally inedible.

OVEN ROASTING a whole turkey, or any bird, is simpler than other raw meats, because there is no worry concerning preferences over the degree to which it’s cooked. Poultry is either under done, done well or over done. It dosen’t require split second timing. Moreover, if the rest of the meal isn’t quite ready, a turkey can be “coasted” in a warm oven until you’re ready for it. That’s one of the reasons I love serving it on holidays.

COOKING a turkey is a straightforward process.  Vendors usually print directions on a product’s wrapping. Every cookbook has a chart. There’s one for free download on my book web site dinnerswithjoy.com, under “Charts”.  Briefly, for an oven temperature of 350 degrees an unstuffed bird requires 18 mins per pound and stuffed 24 mins per pound or until the temperature of the breast registers 180 degrees F unstuffed or a thermometer inserted into the stuffing reads 165 degrees F. I like to round it out and allow a good 20 mins per pound unstuffed and 30 mins per pound stuffed.  Then I know it’s been in the oven long enough to be cooked. Another way of testing is to gently wiggle a drumstick. If it moves easily the bird is done. DO NOT depend on the pop-up thermometers the vendors insert into the breast to time any poultry.
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While on the subject, let’s clear up the myth about STUFFING. I was so glad to hear a top chef explode it on T.V. yesterday. Historically, the turkey farmers concentrated on sales of large Toms, which do take longer to cook, making them good holiday “feasts.” Then they realized, perhaps from the success of the stuffing roaster chickens, that smaller turkeys would have marketability. However, there were two problems. One, compared to chickens, the turkeys, being larger, do take longer to cook, especially stuffed, so they had to advertize recipes with shortened times. Two, the cavities in the smaller birds weren’t large enough to hold enough stuffing to equal the number of portions of meat they yielded. The solution to both problems was to persuade people to get rid of the stuffing. Fortunately stuffing mixes that could be made on the stove top had been introduced. The answer was to convince the public that baking stuffing in the bird was hazardous. This is a half truth. To stuff a bird and immediately begin to cook it is perfectly safe. To allow the stuffing to sit for any time, regardless of how little, in a raw bird is dangerous and can cause severe illness.  I seal the stuffing in the neck cavity with the excess breast skin folded over and tucked under the back. That in the main cavity, I hold with a heel of bread, a pita or two or even a taco. I use poultry pins to secure the cover in place.

When POSITIONING the turkey in the pan, I don’t tie the legs together. Usually I have too much stuffing to do that, but even with unstuffed birds, I like the air to circulate through the main cavity. If I fill it with aromatics which I want to infuse the meat, I close the opening with pins or a piece of bread. I think it cooks more evenly without tying the legs.  I also like the wings along the breasts, tips facing up rather than folded under the back. I find that pinned under the wings either stick to the pan or the bird, make plating difficult and spoil the presentation. Moreover, I like to use the wings and bones for broth. The browned tips add a lot of flavor.

 Before cooking, I rub butter over any bird I roast, and as soon as it yields enough essence, I begin to BASTE it at regular intervals, every 20 mins or so. If it browns too fast, I cover the breast and/or legs with pieces of foil. If there still is a lot of cooking time, I cover the pan with its lid or a large piece of foil but still continue to baste. I do not attempt to start any bird on one side and turn it over. The size of the turkeys I usually cook would make that impossible, but I find it messy, potentially dangerous, resulting in burns, and totally unnecessary. The one time I saw it done was a disaster.

CARVING takes a bit of practice. There are two ways to carve whole birds and diagrams of both are on my book web site. I call them the traditional and the restaurant methods. Both require first removing the wing and leg to gain free access to the breast. This is easily done by locating the joints with the tip of the knife, piercing them with the fork and slicing through them with the knife along the fork tines. In the TRADITIONAL method, you slice the meat from the breast by cutting lengthwise from outside in with smooth strokes. This is simplified by first making a deep horizontal cut along one side of the breast near the bottom, above the thigh and wing joints, to the breastbone.  In the RESTURANT method after that first horizontal incision, you make a second vertical one lengthwise along the top of the breast and using the bone as a guide, cut until you reach the first. Then remove the whole breast half to the carving board and slice it horizontally for serving. The method you choose depends on preference, presentation and situation. Some people like to bring the whole bird to the table, or, as in my case, it can be too large to remove from the pan, and impossible to cut horizontally.

After the meal, it’s O.K. to leave stuffing in the bird overnight if it’s refrigerated, but remove it if you can’t get to it the next day. Within a day or so I strip my turkey. I separate the LEFTOVER meat I’m going to use within the week, and divide the rest in packages of two portions each, which I freeze. The packages are labeled according to intended use, small pieces for soup and so on. I boil the bones, scrapings of pan drippings plus any other remaining scraps from the carcass, skin, cartilage etc. with enough water to cover, for at least two hours. Then I strain the BROTH into plastic containers, which I seal and freeze to use as STOCK in the future. I learned that it keeps better if I use the fat that rises to the top as an extra sealant, and remove it before thawing.

As to the GRAVY, I usually remove the giblets, neck and oil gland from the brine after about 20 mins and boil them in water to cover. The liver only takes a couple of minutes, but the rest can cook up to an hour. I trim the liver, heart and gizzard well, chop them fine, and put them aside with a bit of the broth to keep them moist, for the gravy. I chill the rest of the broth and de-fat it in case I need to thin the gravy later. The other pieces are trimmed for the dog.  Within the first third of the cooking time, the turkey will begin to rend essence. As soon as there more in the pan than needed for basting, I begin to collect it in a pot, measuring as I go so I always know the amount gravy I can make and the amount of flour I will need to add later. I’m also careful that enough essence remains in the pan to keep the turkey moist.  What rending remains in the pan goes with the bones into the broth. When the time comes to make the gravy, I measure the amount of flour I’ll need—1 Tbs. per ½ cup liquid —add enough cool essence to dissolve it, and stir it into the pot, along with the seasonings I’m using. I bring it to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and stir constantly until it’s the desired thickness.  Then I add coloring if it needs it, adjust seasonings and am ready to serve.

Of course there are other ways to cook turkeys and I’m going to talk about some of them later. I’ll also tackle stuffings,  glazes and accompaniments, but as I said this is Roast Turkey 101, I never appreciated how intimidating facing a large bird could be until I had a neighbor, a woman who had been married for many years with grown children, always cooked meals, but was terrified by turkey. In this world of constantly rising prices, there really is nothing that will give you more return, with less waste, than a large turkey. If you’re game to take advantage of the pre-holiday sales, you can save a lot, even if you only have a small family. I want to prepare you to take that step, should you choose, by showing you how to do it with confidence. I already have some leftover recipes on this blog, but I’m going to go into that subject further as well.