How Are You Preparing Your Turkey?
November 24, 2008 by Heather R.
Filed under Recipes
With the U.S. Thanksgiving just days away, it’s time to start thinking about turkey prep!
We’ve been wanting to try brining for a while now and saw Alton do it over the weekend on the Dear Food Network Thanksgiving. Alton has yet to let us down so we went out yesterday to get the spices and broth that we need. Our biggest issue now is finding something big enough to keep the turkey in and also have it fit in the fridge overnight.
I think we might also try Tyler’s dressing and Giada’s mashed potatoes. We always stick with the basics but this year we’re in the mood to switch things up a bit and since it’ll be just us we won’t feel bad if it doesn’t turn out too well!
So what’s on your Thanksgiving menu? How are you preparing your turkey? Or what have you been assigned to bring to a big get-together?
[image: flickr]
Bon Appetit had instructions for salting the turkey in their Nov. issues. Basically you coat it with a herbed salt rub and let it stand over night…the juices come to the surface, absorb the seasoning and are reabsorbed.
sigh….
I MEANT t say that is what I am doing.
Marye, that sounds really neat! I’ve seen it done with fish but never with turkey. Do you need to keep it refrigerated while it’s covered in the salt, and do you just cook it as usual when it’s ready?
I’m a huge fan of brining poultry, and have brined turkey breasts before grilling. Sadly, my wife is so traditional, she wants the standard roasted bird. My family too.
It’s hard living on the edge.
heather..yep.
So excited for turkey!! If people are looking for some tips or recipe ideas, check out Fancast.com for their all-star celeb chef menu- http://thebiz.fancast.com/2008/11/allstar_celebrity_chef_thanksg.html
I think I’m most excited about the broccoli cheese casserole. You can never have too much cheese
I used Alton’s brining recipe, but changed up the spices a little bit. I used 2 large onions unpeeled and quartered, 2 large heads of garlics unpeeled and cut in half, rosemary, thyme, sage, brown sugar. salt, lots of peppercorns and the veggie stock. I bought a plastic rubbermaid garbage can with a locking lid, put the brine and turkey in there.. but it inside another container and packed ice around and put it in my car trunk overnight. lol worked like a charm, temp outside never went over 35.
The turkey was AMAZING. Brining is definitely worth the extra effort, I’ll never do a turkey again without it.
When I roasted the turkey, I stuffed it with 4 lemons quartered, lots of garlic, fresh thyme, sage, and rosemary… was absolutely mouth watering delicious. *foodgasm* lol