Let's Talk Turkey

    

     With Thanksgiving only a few days away we need to talk turkey.  I mean, really...let's get to the truth about Thanksgiving turkey roasting.  Gourmet Live has put on-line nine myth-busting tips for us to enable those assigned the important job of cooking the most important meal of the year.  For the next several days I will highlight Kemp Minifie's report.  So today I begin with the first 3.  And they are:

1.  Consider deconstructing your turkey.  If presenting the traditional entire turkey on a platter is  part of your holiday ritual--and the meal is unthinkable without it--then keep on doing it.  But if moist breast meat and perfectly cooked dark meat is more important to you than that brief tabletop cameo of the whole bird, then roast your turkey in parts, the white meat separately from the  dark meat.  Buy just the parts you like.  Divide the white meat and dark parts into their own pans and roast on different racks.  This allows you to remove the breast meat when it's done and let the legs cook longer.  The breast meat is moist at 165F, but the dark meat is better when cooked to a minimum of 170F.

2.  Don't wash the turkey.  This directive will probably shock you.  And it holds true for chicken, too.  This advice comes from the super-cautious folks at the USDA.  And here's why:  The moment you run water on your poultry, you start spewing a mist of unwanted pathogens all over the sink and nearby items.  The easiest and most effective way to eliminate bacteria is to kill them in the heat of the oven.  Then, after the bird is in the roasting pan, dry it inside and out with paper towels.  And don't forget to wash every surface the turkey and its juices might have touched.  Use hot soapy water, and it doesn't hurt to follow up with disinfectant.

3.  Brining is strictly optional.   Brining the turkey was all the rage a while ago, and it still has a devoted following for those who have the space and a container large enough to immerse the turkey completely.  Another option is to inject the brine directly into the flesh.  Or, you might consider dry brining, which involves rubbing the turkey with liberal amounts of kosher salt and letting the bird air-dry in the refrigerator uncovered on a rack or shallow pan for at least eight hours and up to two days.  But if you want to enjoy the benefits of brining without any of the fuss, buy a kosher turkey.  It's been salted ahead of time as a part of the kosher process.

More tomorrow...