Turkey on the Fence
ON THE PAGE
No doubt others before me have used this fowl pun, and why you may ask am I writing about turkey in April when Thanksgiving is six months away? There’s a turkey sitting on my back fence, that’s why. Plus I love our roast turkey after we’ve taken the time to brine so much, I think about it every four months or so, yearning for Thanksgiving.
The flock of turkeys that live in the canyon below our house is growing, probably over 25 birds now, including three toms that fan out impressive tail feathers as they strut along the hillside. These are probably descendants of some domestic creatures turned loose, epitomizing “free range.” They have no predators. Without hormones, captivity, and with a ready supply of food, they have regained some of the instincts of wild turkeys, the kind that Benjamin Franklin called “respectable” as a truly native American beast.
My Mother Strenuously Disagrees with Benjamin Franklin
Or they could be the kind my mother declared “brainless and vicious” based on her experiences working on a turkey farm as a teen. Just as the turkey has been rendered small brained by domestication, so has the human being – one reason the flock thrives is that no one here knows how to pluck one.
Turkeys Can Fly
Having flushed a hen and chicks from the underbrush one morning when I was out hiking, I can categorically tell Arthur Carlson of WKRP that turkeys can fly. Just not to great heights or for long distances. I’ll add (nod to classic Monty Python) turkeys are definitely better creatures of the air than sheep.
All that Said?
I look at that turkey on the fence, now joined by two companions busily depositing bird stuff on the wrought iron, and I see Thanksgiving on two legs. Which recalls our tried and true turkey brine recipe we use several times a year, even in summer when the hankering for turkey and all the fixings is too much.
We really like the dark sweetness that’s added by the brown sugar, and the juniper berries are essential too. They add a wild, outdoor, foresty aroma.
We always brine our turkey because the meat tastes fresher longer, and the gravy and soup broth are amazing with intense flavor. When we also stuff the bird, the stuffing is full of layers of flavor. (People fight over it and the leftovers, but I have ways of hiding a stash for myself.)
Brine for Roasted Turkey Recipe
This recipe produces (about 2 gallons for a 17-25 pound bird. Smaller bird? Scale it down. If you have access to lots of ice cubes, allow at least 1 full hour to make and completely cool the brine. 2 hours if you don’t.
Step 1: Main Ingredients
- 1 gallon water or vegetable stock or combination
(You’ll also need a pot that holds 2 gallons of liquid. See note below.) - 2 cups kosher salt
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves, torn
- 4 tablespoons dried thyme
- 5 cloves garlic, smashed
- 5 allspice berries, crushed
- 4 juniper berries, crushed
- 1 tablespoon (or small chunk) candied ginger root
Step 2: Second Stage Ingredients
- 1 HALF gallon of cold water
- 8 cups of ice cubes if you’ve got them, otherwise cold water
(You might also need a bit more water at the point when you have the bird in the brine, to cover the bird completely.)
Method: Dissolve by Heating, Then Cool
Combine all Step 1 ingredients in a large stockpot and heat to the point where the sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from heat and add the Step 2 water and ice cubes to speed the cooling off process. Don’t use until mixture is completely cooled for food safety reasons.
Scale Down for Smaller Turkeys and Whole Chickens
Scale all ingredients, including those in Step 2, equally. Okay, it’s hard to scale a juniper berry. Round up or down to the nearest convenient portion, it’s not precise.
We often scale it down to make brine for a whole chicken or if our bird is smaller than about 17 pounds. We also scale this brine down for smaller projects, e.g. to brine other meats, like pork roasts or chops. Another use is a couple of frozen chicken breasts defrosted in the brine overnight – really perks up the taste!
Safely Brine Your Soon-to-Be Roasted Turkey
A number of cooking web sites cover the steps for having turkey safely in brine for 12-24 hours. Here’s how Martha Stewart’s site does it – the slideshow is helpful.
We use two layers of 13-gallon kitchen trash bags inside an ice chest/cooler for the turkey and brine, tie it tightly closed, and put it in an ice chest. Thing is, that liquid in the bag will want to spread the bag out until it meets the sides of the ice chest, exposing lots of the bird. Basic physics, liquids seek their own level.
So, with iced brine in the bag with the bird in the cooler, we pack the outside of the bag with blue ice packs. Then we support the ice packs with canned goods. This means the bag can’t spread out and the liquid level inside rises. The goal is to cover that bird as completely as possible. Isn’t basic physics fun?
Other sites will have tips for helping the skin to crisp; we spray the exterior with olive oil cooking spray before roasting and let it sit out of the brine for about 90 minutes before it goes into the oven.
Useful Tips on Time Management for Turkey Day!
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my wife’s masterful Turkey Day Flowchart to managing the four days of prep for a less stressful Thanksgiving. Yes, a flowchart.
For example:
- Dinner Time
- MINUS 40 minutes since the bird left the oven to rest, have stuffing emptied, and be sliced cause we don’t slice at the table, that’s a huge mess.
- MINUS Total cook time for the bird, which varies by size.
- MINUS 90 minutes air drying on the counter.
- MINUS 30 minutes to remove bird from brine, rinse it off, stuff the bird, and tie it.
- MINUS 1 hour to make the stuffing (with browned butter, y’all), make the brine, and completely cool both, or 2 hours if you don’t have 8 cups of ice cubes on hand.
- EQUALS when you have to be caffeinated, in the kitchen, apron on, hands washed, sleeves rolled all the way up.
A flowchart helps so you can work backward to key deadlines. Also I don’t care what my wife says, the bird comes out of the freezer and moves into a trash bag in the cooler on SUNDAY NIGHT because a fully defrosted bird goes into the brine Wednesday afternoon. Running hot water into the cavity to get out the remaining ice and release the bag of gizzards and such is a freaking pain.
Here’s the link to Maria Kaj’s Amazing Turkey Day Flowchart – it will help.
And here’s her take on the kinds of dishes NOT to make on Thanksgiving. Especially soup. Which, as she explains, throws off the entire flowchart. Someone else might bring one of these dishes, so consult her flowchart for the chaos moment when everyone says they need the oven and the bird is still in it.
It’s all such fun! Absolutely!
Sources for the Roasted Turkey Brine Recipe
The concoction above is a blend of Chez Panisse and Alton Brown brines, tempered with our experiences over the years, plus ingredients that are not hard to find or what we consider too expensive for the result.
Working with a Smaller Pot Size
We have an 8 quart stock pot so that’s what we use. A lot of people only have a 5-6 quart as their “big pot.” You can still make the brine, but in a different order.
- Make the brine in a 5 quart pot as above, then cool to room temp or colder in the fridge. You want it cold for safety’s sake.
- Pour the brine over your bird, then add the rest of the water and ice cubes from Step 2. Slosh it all around a little
- Depending on your setup and the size of your bird, you might find you need more water and ice than that to cover the bird completely.
It’s Time to Roast
You’re on your own at this point. Default to your favorite cookbook or look at the Butterball Hotline site for tips especially if you’re new at it.
Very generally – it changes according to size of the bird and whether it’s stuffed or not – our method is to tent completely at higher heat for first 30% of cook time, then untent and finish at a lower heat until there’s looseness in the turkey leg. Then we break out the thermometer to check the temp of the stuffing and near the breast bone.
The Real Mother of Thanksgiving
Again, going to my wife here. She’s a historian and here’s her blog on Sarah Josepha Hale, the Mother of Thanskgiving. How it started. How it evolved. And skullduggery by others who claimed decades later to have written one of Sarah’s many published poems that begins, “Mary had a little lamb…” (Copyright law now exists for a reason, but I am still digressing here…)
Other Recipes I Love
This is not a recipe blog, and I’m not trying to monetize your eyeballs. I only do a recipe when I really, and I mean REALLY, love the result. Check out my Green Beans, Potatoes, and Ham in the Instant Pot and Cheery Cherry Oatmeal and Dark Chocolate Cookies.
