alright tcg martha stewarts. what's your turkey tidbits and how-to's.

Intel

TCG Elite Member
Oct 28, 2009
5,889
3,357
Palatine
Ah yeah the oven one was a backup if I screwed up deep frying 2 11to12lb turkeys fed 14 nicely. Doing thanksgiving again with the family so have to decide which route I want to go or do both again. Was nice to basically be done with all turkey in 2 hours though vs the 4 hours my parents did.
 

Ti28

Cupcake
TCG Premium
Jan 23, 2013
10,388
2,158
Bartlett
I brine and bake. Been doing it the same for years and everyone always says it's the best bird ever.

1 gallon veg broth
1 cup sea salt
1 tb rosemary
1 tb sage
1 tb thyme
1 tb savory
1 gallon water

Bring all ingredients minus 1 gallon of water to boil, dump 1 gallon of water in to mix after boil to cool the brine. Get brine down to cold temp. Drop bird in and let sit over night and throw in oven next day. It'll cook a little faster. So be watchful.
 

Z28Camaro

TCG Elite Member
TCG Premium
Jun 25, 2015
2,177
8,199
Metamora
I brine and bake. Been doing it the same for years and everyone always says it's the best bird ever.

1 gallon veg broth
1 cup sea salt
1 tb rosemary
1 tb sage
1 tb thyme
1 tb savory
1 gallon water

Bring all ingredients minus 1 gallon of water to boil, dump 1 gallon of water in to mix after boil to cool the brine. Get brine down to cold temp. Drop bird in and let sit over night and throw in oven next day. It'll cook a little faster. So be watchful.

This is a great start for the brine. I use the Cook's Illustrated method which starts with brining as well, their brine recipe has sugar in it too.

Stuff the bird with cut up carrots, celery and onion, fresh thyme, salt, pepper, melted butter. Brush the bird thoroughly with melted butter too. Throw more celery, onion and carrots in the bottom of the roaster pan and add a couple cups of water in there to keep them from drying out - makes an amazing base for gravy when combined with all the drippings. May need to add some more water part way through, watch the bottom of the pan.

Cook the bird upside down at first to give the dark meat a head start, run it on both sides before finishing it breast side up. Makes some of the best roast turkey you will get.

Deep fried is also really great but I'm a little more traditional and like the procedure/ordeal of roasting t in the oven for several hours and smelling the house up all good in the process.

For reference:

This Is How You Should Cook Your Turkey (to Avoid Wasting Hours)
 
Brine for at least 24 hours then roast, use a "turkey triangle" to protect the breasts (basically a triangle of tin foil that covers the breast meat, looks kinda like a breastplate when on lol) Keeps it nice and moist without drying out the white meat. Only use a fresh, never frozen turkey too. The brine recipe above is about the same as we use. I had no idea turkey could be this moist till the wife tried this way a couple years ago.
 

Yaj Yak

Gladys
TCG Premium
May 24, 2007
122,162
87,673
Niche score of 2,363
i wound up spatchcocking my bird on saturday, cutting the backbone out was totally doable just a bit more unnerving than i had thought it was going to be... i was also glad i had a good knife.

6K3qlR4.jpg


I then dry brined it.. a good amount of salt and some smoked sea salt also and a tiny bit of baking powder... let it sit in the fridge uncovered overnight til sunday. injected it sunday about noon with juices that had seeped out from sitting.

i tucked the wing tips behind the bird and then went for the grill.

i smoked it for about an hour and a half at around 180*

then pulled it off the grill/smoker (traeger) and let it sit in the fridge until the grill got up to 375* or so and grilled it for about two and a half hours.

i pulled it off when it was 152* and it coasted to 165 after about 25 minutes of sitting.

it was fucking awesome.


crispy skin with tons of flavor, a nice subtle smoke taste throughout (i smoked with apple/hickory pellet mix) and EXTREMELY moist and tender.


major fail in not getting a pic as i took it off. butttttt here's the table.

GZk6UUs.jpg


i also cooked bacon/onion green beans, mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar, pecans & bacon, a ham, homemade gravy from homemade stock from the backbone and other "parts"
 
Last edited:
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 90 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant. Consider starting a new thread to get fresh replies.

Thread Info