Posted on 11/25/2024 3:22:03 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
It's nothing fancy like brining or basting. It's just simply smart.
Do a quick search for roast turkey recipes, and you’ll come across countless tips and tricks for keeping your bird moist. Injecting, brining, dry brining, spatchcocking, basting—my head spins just thinking about it.
Every year I carefully consider all of these tricks, contemplating if I want to cut the backbone out of the turkey and hear the sickening crack of bones (I do not), or if I even have room for a giant turkey and its brine in my already cramped fridge. When I can’t muster the energy to prep way ahead or go the extra mile, there’s one trick that works every time no matter what. And it couldn’t be simpler.
Turn That Turkey Upside Down
You heard me! Instead of roasting the turkey breast side up, flip it over and roast it breast side down. I learned this trick from our founder Elise Bauer who uses it in her mom’s roast turkey recipe.
Prep the turkey as you normally would, thawing it completely before beginning. Bring it to room temperature and pat dry with paper towels before smothering with softened butter or olive oil. Either brine the turkey beforehand or salt the inside and outside of the bird generously, then stuff the cavity with aromatics, like lemon halves, wedges of onion, and herbs.
Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and secure the neck closed with twine or a skewer. Arrange the turkey on the roasting rack, breast side down. Roast at 400°F for 20 minutes to brown the skin, then turn the temperature down to 325°F and roast until done.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Butter under the breast skin is the answer.
Yup.
Us smokers know the diff.
To hell with the popular ‘presentation’ of the bird on a platter:
No matter how you cook your bird with hot air, turn it upside down.
And for those of you new to smoking (there are a gross of you out there), butcher paper is your friend ;-)
Wow. Stated like an expert. /s
smh
Enjoy your turkey jerky dipped in gravy.
I’ll prepare mine tender & juicy, thank you.
My wife smothers our turkey with Dukes Mayonnaise, butter and herbs and spices on the outer skin, under the skin and the cavity. She bastes it about every 15 minutes after the first hour of cooking. The skin is always beautifully browned.
So plastic bags you can cook?
Like sous vide, but at a higher temperature.
The issues with the bags is they can stick to the browned skin so I use toothpicks to add airspace. The bottom of the bags hold the liquids so make sure the bag bottom has areas below the rack.
Since I’ve been using these bags for about 20 years the turkeys have always been moist. Highly recommend them.
https://www.reynoldsbrands.com/tips-and-how-tos/cooking-in-oven-bags
Interesting to see they’re made of nylon.
But haven’t really had a problem with dry turkey (and am not on turkey duty this year).
I never even think to baste a turkey. I pat it dry and rub butter all over the skin then put it in the oven till its good an brown and finally tent with aluminum foil until done. Moist and tasty every time.
My father used to cook really good turkeys.
He would cook the turkey for 24 hours at 175 degrees. Two hours before serving he set the oven to 350.
You have to constantly check modern ovens to make sure they don’t shut down.
Oh, you have just fallen into the turkey trap. Its like being the tallest midget or arguing about the nuances of Chinese shitbox cars. Accept that you can either cheat like every restaurant does by soaking the carved bird in juice and butter on the way to the table or eating the slightly less dry bird you no doubt serve with your smoked upside down antics.
Kosher meat is salted and then rinsed as part of the koshering process. So it is essentially "brined". Here I was having the trendy "brined" stuff and never knew it!
Turkey rack. Start breast side down. Rotate to wing up. Rotate to other wing up. End with breast up. There’s a recipe for this on the internets somewhere.
MY DAD ALWAYS DID THAT. GREAT TURKEYS.
Used this method with a 12# turkey in the cooker listed below. Very moist, didn’t take up the needed oven space for other dishes, easy to baste, drippings made excellent gravy, very easy to clean. Well worth the cost.
Also use it as air fryer. Bacon, pork chops, you name it, this cooker is a breeze!
If I recall, it will cook up to a 14# bird with the extension ring.
https://www.amazon.com/Big-Boss-Oil-less-Fryer-Silver/dp/B007P6SAZ4/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?
I deep fried two 13 lb turkeys earlier this month for a early thanksgiving with son and DIL’s family. I think there were about 12 guests though.
I really want to do it but I can’t see two fryers with 5 gallons of oil.
What oil do you use?
Makes sense. We use a similar “trick” with pork loins, where they are cooked with the fat side up.
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