Give Thanks that Thanksgiving's over!

Let me say first of all that I dislike Thanksgiving and any holiday that involves major consumption of food. The overindulgence is quite sickening. But Thanksgiving is the worst. There seems to be the feeling that excessive consumption is what defines Thanksgiving. Growing up in England where Thanksgiving is unknown, I don't have that nostalgia-fuelled compulsion to eat myself into a stupor, then force myself to eat even more before the effects of the first session have worn off. This doesn't make me very popular with my wife and her family for whom every gathering requires the preparation of more food than they could possibly eat, accompanied by alcohol, of course, which erodes the willpower of anyone interested in eating sensibly. Familial pressure is a powerful force, resistance is often difficult. Be that as it may, we as a nation will continue this tradition, so I may as well give you some useful advice about cooking your turkey.
This is all too late for this year, but hopefully you'll remember to come back to it next year. People ask me all the time for the best way to cook a turkey, how do I cook my turkey. The truth is I don't cook the Thanksgiving turkey, my brother-in-law Mark does, although this year I did smoke a turkey just because I wanted to play with my newest toy, a propane smoker. With the propane providing a constant heat I can put the turkey in the smoker last thing at night and let it cook all night at 200 degrees and it will be nicely done by morning.

But, since most of you don't have a smoker of any kind, there are 2 tricks to cooking a turkey so that the breast meat is not dry and all the meat is well-seasoned and flavorful.

The single most useful thing to do with your bird is to cook it upside down. It's really obvious isn't it. The white meat breast is naturally less juicy than the dark meat, and gravity only compounds that problem by allowing whatever juices are in the breast to drain down to the lower parts of the carcass. Which is why when I'm serving a turkey that has been cooked in the conventional way(or if someone else is serving, I do this when they're not looking) I flip the bird over and snag the 2 oval-shaped pieces of meat that sit in shallow depressions on the spine. These "pearls", which are naturally tender, have absorbed all the juiciness that has drained down during the cooking process. They slip out very easily when you pop your finger underneath them and push. These 2 pieces are the very best of the turkey, a kind of turkey tenderloin. I would be quite happy with just those on my plate at the Thanksgiving table.

Last year just before Thanksgiving I was teaching a class at Viking HomeChef here in San Jose in which I recommended this method. A couple in my class had attended a class the night before given by a "celebrity chef" who disdained the upside-down method. They had tasted his turkey and they tasted mine. Mine was the clear winner. It works. If you're concerned that a turkey cooked breast side down will not present well at the table, turn it over for the last hour or so to give it that nice golden-brown breast.

The second most useful thing to do with your turkey is to brine it beforehand. Brine is, in its simplest form, a salt solution:

1 cup of salt per gallon of cold water for a 4-6 hour brine

1/2 cup of salt per gallon of cold water for a a 12-14 hour brine



Since many frozen and self-basting turkeys are injected with some kind of sodium solution, you may want to minimize the added salt, but a low salt brine enhanced with other flavors will still achieve the desired result, which is to add moisture and flavor to the bird before it cooks. To enhance the brine you can add one or several of the following: garlic, lemon, pepper, sage, poultry seasoning, maple syrup (seriously), rosemary, brown sugar, honey or whatever your imagination tells you might go well with turkey. 2 gallons of brine should be sufficient for most birds, an extra large bird might need 3. Brine your turkey in an extra large ziplok bag in the refrigerator, and rinse the brine off the surface before cooking. Rub the breast with a couple of tablespoons of butter before you flip it over into your roasting pan. If you're concerned that the breast might stick to the roasting rack, you can spray the rack with some kind of pan spray, or put a layer of aluminum foil or parchment paper (NOT wax paper!) with holes punched in it over the rack and spray that.