Thanksgiving 101 (10 page)
Authors: Rick Rodgers
2. Hold the breast firmly with the meat fork. One side at a time, make a deep incision and cut parallel to the table down near the wing into the rib cage.
3. Cut down along the side of the breast to carve it into thin slices. Every slice will stop at the parallel cut. Transfer the sliced breast to the platter. Turn the turkey around to carve the other side.
4. Pry the thighs away from the hips to reveal the ball joints, and sever at the joints. Transfer the thighs to the platter. To carve each thigh, hold the thigh with a meat fork and carve the meat parallel to the bone.
5. Pry the wings away from the shoulder joints and sever at the joints. Transfer to the platter.
If you still feel nervous about carving in front of your guests, present the whole roast bird at the table in all its glory. Then hightail it back into the kitchen and carve the meat where no one is looking.
As a final fillip, pour a ladle of piping-hot turkey stock over the sliced turkey. The hot stock will help heat up any meat that might have cooled, and make the platter look irresistibly juicy. Yes, it’s cheating, but I won’t tell.
After Thanksgiving dinner, I need a nap. Is there something in turkey that makes me tired?
If you are so full after dinner that you need to lie down, don’t blame the turkey! Recent studies show that a carbohydrate-rich Thanksgiving dinner is the culprit, as the carbs increase the number of tryptophans in the brain. It’s not a normal meal that includes so many carbohydrates, with mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, and gravy, just for starters.
Estimated Turkey Roasting Times
Oven Temperature: 325°F
Roast until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 180° to 185°F.
UNSTUFFED TURKEY
8 to 12 pounds | 2¾ to 3 hours |
12 to 14 pounds | 3 to 3¾ hours |
14 to 18 pounds | 3¾ to 4¼ hours |
18 to 20 pounds | 4¼ to 4½ hours |
20 to 24 pounds | 4½ to 5 hours |
STUFFED TURKEY
8 to 12 pounds | 3 to 3½ hours |
12 to 14 pounds | 3½ to 4 hours |
14 to 18 pounds | 4 to 4½ hours |
18 to 20 pounds | 4¼ to 4¾ hours |
20 to 24 pounds | 4¾ to 5¼ hours |
It’s Not Thanksgiving Without…Turkey
It is assumed that wild turkeys were served at that first Thanksgiving in 1621. The firsthand accounts of the menu only mention “fowl.” As main courses go, we do know that the Pilgrims had venison, cod, and lobster on the table. So why don’t we have surf-and-turf instead of turkey?
The turkey is an impressive bird, with its bronze feathers, unusual head markings, and showy tail.
The wild turkey was native to North and Central America, and domesticated by the Aztecs. No one knows when the first turkey traveled to Europe, but the birds seem to have been brought to Spain by conquistadors in the early 1500s. The turkey quickly established itself as
the
bird to serve at festive occasions, especially in Italy, France, and England, and was bred into a plumper version. This new, improved turkey was brought back to the Americas, where it cross-bred with its wild cousin to make the breed we know today. The Pilgrims were well acquainted with the bird, and must have been relieved to find a familiar food in this strange land.
No one really knows how the turkey got its name. Some think that early explorers, thinking they were close to India, misidentified the bird and called it
tuki
, or Indian for peacock. Because it also resembled a guinea fowl, which came from Africa via Turkish merchants, it could have picked up the name by another misappropriation of origin. (Guinea fowl were also called turkeys.) It could have gotten its name from one of its calls, which sounds like “turk, turk, turk.”
Because turkeys were so abundant in colonial America, they were a major source of nourishment for our country’s forefathers. In a well-known letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed his dismay over the eagle’s being chosen as the official United States bird. Referring to the eagle’s “bad moral character,” he went on to say, “I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country! The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America.”
While about 675 million pounds of turkey are served each Thanksgiving, in recent years its healthy profile and versatility have changed the turkey from a holiday bird to one that competes with other meat and poultry on a year-round basis. Surprisingly, Americans do not eat the most turkey. The Israelis usually come in first in the turkey-eating lineup, at about 27 pounds per capita, while we weigh in at around 18.5 pounds. In third place is France, at approximately 13.5 pounds.
Most turkeys are of the White Holland variety, which have a lot of white breast meat, which over 70 percent of Americans prefer. In fact, turkeys are so chest-heavy that they cannot get close enough to mate. All commercially raised turkeys are artificially inseminated.
Perfect Roast Turkey with Best-Ever Gravy
After trying every turkey roasting method under the sun, this is the one I come back to, and the one I always teach at my cooking classes and use in my magazine articles. Its main feature is the trick of protecting the breast with aluminum foil to keep it nice and juicy. This method is especially useful with organic or heritage turkeys, which can be leaner than mass-produced birds. Instructions here are for an average-sized 18-pound turkey, but the instructions can expand or reduce depending on the size of your bird. Read the information about stuffing and gravy on pages 81 and 117. If you prefer to roast an unstuffed turkey, use the vegetable seasoning.
Makes about 18 servings, with about 7 cups gravy
One 18-pound fresh turkey
About 12 cups of your favorite stuffing
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2½ quarts Homemade Turkey Stock 101, as needed
Melted unsalted butter, if needed
¾ cup all-purpose flour
1
/3 cup bourbon, port, or dry sherry, optional
1.
Position a rack in the lowest position of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F.
2.
Reserve the turkey neck and giblets to use in gravy or stock. Pull out the pad of yellow fat on either side of the tail and reserve. (These are sometimes already removed by the processor, so don’t worry if they aren’t present.) If you wish, rinse the turkey inside and out with cold water. Pat the turkey skin dry. Turn the turkey on its breast. Loosely fill the neck cavity with stuffing. Using a thin wooden or metal skewer, pin the turkey’s neck skin to the back. Fold the turkey’s wings akimbo behind the back (the tips will rest behind the turkey’s “shoulders”) or tie them to the body with kitchen string. Loosely fill the large body cavity with stuffing. Loosely cover the exposed stuffing with a piece of aluminum foil. Place any remaining stuffing in a lightly buttered casserole, cover, and refrigerate to bake as a side dish. Place the drumsticks in the hock lock or tie together with kitchen string.
3.
Rub the turkey all over with the softened butter. Season with the salt and pepper. Tightly cover the breast area with aluminum foil. Place the turkey, breast side up, on a rack in the roasting pan. Place the reserved fat in the pan—it will melt during roasting and add to the drippings. Pour 2 cups of the turkey stock into the bottom of the pan.
4.
Roast the turkey, basting all over every 45 minutes with the juices on the bottom of the pan (lift up the foil to reach the breast area), until a meat thermometer inserted in the meaty part of the thigh (but not touching a bone) reads 180°F and the stuffing is at least 160° F, about 4¼ hours. (See Estimated Turkey Roasting Times.) Whenever the drippings evaporate, add broth to moisten them, about 1½ cups at a time. Remove the foil during the last hour to allow the skin to brown.
5.
Transfer the turkey to a large serving platter and let it stand for at least 20 minutes before carving. Increase the oven temperature to 350°F. Drizzle ½ cup turkey stock over the stuffing in the casserole, cover, and bake until heated through, about 30 minutes.
6.
Meanwhile, pour the drippings from the roasting pan into a heatproof glass bowl, measuring cup, or fat separator. Let stand for 5 minutes; then skim off and reserve the clear
yellow fat that rises to the top (for a separator, pour off the drippings and reserve both drippings and fat). Measure ¾ cup fat, adding melted butter, if needed. Add enough turkey broth to the skimmed drippings to make 8 cups total.
7.
Place the roasting pan over two stove burners on low heat and add the turkey fat. Whisk in the flour, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Whisk in the turkey stock and the optional bourbon. Cook, whisking often, until the gravy has thickened and no trace of raw flour flavor remains, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the gravy to a warmed gravy boat, straining the gravy, if desired, through a wire sieve. Carve the turkey and serve the gravy alongside.
Oven-Blasted Turkey
In the late 1990s, there was a fad for turkeys roasted at a very high oven temperature. The method was introduced to mainstream America in Barbara Kafka’s cookbook
Roasting
. When it was promoted one year as “the” turkey recipe in the
New York Times
, it guaranteed that thousands of people would try it. Plenty of kitchen smoke alarms went off that year. This recipe is at opposite ends of the roasting spectrum from my Perfect Roast Turkey with Best-Ever Gravy, which uses a relatively slow temperature to discourage shrinkage. The high-temperature method blasts the outside of the bird with very hot air to seal the skin to hold in juices, and it does make a very tasty bird with a rich, roasted flavor. But here are some things to watch out for:
- Unless you have an excellent kitchen ventilation system, do not attempt this recipe, as there will be some smoke no matter what you do. The oven must be very clean before roasting, as any old splatters will burn and really smoke up the kitchen.
- The original high-roast turkey recipes called for trussing the turkey, turning it often during roasting, and other chores. I just roast it on a rack without turning, and the results are excellent.
- You must use a heavy, high-quality roasting pan. The thinner the pan, the more likely the drippings are to burn. Do not use a disposable aluminum foil pan.
- The bird should be around room temperature to cook most quickly. However, never let an uncooked turkey stand out of the refrigerator for longer than 1 hour. To bring down the temperature, rinse the bird under lukewarm water for about 20 minutes.
- For the most even cooking, use a small (12-to 14-pound) turkey, allowing about 8 minutes per pound for an unstuffed bird. If you use a larger bird, the drippings will certainly burn beyond repair during the longer roasting period.
- I use this method when I am in a hurry, and as unstuffed turkeys cook more quickly than stuffed ones, I don’t weigh the bird down by stuffing it. Instead, I used a light, chopped vegetable and fresh herb mixture that serves to season the juices. You can stuff the turkey with your favorite dressing, if you wish, allowing an extra 2 minutes per pound of turkey.
- It’s difficult to predict whether the roasting pan drippings will be too dark to use for gravy or if they’ll be fine. (The thickness of the pan and whether it is dark or shiny are
some factors that affect the drippings’ color.) As a safety precaution against burned drippings, prepare Head Start Gravy. If the drippings taste all right, stir the gravy base into the degreased drippings and reheat in the pan. If they have burned, discard them and reheat the previously prepared gravy base without the drippings to serve instead. Either way, you won’t be left with an empty gravy boat.
Makes 10 to 12 servings
One 12-to 14-pound fresh turkey, neck and giblets reserved for another use, and fat at tail area discarded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium celery rib with leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1¼ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
4 cups Head Start Gravy
1.
Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 425°F.
2.
Place the turkey in a large bowl and then in the sink, directly under a thin stream of lukewarm water. Let the water run over the turkey until the turkey has lost its chill, about 15 minutes.
3.
Drain the turkey and pat the skin dry. Turn the turkey on its breast. Mix the onion, celery, rosemary, sage, thyme, ½ teaspoon of the salt, and ½ teaspoon of the pepper in a medium bowl. Fill the neck cavity with the vegetable-herb mixture. Using a thin metal skewer, pin the turkey’s neck skin to the back. Fill the large body cavity with the remaining vegetable-herb stuffing. Place the turkey on a roasting rack in a heavy-duty roasting pan. Brush the turkey all over with the melted butter, then season with the remaining ¾ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.
