Tip for the very best roast turkey

[bold] The proportions for my dry brine: [/bold]

3/4 cup Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt (or 6 Tablespoons plus 2-1/4 teaspoons of Morton Kosher Salt)

Combined with 1-1/2 Tablespoons of light brown sugar.

Combine the salt and sugar with your fingers and rub it all over the turkey. Be sure to add some in the cavity and to also rub int into all the crevices of the bird. Pat it on to adhere to the exterior of the turkey. Be generous with it.

You will have leftover dry brine.

And that’s it!

Remember not to salt your turkey after brining it!

Two days? Very unclear.

If you are applying the brine 2 days beforehand, you still need to find room in the refrigerator.

“Wet brine” is redundant.

[quote] Brine (or briny water) is a high-concentration solution of salt (typically sodium chloride or calcium chloride) in water.

“dry” brine would technically just be “salting” or “curing”.

[quote] Two days? Very unclear.

I’m not sure why it’s unclear. I said,

“A dry brine two days in advance is definitely the way to go. I covered my turkey with the dry brine mixture on Tuesday morning—but you could begin the brine as much as three days in advance.”

For Thanksgiving, two days in advance means Tuesday (two days prior to Thursday).

Three days in advance means Monday (three days prior to Thursday).

[quote] If you are applying the brine 2 days beforehand, you still need to find room in the refrigerator.

Yes, R2, everyone needs to find room in the refrigerator to hold a turkey.

However, what I said was,

“A dry brine is so much easier, doesn’t require figuring out how to refrigerate the large container holding the turkey”

The key words here are “how to refrigerate [bold] the large container holding the turkey.” [/bold]

A turkey on a sheet pan takes up less space than a turkey submerged in a liquid brine solution.

R3:

R3:

High heat. Brining don’t matter.

R8 is wrong.

R3:

R3, from Serious Eats:

[quote] Season a steak with kosher salt, and within a few minutes, you will witness osmosis at work: Liquid from the steak will bead up on the surface of the meat, drawn out by the salt. Wait another ten minutes, and that liquid from the beef will have started to dissolve the salt, forming a concentrated brine. That concentrated liquid brine, formed from the meat's natural juices, is what makes this process "brining" and [bold] not just a ridiculous rebranding of mere salting.[/bold]

[quote] That dissolved salt is then absorbed by the meat through diffusion, moving from an area of high concentration (the surface of the steak) to a lower concentration one (the steak's interior). As with a traditional brine, the salt re-shapes and dissolves muscle proteins, allowing the meat to absorb and retain moisture.

[quote] To complete the dry-brining process, the moisture that was initially drawn out of the meat is reabsorbed to counteract the shift in salt concentration from surface to interior, leaving you with a well-seasoned piece of meat that will now better retain its natural moisture content during cooking. You're tricking your food into brining itself with its own juices, and all it takes is some salt and a little patience.

I’ve done the dry brine for several years now and kept having an issue with tough leathery skin. I deduced that leaving it uncovered in the fridge was causing this. This year I salted it and put it back into the bag overnight. This time I got delicate crispy skin and very browned because of an herb mayo I rubbed on it. I also find that low temp cooking won’t get me crispy skin either. I cooked it at 450, tented it with foil when the skin was brown enough and used a probe thermometer with an alarm in the breast set to 150f. Another thing I do is butcher the turkey into pieces before cooking, creating a flat even cooking surface. I use the backbone and the wings for turkey stock which gets used for the cornbread dressing and the gravy. And the turkey cooks so fast this way! An hour and a half at most.

I roasted my close-to-19 pound-turkey at 350° for 4 hours and it was turkey-perfection.

Here’s my guide for roasting a turkey at 350°:

8–12 lb. turkey: 1¾–3 hours.

12–14 lb. turkey: 3–3¼ hours.

15–16 lb. turkey: 3½–3¾ hours.

18–20 lb. turkey: 4–4¼ hours.

For all you poors out there, like me, who buy frozen turkeys on sale, make sure your turkey is completely defrosted and let it hang out for a bit before roasting because the recommended roasting times won’t work for a frigid bird!

There is nothing wrong with roasting a previously frozen turkey, R14.

But you are right, in that it can take several days to defrost a frozen turkey in the refrigerator.

One’s bird should be completely defrosted.

And it should be taken out of the refrigerator two to three hours before roasting it.

Dear Greg, when i first heard putting butter under the turkey skin, i forgot to let the butter come to room temp. So i crammed gobs of butter uner the skin on breats, tented it with foil and an hour or so later i uncovered the foil ( to baste the bird) only to find my turkey breadts had huge new breasts on top of their own. The skin had hardened around the butter. Thank heavens i hadnt invited a crowd, but those that were there had some laughs.

Samin Nosrat's method never fails. Ask your butcher to spatchcock the turkey, and buy a box of giant Ziploc bags online.

Hey dumb cunt, you do realize that Thanksgiving was two days ago, right? Work on your timeliness.

Turkey should taste like turkey.

Fresh rosemary and sage in the cavity, thyme if you like, plenty of salt and pepper. Butter, salt and pepper rubbed on the surface. And that's it. Done. Into the oven it goes.

[quote] Hey dumb cunt, you do realize that Thanksgiving was two days ago, right? Work on your timeliness.

No.

No! This is how you get shigella, salmonella. Yersinia. All the negative rods

Greggoth is a mass killa. Cunta cucka.

[quote] No! This is how you get shigella, salmonella. Yersinia. All the negative rods

How so?

I just leave it…out.

My secret…go to Costco, buy pre roasted turkey breast. Put in oven. Pour whatever the hell you want over it.

You are correct OP, that is definitely how you should prepare a turkey. I always do a salt brine a day or two before cooking.

Do the same with your chicken! Cover it in a salt brine the night before you cook, or even that morning before you are going to cook it. Your chicken will be better than you have cooked it before.

Yes, R26, great idea about roasting a chicken.

Ina says that as soon as you get home from the grocery store, unpack your chicken, salt it, and place it in the refrigerator until you’re going to roast it (in the next three days).

I believe Ina says to cover it tightly, but I’m inclined to cover it very loosely, so that it can air dry.

It's never too late to talk about cooking.

Greg, do you have a favorite recipe for stuffing? Am done with StoveTop. Have no idea how my mom used to make it, but it was the best thing about the holidays. I do recall that she stuffed the turkey with some of it and baked the rest. I think she put the liver into the stuffing, but could be wrong. I do remember that she used the giblets and drippings to make the gravy.

Any ideas?

OP talkin 2 itself

High heat, Greg. That’s the way the good chefs do it, not faux-Brahmin fagela prisspots…

I see what you mean about the dry brine.

Slightly off topic : no one will /ever/ convince me that “bone broth” is a legitimate term.

I am well familiar with Barbara Kafka and own her book, “Roasting: A Simple Art.”

I’ve also used her 500° for ten minutes per pound method.

It works fine, but you better have a clean oven.

Nevertheless, my method of dry brining and 350° roasting is preferable for a close to twenty pound turkey.

[quote] … faux-Brahmin

What a joke you are.

[quote] Greg, do you have a favorite recipe for stuffing?

I usually just make it without following a recipe, but I’ll prepare a recipe for you.

Do you prefer bread stuffing or cornbread stuffing?

R30 Isn't Greg Irish Catholic?

R35

Yes, R35.

I’ve never claimed to be a Brahmin—faux or otherwise.

R37 Were you raised eating boiled food?

It's all about the cheesecloth....

r34 @Greg, that would be lovely.

Definitely bread stuffing, as I've never had cornbread stuffing. Am trying to recreate what my Mom used to make in the '60s and '70s. As I recall, it included celery, onions, and sage, but I don't know what else.

She used half to stuff the turkey, and maybe baked the other half in foil. It's unlikely that I'll ever roast a turkey again. Would like to try baked stuffing. My effort this year was a disaster. She was a rabid fan of Julia Child, and The Joy of Cooking, plus there was a Fanny Farmer cookbook on hand. Those are some clues. She hated packaged/prepared things, not because she was haughty; she was a frugal Greek woman who had too many kids to feed and a full-time job as a legal secretary. Still, it didn't matter how long it took to make something from scratch. Her goal was to say, "I made that dish for half the price"!

This year I sautéed some onions, celery, and mushrooms, then added them with butter to StoveTop stuffing mix, then baked it. Total disaster.

Any ideas for improvement are most welcomed.

Can we ban Fregg?