The hell you say!
When it’s my turn to host Thanksgiving I’ve had great success with my secret boyfriend’s recipe. My late MIL did arch an eyebrow the first time I did it (You’re soaking it in salt water?? You’re cooking it for half an hour at 500 degrees?) but it was a huge hit. I will never cook a turkey any other way. (Notice this recipe has five stars with more than 5500 reviews.)
Probably because you’re so used to the taste of salt that things taste funny without it. I can definitely taste the difference – and the difference is the flavor of salt.
My family has been bringing turkeys for 30 years and I vastly prefer the additional moisture. I’ve swapped over to, deep fried turkery for the most part the last decade or so and even at 2-3 pounds per person leftovers rarely make it through Black Friday.
I normally use a soy sauce/bourbon/apple marinade and i typically just mix it up in a five gallon igloo cooler and put the frozen turkey i. The whole thing gets put into a bathtub and I drop a thermometer in there. Once the brine temp gets about 35 and pull the bird out and let it dry in the fridge for a day. Its typically a 5 day process so I’d drop a frozen bird saturday to eat thursday.
We’re going fresh this year so i need to adjust the recipe so it doesn’t get too much marinade.
Blasting the turkey at an initial high temperature is an old trick. I prefer to preheat to 450F, shove the bird in for about ten minutes, and then reduce the temp to 350F. But I’ve never liked brining.
You might consider adding one element of my method, since it’s quite easy and effective: mix salt and seasonings in olive oil to make a kind of slurry. Baste the turkey with that when you put it in the oven, then repeat the basting several times during cooking.
I use my seasoned baste and cook the turkey in a smoker, over a mesquite fire, which results in juicy, flavorful turkey and frees up the oven for cooking all manner of other things. As I mentioned in another Thanksgiving thread, I recently did a “test run” for a potluck to break in a new smoker, and two people threatened to kidnap me to cook turkey for them on Thanksgiving. 
I’ve lived in the United States for 57 years and have never even heard of “brining” until this thread.
It’s been a food fad for about 20 years. I blame Alton Brown, who really should have known better. It’s not as bad as the fried-turkey fad (which adds the risk of injury, death, and/or homelessness to the process of producing mediocre meat), but it’s an unnecessary complication.
Oh yeah, I always add fat & herbs to the bird. Butter is nice too.
It’s also good to unwrap the bird and let the skin dry out overnight or for a few hours; it adds a little more crispness to the skin.
I always skin the bird before smoking it. I find that the skin tends to keep the flavors from the smoke and the baste out of the meat, and no one I know particularly likes the skin itself.
I’ve brined, and I’ve not brined; the biggest single change that makes for a good turkey is getting a leave-in probe thermometer and putting it in the right place on the turkey, and setting the temperature to take it out of the oven at the right time correctly.
Do these things, and your meat will not be dry, brine or no brine.
That’s called ‘dry brining’ and it works just fine.
Yeah, you want to thaw that birdie. Not unthaw it. Or dethaw it, whatever.
Defrost the turkey in the fridge and then let it defrost the rest of the way in the brine. I’ve done that several times and noticed no difference.
I’ve known it longer than that. It was always the go to treatment in Cooks Illustrated magazine, although they’ve since turned to dry salting. I’d even read, at that time, in Gourmet magazine, how chefs in restaurants were brining their roasted turkey breasts. In fact, it was here on the SDMB where I learned how to “equilibrium brine.” Turkey brining: Regular salt OK? - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board Though I will admit, I’ve stopped doing that for oven roasting, just for outdoor grilling, and even then I’ve slacked off sometimes.
well, it’s too late, but this is whati would have done.
How’d it come out?
yup. I did buy a heritage turkey this year, but I’m not convinced it’s any better.
Interesting. I’m not actuallya big turkey fan. I eat it on Thanksgiving because tradition, but i like most other birds more. The only part i actually like is the skin, and I’m all about making sure the skin is crispy and delicious.
But I’m also not a huge fan of ‘smoked’. It’s fine, and i eat it when someone serves it to me, but most meat is better without smoke, imo.
I’ve posted this before but I get raves for my Weber turkeys.
Cooked over indirect heat in a Weber kettle, basted with peanut oil & pepper and stuffed with cubes of fresh pineapple. The drippings make for amazing gravy with a touch of sweetness. Cooked pineapple served as a side dish.
The oven is free for baking pies.