Fair point and of course it’s your table and your celebration. Do what right for you and yours. With that being said, with two birds, you can roast them with different seasonings and flavor profiles. Do one traditional and one with a fancy glaze maybe. My aunt would always do a very nice citrus/ginger/teriyaki bird that seemed wildly popular with us.
Mine will not be showy, as I’m going to spatchcock them, take the breast meat off and slice it. First time for everything. :eek:
I’ve brined my bird every Thanksgiving for the last 5-10 years, but I’m seriously thinking about doing the dry brine this year for the reasons given by Chefguy and others. Well, mainly because regular brine is a pain in the ass, but also because it may not be necessary.
The only thing holding me back is – well, the turkeys I’ve brined have been really good and I’m scared to try something new.
Anyway, for cranberry sauce, my secret ingredient is a bit of lemoncello (lemon liqueur) along with the cranberries and sugar and a pinch of salt, cooked on the stovetop until the berries burst.
I don’t spatchcock, in part because I don’t have a cooking pan large enough, but I roast a goose for New Years, and I remove the legs and wings, and slice up the rest of the meat in neat slices, and then reassemble the thing on a platter, with the slices of breast meat flanked by the wings, the less-tidy sliced thigh meat under slices of skin and flanked by the legs, and the tail sticking out the back. It’s a really nice presentation. Have fun!
I have a hypothesis about why brining works for so many people. I think it forces you to fully defrost the bird, even on the inside. That means it cooks faster, and the outside doesn’t get over-cooked. I suggest you try to make certain your bird is fully and completely defrosted, with or without brine.
Best of luck!
Regarding smoking the turkey, i’ve smoked turkeys several times in the past and they do turn out delicious. But I’ve never done it for Thanksgiving- the drawback with smoking a turkey for Thanksgiving is, no pan drippings to make gravy from. Also, if you like in-bird stuffing, it would be problematic in a smoker- the stuffing might not get up to temp and would probably absorb too much smoke.
I’ve smoked turkeys for about 10 years. I usually do two 10 to 12 pound birds. I cover them in olive oil and dry rub. I use apple wood. Cooking temperature is 200 F. Use a meat thermometer and cook to 165 F. It takes about four hours. The smaller ones greatly reduce cooking time. I just finished the ones for tomorrow.
“…and I was never asked to host Thanksgiving ever again.”
That’s a chicken, not a turkey, I believe.
(But thanks!)
To revisit this post T-day: I butterflied the first bird, but it was such a pain in the ass that I just roasted the second one in the traditional manner. I honestly could not tell the difference other than perhaps the trad bird was slightly drier than the other one. But since everything gets drowned in gravy (which was awesome, by the way), it didn’t matter a bit. Roasting time wasn’t appreciably shorter than with the trad bird, either.
Cutting the backbone out of the first one was a real chore, though I must admit I felt a bit like the Predator. I don’t know if my kitchen shears just weren’t up to the task, or the arthritis in my thumbs were causing a problem, but I ended up grabbing the meat cleaver to finish the job.
So back to basics next year.
I agree. I never bother to brine. It just makes things salty.
We just roasted the turkey at 325 for 3-3 1/2 hours. Only prep was putting a little butter on it and putting an onion in the cavity.
We just took its temperature to make sure it was done.
It was delicious and moist, too.
Stuffing it must have been a bitch.
I’m sure everyone on the SDMB removes all the uneaten meat from the bird after the big meal, refrigerates it to use for sandwiches and such and uses the carcass to make turkey soup, but I wonder how many people just toss a half-eaten bird in the trash? I suspect many people aren’t huge turkey fans, are too lazy to strip it down to bone and don’t really have any space in the refrigerator anyhow.
I blame Norman Rockwell. His painting convinced Americans that they need to have that big bird to present at the table, even if it’s too much to eat.
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I did put the leftover meat in the fridge, and there’s broth cooking in the stove. But no one took leftover meat this year, and I’m looking at that massive chunk of flesh and wondering what we’ll do with it.
Actually, my sister took most of the leftover dark meat. But I have a whole half breast, plus the meat from around the wings and underneath. And I don’t like turkey all that much.
I didn’t flip it this year, and left it on “high” a little too long. And the “heritage bronze” that I bought didn’t have much fat. I had to make a separate roux with butter, there was so little fat. The gravy was nonetheless excellent, but the breast was a little drier than I like. Tastier than usual, but drier. It didn’t help that it was done about three hours earlier than expected, so it was also barely warmer than room temp when served.
And i forgot to serve the squash. The leftover squash was nice for lunch, though.
Oh well. Maybe I’ll invest in silicone gloves or something, to make it easier to turn the bird.