# Poll: How do YOU cook a turkey? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2008, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286 "2008-11-18T15:22:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/61 "2008-11-19T01:41:36Z")
As for me, I won’t have a single inch of extra counter space during that time. I’m cooking for 16 out of what’s nearly a galley kitchen - with a bit more floor space but definitely not enough counter space. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/62 "2008-11-19T02:09:12Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > :dubious:😕 > How feaking hard is it to leave the bird sitting on the counter with a bag of ice on it?😕 > If you consider this to be too much work, perhaps you should just order in. 😉 > ETA: To me flipping a 160 degree 20 lb bird in the face of 350 degree heat sound like a recipe for disaster and much harder than leaving a bag of ice sitting on top of a bird for an hour or so, but YMMV My dear **Rick** , it’s not just a bag of ice, but gallons of brine and days of soaking and . . . where the hell would I even do that in the first place? Not to mention counter space, since **Ferret Herder** beat me to the punch. Now, I will admit that I make a smaller turkey than 20 lbs; probably more like 15. But we’ve never had any trouble pulling the roasting pan out of the oven and turning the bird over. You might try some [heat resistant neoprene oven gloves](http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=12478&catid=61). ---
**Author:** ![goodie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@goodie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goodie)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/63 "2008-11-19T02:25:46Z")
I’ve “Alton Brown brined” mine for the last 2 years and I’ll never do it any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/64 "2008-11-19T03:08:21Z")
> [@Shayna](#): > > My dear **Rick** , it’s not just a bag of ice, but gallons of brine and days of soaking and . . . where the hell would I even do that in the first place? Not to mention counter space, since **Ferret Herder** beat me to the punch. > > Now, I will admit that I make a smaller turkey than 20 lbs; probably more like 15. But we’ve never had any trouble pulling the roasting pan out of the oven and turning the bird over. You might try some [heat resistant neoprene oven gloves](http://www.bakedeco.com/detail.asp?id=12478&catid=61). **Shayna** There were three parts to my post, and as usual I did not make myself clear. :smack: The first part of the post is how I brine my bird. If you don’t want to brine your bird, fine. The second part was how to cook the bird, without flipping and have the breast come out moist. I thought I had made this obvious by the use of bolded sentences, but as usual, the words appear to make much more sense in my head then they do on your screen. The third and final part is how I personally cook my bird. Here let me delete the chaff, and only show you the part about how to cook a bird without flipping and have the breast come out moist. I start out by explaining why the breast drys out, and then how to prevent it. To help clear things up, I have underlined the important part > [@Rick](#): > > **Now for how to cook the bird and not have the breast dry out** > The breast is done when the temp is 161F. The thigh is done at 180F so if both parts of the turkey start at the same temp the breast will get dried out when the thigh is done. > The secret is you want the breast to start out colder than the thighs. So on T day take the bird out about 3 hours before you want to put it on. Set it on a counter to warm up. Go fill a 1 gallon zip lock bag full of ice. Place the ice on the breast. When you go to put this bad boy on the heat, the breast will be at least 20 degrees colder than the thighs. They will both be done at the same time. **Remove the bag of ice BEFORE you put the bird on the heat.** > Way way easier to put a bag of ice on the bird for a few hours than it is to flip a 22lb bird that is hotter than hell. > **End of secret cooking method** Look if you don’t want to try it fine, I don’t have a problem with that. But don’t tell me it is too hard, or your cat would eat it (lock cat in bedroom) or that you have no counter space (got a dining room table?). To answer your other question, I brine my bird(s) in the fridge. I have done up to 2-22lb birds at one time. yes they do fit, yes it is a pain in the ass, and yes it was great when 30 people all told me it was the best turkey they had ever eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/65 "2008-11-19T03:24:46Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Look if you don’t want to try it fine, I don’t have a problem with that. But don’t tell me it is too hard, or your cat would eat it (lock cat in bedroom) or that you have no counter space (got a dining room table?). > > To answer your other question, I brine my bird(s) in the fridge. I have done up to 2-22lb birds at one time. yes they do fit, yes it is a pain in the ass, and yes it was great when 30 people all told me it was the best turkey they had ever eaten. I’m not sure why you seem to be taking this so personally. I did say your method sounds lovely, and I meant that. I also never said it sounded hard, I said it sounded like a pain because it’s time-consuming, which, compared to the upside down method, it is. I’m also not the cat person – my cat has never, ever been on the counter, ever. And you haven’t seen my kitchen, and although it’s not tiny, it’s got very little counter space. And no, I don’t have a dining room table – I don’t have a dining room. I have an 800 square foot beach cottage. My turkey barely fits in my _oven_! But I really do appreciate your ideas, which I also said. I just found a method that, for me, works extremely well, and all my guests - a few more than 30 over the years - absolutely gush over and say it’s the best turkey _they’ve_ ever eaten, so I’m going to stick with it. I hope you’ll still love me anyway. **NO ON 8!** 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/66 "2008-11-19T03:32:32Z")
**Shayna** you know I love you and always will. 😃 Many years ago, (Long before the invention of silicone gloves) I almost dumped a 20 bird on the floor, and spilled the boiling hot pan dripping on me trying to turn a bird over. Let’s just say I have a very healthy fear of third degree burns, so I went looking and found (for me) a better way. The cat comment was for **jsgoddess** ETA: Just to be clear, I almost spilled the boiling hot pan dripping on my legs, no burns occurred, but it was close. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/67 "2008-11-19T03:35:26Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > Look if you don’t want to try it fine, I don’t have a problem with that. But don’t tell me it is too hard, or your cat would eat it (lock cat in bedroom) or that you have no counter space (got a dining room table?). Why wouldn’t I tell you the truth? We don’t leave food on our counters to serve as temptation for any of our myriad cats. And no, I’m not going to lock them in a bedroom where their litter boxes aren’t. I’m not _insane_. Things can vary in practicality for different people. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/68 "2008-11-19T03:42:27Z")
> [@Rick](#): > > **Shayna** you know I love you and always will. 😃 > Many years ago, (Long before the invention of silicone gloves) I almost dumped a 20 bird on the floor, and spilled the boiling hot pan dripping on me trying to turn a bird over. Let’s just say I have a very healthy fear of third degree burns, so I went looking and found (for me) a better way. > The cat comment was for **jsgoddess** > > ETA: Just to be clear, I almost spilled the boiling hot pan dripping on my legs, no burns occurred, but it was close. Well just because you _do_ it wrong and almost kill yourself. . . 😉 You do know that flipping the bird is _optional_ with the upside down method, right? You don’t _have_ to brown the skin, especially if you aren’t going to “present” the bird before carving. If you aren’t entertaining 30 people this year, you’re also more than welcome to come to our house for Thanksgiving. You’ll have to eat an upside down bird though! ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/69 "2008-11-19T03:51:05Z")
::: Sigh::: Yes I am a dork. Thank you for pointing that out to me. 😉 I was going for the presentation, and trying to flip a big assed turkey with only a few crude implements is difficult at best, and usually damn near impossible. Thanks for invite, I have 5 for dinner up here that day. We may have to have a turkey cook off one of these days. You and your oven with an upside down bird. Me and my BBQ, with brine, smoke and and ice bag. ---
**Author:** ![Shayna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shayna/32/17976_2.png) [@Shayna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shayna)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/70 "2008-11-19T03:53:39Z")
I’ll take that challenge. Not that I expect mine to be any _better_ than yours, mind, but I’d sure love to taste your recipe without having to go to all that work myself! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/71 "2008-11-19T04:06:05Z")
Tell you what, when I go shopping for a bird tomorrow, I will grab and extra bird on the smallish side. Say 10-12 lbs. One of these days when we both have a weekend day clear, we will get together and cook. How does that sound? ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/72 "2008-11-19T04:25:15Z")
I’ve been brining for several years, and I’ll never do it any other way. I also use the cooking bags, and love them. I’ve never had the brine ruin the drippings. I always use the drippings for gravy. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/73 "2008-11-19T05:19:49Z")
Once you’ve fried in fat, you never go back 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/74 "2008-11-19T12:10:23Z")
**Rick** , it’s a good idea, and thank you for suggesting it. I like the method I’ve finally settled on. Maybe I’ll try it when I’m just cooking a turkey for my husband - he adores turkey - rather than on the ~24 lb fresh bird I ordered to roast for my picky inlaws next week, OK? 😉 I’ll be under enough stress getting the dinner out. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/75 "2008-11-19T14:22:25Z")
On the “where to brine” question: what I normally do is, put a clean garbage bag in a 5-gallon bucket (the bucket is just never perfectly clean, so it really needs a liner), and put the brine in that. Put the turkey in the brine, cover the bucket, and put it in the garage. The garage is usually plenty cold enough by Thanksgiving, especially overnight, to keep things fresh and bacteria-free. But, you can always add ice to the bucket as needed. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/76 "2008-11-19T14:51:30Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > On the “where to brine” question: what I normally do is, put a clean garbage bag in a 5-gallon bucket (the bucket is just never perfectly clean, so it really needs a liner), and put the brine in that. Put the turkey in the brine, cover the bucket, and put it in the garage. The garage is usually plenty cold enough by Thanksgiving, especially overnight, to keep things fresh and bacteria-free. But, you can always add ice to the bucket as needed. I once read that it’s not a good idea to use garbage bags for food as they’re treated with pesticides, but I don’t have specific cites for that. This link does suggest it’s not a good idea due to chemical leach-age. [http://www.extension.umn.edu/extensionnews/2005/unsafecontainers.html](http://www.extension.umn.edu/extensionnews/2005/unsafecontainers.html) I’d recommend putting the bird in something that _is_ food-safe - special brining bags (large ziploc-type bags are found in stores this time of year, labeled brining bags). If you do need to put that in the garage, for example, then it’d probably be fine to line the paint bucket with a trash bag, and set the brining bag in that. I’ve also used roasting bags (doubled) for brining in the past; there’s a small amount of leakage but as long as you put it in a larger outside container (I put it in a roasting pan in the fridge), that won’t be an issue. That arrangement would allow you to put extra ice around the bird, without diluting the brine. Forgot to mention: the garage is a good option, if you’re sure it’ll be cold enough (we can’t rely on that here). One year when it _was_ cold enough, we put the stuffing in the car overnight (no garage) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/77 "2008-11-19T15:05:50Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I do whatever Cook’s Illustrated tells me to do - that flipping thing. Works like a charm. I brine it, too, although last year I used a brine somebody suggested here and it was fantastic - I also got a fancy-schmancy turkey, though, so I don’t know if it was the two dollar brine or the more-than-two-dollar turkey. I think it might have been my recipe you used (apple juice, equal amounts of sugar and salt, ginger, allspice etc.) and it’s the combination of the brine and the good turkey. I bought the fancy turkeys for several years before going to brining, and though they were good, they were not as good as with the brine. Likewise, I once bought a regular Butterball turkey from the grocery store, and brined it using the same recipe, and it wasn’t as good. Last year I bought an extra turkey (the fancy variety) two days after Thanksgiving, just so I’d have the meat, and the carcass for soup (carcasses from that particular recipe yield the BEST stock) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![goodie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@goodie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/goodie)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/78 "2008-11-19T15:08:19Z")
I brine in two oven bags inside a large cooler in the basement. I like to flip, but DH says it makes the dark meat dryer than he likes, not sure if I will flip this year. I use a turkey with no extra salt water added and have not noticed the drippings being too salty. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/79 "2008-11-19T15:49:19Z")
Just baked inside a regular brown paper bag gave me the tenderest turkey I have ever eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286/80 "2008-11-19T16:03:55Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > 'Tis true. But most people around here don’t use that word, so it’s easier for me to describe it as stuffing cooked separately than as “dressing.” I get you, but it’s my personal nit. Particularly as my wife’s family (at the first Thanksgiving I attended) promised “stuffing”, but gave me “dressing”. I am normally as willing as anybody to allow for a little ambiguity in the language, but not on this subject. 😉 **jsgoddess** , maybe it’s a whoosh, but I don’t understand your comment. In this context, “dressing” doesn’t refer to any method of preparing the bird. Dressing is the result of preparing a substance which would normally be stuffed into the bird, but then cooking it in a pan instead. See also _heresy_ and _waste_. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-how-do-you-cook-a-turkey/473286.md?page=5)