Turkey for dummies

In My Humble Opinion
1

Hey gang. A friend is preparing her first Turkey for her family, and asked if Mrs. Squeegee and I had any tips. I sent her this quick list, below. We’ve obviously put in tips based on our own experience, the list is not meant to be authoritative.

Goal: just keep her out of trouble, she is not a Great Cook, and this is her first bird. AND she’s serving the in-laws, major pressure.

Anyone have any ‘Turkey for Dummies’ tips to add?

It’s pretty EZ overall. Just get one of those butterball self-basters (make SURE it has a pop-up timer), and then it’s tough to get the bird to dry out by overcooking. Just follow the directions on the package or any recipe cookbook for basic Turkey. You just need a monster-size pan with a cover.

Other things that come to mind:

  • IMPORTANT: If it’s frozen, make darned sure you leave enough time to defrost it, you’ll be unhappy if it’s an ice cube on the Big Day. 2 full days in the fridge. Or you can let it sit in water for 8-12 hours, but this is a pain. Just plan ahead & clear out a shelf in le frig.

  • IMPORTANT: Cooking time is based on pounds, it’ll be on the package or in recipes (below). ALLOW EXTRA TIME. The cooking time for a bird can vary as much as 100% from expectations depending on your oven. In other words, don’t calc the cooking time as 4 hours, tell people dinner is @ 4pm, then stick the bird in the oven at noon. You might be okay, or you might have starving guests at 5:30pm. I’ve seen this often. The bird needs to sit 20-30 minutes before you can slice it, and if it’s done early you can cover and just let it sit a little longer until you’re ready; it’ll stay warm an extra 30 minutes or even more.

  • Prep: Clean the bird very very well, scrub inside vigorously with water, get all the little icky excess turkey-bits out. Optional: rub salt inside, it’s said to improve flavor, but YMMV.

  • Brush oil or butter over the bird before cooking. Not required, but seems to keep things moister.

  • Basting (spoon or squirt drippings from pan onto turkey a coupla times during cooking) is supposed to be recommended. But we’ve forgotten to baste and the bird was fine. And you bought a self-baster (Butterball) anyway, right?

  • Do brown the bird by uncovering towards the end. Makes a world of difference.

  • To tell if it’s done is EZ: wait for the little plastic nipple on the bird to pop-up. Then test it with a meat thermometer in the breast (can take a coupla tries to make sure you didn’t hit a bone, which throws off the thermometer). The thermometer will have a demarcation that sez ‘poultry’. Other way is to (using a mitten) twist the drumstick and see if it wants to come off easily. But I’d still use a thermometer.

  • Gravy is a total pain to make. Just go buy a jar of turkey gravy and nuke it. Or, if you really want to make real gravy, buy the jar anyway in case things don’t go well. Basic gravy: take all drippings from pan into bowl, add flower with sifter and whisk with fork. keep adding flour and whisking until its gravy. Hazards: lumps of flour, or too much flour and it turns into turkey bread, yech. OTOH, real gravy tastes pretty damned good so it may be worth a shot.

  • If you have lots of guests and you think they like stuffing, make extra outside the bird. Stuffing seems to always run out first. Drizzle chicken broth over basic stuffing stuff (bread cubes, onions, celery, sage – see recipe book, very very EZ) to simulate in-the-bird taste, bake in shallow pan uncovered. You could even make the ‘extra’ stuffing ahead of time, it reheats in the microwave just fine. If it’s just 4 people, forget this part, you’ll have plenty of stuffing straight from the bird.

  • Optional: Slicing the turkey at the table (with Hubby as the Proud Host with Great Big Knife) is very picturesque. It’s also not that practical, your guests will sit hungry while the host struggles to slice the bird (since this is your first). Just slice up the bird in the kitchen, then bring out platters of meat to the table. Or yell ‘come & get it’ and the guests can load up plates in the kitchen. :slight_smile:

  • After dinner: if you have extra meat left on the bird that you want to save, you must strip it all off the bird as soon as possible after the meal. Letting the meat sit on the carcass is a health hazard. Really. Someone should do this while the dishes are getting done.

  • Lastly: let Mom help. They live for this stuff. Ignore any dumb cooking advice & smile gratefully when it’s offered. If Mom gets annoying, give her control of preparing munchie plates or salad to keep her occupied.

Helpful links:
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC3560.htm
http://www.butterball.com/main_canvas.jsp?includePage=prep_home.html&t=Butterball:%20Preparation
http://www.ianr.unl.edu/pubs/foods/nf102.htm
http://www.ebicom.net/~howle/page/turktips.htm
http://ohoh.essortment.com/howtocookat_ppy.htm

2

Well, this is reputed to be the best turkey cooking method on earth: Alton Brown’s “brine method”. You can look at the procedure and pick up some good hints. Example: start by preheating the oven to 500 degrees, and put your bird in at that temperature, uncovered, for 30 minutes. This will help crisp and seal the outside of your bird, trapping mucho moisture inside. Then, reduce to 350 degrees and cover the bird with foil for the remainder of its cooking time.

3

Here’s my method.

Any basic turkey will be fine. Don’t worry about the pop-up timer thingy.
What you do need is a box of Reynold’s Cooking Bags, the turkey size (not large, make sure it says “turkey size” on the box). You can find them in the aisle with foil and baggies.

First, obviously, make sure it’s thawed. Take out the various body parts that are packed inside. I throw them away, but some peole use them in the stuffing or gravy.
Rinse the turkey inside and out.
Coarsley chop about 4-5 ribs of celery, a couple medium onions, and maybe a carrot or two.
Prepare the cooking bag as stated on the box. I think you add a tablespoon or two of flour and shake it around. Put the bag, open end to the side, in a large roaster. Add some of the celery, onions and carrots for the turkey to sit on. Set aside.

Now the turkey. Rub it all over with either canola oil or softened butter or margarine. Sprinkle all over with kosher salt, fresh-cracked black pepper and a little powdered garlic. Now, you put it in the bag. You need two people for this, unless you happen to have four hands. Two hands hold the bag open, two hands put Mr. Turkey in the bag. It’s a little tricky, so be careful. You can stick one hand inside the body cavity to make lifting it easier.

Then put the rest of the chopped celery, onions and carrots inside the turkey, along with about a stick of chopped up butter or magarine. Add some rosemary (couple tablespoons), a little more salt and pepper, some finely chopped garlic.

Tie the bag shut and cut some slits in the top. (According to the directions).
Cook according to the directions on the box (a half hour for every so many pounds…I forget exactly what it is, read the directions on the box of cooking bags). The bag method will keep the turkey moist, and also reduces cooking time from a regular open roasting. I usually have a 20-22 pound turkey and IIRC, it cooks in about 2½-3 hours.

Be sure to let it rest for at least half an hour after you take it out of the oven, before slicing.

I never stuff my turkey. It’s easier (IMO) not to. I prefer making the stuffing separate. Stuffing it also increases cooking time, potentially drying out the turkey.

I’ve used the cooking bags for years and always have a delicious, moist turkey. I swear by them.
Making a turkey is not really that hard. It is a lot of work, but it’s not too complicated.

I hope I didn’t forget anything.

(I wanted to try the Alton Brown Brine method, but I’m not on turkey detail this year. Maybe next year.)

Now I’m off to ask my own cooking question!

4

I guess there’s only a few things I would disagree with you on:

Thaw time. I have never had a turkey thaw 100% in my fridge, no matter how long I leave it in there to thaw. Really big birds have sat in my fridge for as long as 5 days and still been frozen solid in the middle. So now I put my turkeys in to thaw three days before the big day, and allow plenty of extra time for prep, because I know I’ll have to finish thawing it in cold water for at least an hour, and I change the water at least twice in the process.

Those pop up timers. I don’t trust them at all. Buy and learn how to use a $5.00 meat thermometer. I’ve had turkeys that needed almost another entire hour after the timer popped before the internal temp was high enough to be considered “done”.

The gravy. My mother would spit nails over jarred gravy, and I can’t blame her. Gravy is what the giblets are for. The giblets are the innards (neck, heart, liver, gizzard)that come with the turkey, and they add tremendous flavor to the gravy. There are a couple ways to utilize the giblets. One is to nestle them around the turkey while it’s roasting. This seems to work the best if you add some extra liquid in the bottom of the roaster before roasting. Water, chicken broth or vegetable broth will all work. What my mother always did was to make a giblet broth on the stovetop while the turkey is roasting. Put the giblets in a small pan and cover them with water. Add some onion, S&P, a teeny bit of sage and some parsely and simmer for about an hour. Strain the giblets out of the broth. Straining is important, sometimes the neck will fall apart and it’s full of teeny little bones. You can very finely mince all the giblets except the neck and add them to the gravy if you want. Set the broth aside, this is what you want to add to your gravy. If it doesn’t look very flavorful, you can reduce it some if you think it needs it. Once the turkey is out of the roaster and “resting” prior to carving you make your gravy. First of all skim all the grease off the drippings in the roaster. Put the roaster on two of the burners of your stove and get the drippings and pan good and hot…if the drippings start to brown and stick a teeny little bit that’s ok, but don’t scorch or burn them. Deglaze the roaster with your giblet broth and get the whole works boiling. You can transfer to another small pan, but I usually just leave it in the roaster. There are several ways to thicken the broth into gravy, and chucking dry flour into the boiling broth is the absolute worst way to go about it. You need to coat every grain of flour with something (water or butter) so that when they hit the broth they can’t stick together and make lumps. Using water (about 2 parts water to 1 part flour) is called a slurry, and you drizzle it into the boiling broth while wisking. Using butter (equal parts butter to flour) is called a roux, and the traditional manner is to add the broth to the roux, not the roux to the broth. How much you need depends on how much broth you’re working with. Just remember that once it’s at a full rolling boil it will never get any thicker…until it cools. Stopp adding when it’s just a little thinner than your ideal gravy would be. Let it boil for at least two minutes to get the raw flour taste out of it, check for seasonings, and it’s done. It sounds alot more complicated than it really is, and the extra 10 minutes that go into making homemade gravy is worth it.

5

First you catch a turkey…

  1. Make sure the turkey is thawed. Remove the neck and giblets. Rinse the turkey and make sure it’s clean and you get all of the blood out of the abdominal/chest and neck cavities. Put the turkey on a clean plate (remember to wash the plate later if you are going to use it again).

  2. Put the neck and giblets into a large saucepan and cover with water. Boil unti you have a nice stock, adding water if necessary. Make sure you have more than caled for for the stuffing, as you’ll be using more later.

  3. Prepare the stuffing. The easiest way is to use Mrs. Cubbison’s in a box. Mix the stuffing with the recommended amount of chopped celery and onions, butter, and the turkey stock you’ve just made from the neck and giblets. Remove as much meat as possible from the neck and put it into the stuffing. Chop the heart and kidneys and add them to the stuffing (don’t use the liver yet). Stuff both of the turkey’s cavities. Secure the ends of the drumsticks either with the metal thingy that’s already on there, or by tucking them into some handy loose skin.

  4. Coat the inside of a Reynolds Cooking Bag with flour. Coarsely chop some celery and onion and put them in the bottom of the bag. Rub the outside of the turkey with butter and put it into the bag. Put the bag in an aluminum roasting pan. Cut a couple of slits as directed in the top of the bag. Put the bird into the preheated oven.

NOTE: Turkeys cook more quickly in the roasting bag. Do not overcook. I use a meat thermometer stuck through the bag and into the turkey to confirm doneness.

  1. Peel some large potatoes and cut them into eighths. Buil until done. Add some butter, a little milk, and some salt and pepper to taste and whip with an electric mixer. (I don’t have a mixer, so I mash them manually.)

  2. Mix a couple of tablespoons of flour with some of the (hot) stock and stir until it’s smooth. Add milk (this is a white gravy), salt and pepper. Stir very frequently as it heats. When the turkey is done, remove it from the oven and cut open the bag. The juices and fat will be in the bottom of the bag. Use a turkey baster to suck as much of the juices out of the bag and put them into a large (4 cup) measuring cup or a large clear bowl. Let it sit for a few minutes so that the fat will rise to the top. Use the turkey baster to suck the juices up from below the fat and add it to the gravy. Stir the gravy until it’s as thick as you want.

Now you have your turkey (on a platter), and stuffing, potatoes and gravy (in serving bowls). While everything else was cooking, you will have made your side dishes. Green beans are a good choice. Many people like to make sweet potatoes (not yams – see Cecil’s column in the archives). Rolls or buns. Salad. Whatever you want.

I’ve been cooking turkey this way since I was about 10 years old, and have never had any complaints. Cooking in the bag makes the turkey nice and juicy.

6

Ditto on cooking the turkey unstuffed. It cooks much faster and more even. I read somewhere that you are more at risk for salmonella with stuffing cooked inside the bird cause the internal temp just can’t get high enough to kill all the bugs. [sub]no cite, sorry [/sub] I mostly do it that way cause I hate digging the stuffing out of the bird and it never tastes as good as the pan of stuffing I used to cook separately. I figured if you are already cooking a pan of stuffing, why not cook all of it that way.

For a first time turkey cooker, just remember the KISS rule. Keep It Simple Stupid. Roasting bags are fine except I like a crispy skin on mine. Just follow the directions on the first re: prep & cooking time. You know–take the giblets out, rinse the bird, etc. Then I rub the bird down with a little oil and rub with salt, maybe a little pepper or sage and throw it my much prized huge turkey roaster pan. This pan is at least 50 or 60 years old and will hold a 30 lb. turkey. In the absence of special roasting pan, any pan large enough to hold it and covered with foil will work just as well.

When bird is about an hour from being done, I take the lid off and allow the skin to brown.

Mmmm turkey sandwiches.

7

Quick responses:

A cooking bag! Of course! Never tried one, and it does sound quite a bit more fool-proof. Capitol idea!

The ‘brine’ method sounds pretty amazing. I’ve never heard of a brine soak for turkey. Have to try that one sometime.

Deej:

  • re: thaw time. It sounds like you’re talking about a pretty large turkey. I’ve never had a problem thawing in the fridge.

  • re: thermometer. I did indeed recommend one, but the pop-top can be a good clue for the novice. So I told her to use both.

  • re: gravy. Okay, agreed, ‘real’ gravy is a lot nicer. But I was trying to stick to basics. Thanks for the giblet methods.

Thanks to everyone for the basic how-tos. I’ll of course pass these along.

8

Dad liked lots of stuffing, so I’d prepare twice the normal amount and cook half of it in the bird and half of it in a baking dish. I’ve always found that the stuffing cooked in the bird was much more tasty than the other.

I’ve never had any trouble with cooked-in-the-bag skin. It’s always nicely browned. And with a bag, you don’t have to worry about basting. Can’t get more simple than that!

I don’t have to worry about cooking this year. Mom’s cooking. (Except last year she put the bird in the pan breast-side down. It was the first time she used the bag, and I guess she couldn’t see clearly. No browned breast skin; but, man was it moist! :smiley: )

9

Dang! How could I have forgotten the liver?! Go back to step 6. Chop up the liver that you cooked at the beginning. Add it to the gravy after the flour has been mixed in smoothly.

10

I knew I forgot something.
Yes, you must use a meat thermometer to make sure it’s done.
You can use a digital instant-read one, or one that stays in the bird while cooking. (I have both).

And the skin does get nice and crispy in the bag. That’s the best part…pulling off bits of the hot crispy skin while slicing it. Mmmmmmm…

Ditto for slicing in the kitchen. And you need an electric knife.

My sister is the Gravy Queen. After the bird is removed from the pan for slicing, she dumps out the contents of the bag into the pan, removes large chunks of the veggies first, and puts the roaster pan on the stove (across 2 burners) and makes gravy from the drippings. She mixes corn starch and milk beforehand, and stirs it into the hot (boiling, I think) drippings, using an electric hand mixer with a whisk. Her gravy is wonderful, but there is a knack for it. I kind of have it mastered, after years of training under her watchful eye, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some jarred gravy on hand. The rosemary from the turkey makes it wonderful. Rosemary and poultry are meant to be together.

You can’t use one of those cheapy aluminum pans for this; you have to use a regular metal pan. One of those oval blue or black kind that have little white splatters on it works great.

11

Exactly. Gravy from drippings seems part cooking, part alchemy. I seem to get something either wonderful or inedible with my efforts. Hence the ‘keep a jar handy’ advice. Treat your sister as the goddess that she is, gravy queens are a valuable commodity.

12

Heh. I started typing that making the gravy is the trickiest part, but I deleted it so as not to scare anyone. My gravy always turns out well, but I’ll have to try adding rosemary to the turkey. You’re right: poultry and rosemary are a good match.

Gravy Goddess makes pan gravy with her turkey. Since I cook in the bag, I’m concerned about getting too much grease in the gravy. (Yeah, I know that grease is essential to a good gravy, but Good Gravy! I don’t want to over-do it! Okay, I just had to work “Good Gravy!” in there somewhere.) I make pan gravy with milk when I’m making biscuits and gravy. If I’m making a roast I make pan gravy without milk. I cook roasts in a pair of cast iron skillets. The roast is in one, and the other one goes on top. It works very well for me, and having a cast iron skillet for the drippings makes it very handy for making pan gravy.

13

My mom coats the inside of a paper bag with peanut oil and puts the turkey in that. It always comes out wonderfully. Sadly, this year, we get to go to a restaurant for Thanksgiving, so no Mom’s turkey. :frowning:

Robin

14

So, has anyone here tried using the brine method or eaten turkey prepared that way? I’m thinking about doing it that way and would like some feedback. It sounds really good…

:slight_smile:

Novus

15

Well, Mrs. Squeegee has announced that, since I’m suddenly so interested in the topic, I get to cook the bird this year. <gulp!> :slight_smile:
[sub]…off to find le cooking bag…Send in le gravy queens![/sub]

16

My mom told me about the first time I cooked a turkey. I was 10, and she was sick in bed. No thanksgiving turkey! She says I kept coming back to ask her stuff, and that she was surprised that I actually pulled it off. She still says the turkey was very good. I only have vague recollections of it. I remember doing it, but I don’t remember the details. Anyway, if a 10-year-old boy can do it, you’ll have no trouble. Then, when everyone starts telling you what a great cook you are, you can sit and bask in the attention. :slight_smile:

17

I knew I’d find it if I searched long enough…here’s a thread with some folks talking about their experiences (all very positive) with Alton’s brine method and his other turkey-cooking suggestions: Secrets to MOIST turkey? (Not for Thanksgiving)

18

Oh, I’ve cooked a bird before. No prob. But all these tips will certainly help.

Johnny L.A.: your “10-year-old cooks the turkey because Mom is sick” story is touching.

19

If you want to re-heat turkey, steam it for about 5 minutes.
It heats the turkey and put moisture back into it.

20

Breast side down: my mom used to cook for a school, and when they did turkey they always did them breast side down. It stays moister, and cooks a little bit faster. They would also cut the drumsticks off the bird and put them in the bottom of the pan, it would decrease the cooking time substantially and had the added benefit of adding more flavor to the broth.

Roasting bags: I can vouch for the fact that the bags turn out a crispy skinned turkey. My volunteer fire department’s biggest fundraiser of the year is our annual turkey dinner. The turkey roasting duties are pretty evenly split among our members, and last year a bunch tried the roasting bags for the first time. The turkeys were picture perfect; very evenly browned and very tender and moist. I think I’ll give the bags a whirl for the next dinner.

Kinsey, the rosemary sounds absolutely delicious, and will be an addition to our Thanksgiving bird this year. Thank you.

The brine method mentioned above is something I’ve never heard of before. When we deepfry a turkey, we’ve always thawed it out immersed in saltwater in a big Coleman cooler, and injected a seasoned broth before deepfrying. I don’t know if that’s at all similar to what was mentioned above, but it adds alot of flavor and moisture for us.