As I did in my chicken recipe, let’s begin this discussion with what kind of bird to buy. I prefer air-chilled over water-chilled; and a turkey with as natural a diet and as much outdoor time as possible. Buy a “heritage” bird if you can. These breeds not only have a stronger flavor but they’re raised the way poultry was raised centuries ago, long before the advent of any kind of factory farming.
As for the size of the bird, I recommend about 2 pounds total weight per guest. (This is why my family of 3 adults always buys a chicken—we are 3 people, and I can certainly get a 5-7 pound whole chicken, but a 5-7 pound whole turkey is practically impossible to find.) 2 pounds per person (this includes the weight of bones and any giblets or organs sold within the bird) is generally a good number. If you’re feeding a lot of kids, use a slightly smaller number to calculate how much to buy for them. If you’re feeding an NFL team, go higher. Chances are, your family get-together will be a mix of kids and adults, and you’ll probably want leftovers, so sticking to 2 pounds per person is generally a good idea.
I’ve heard of turkeys as light as 10 pounds (several years ago, an uncle, aunt, and cousin came over, and we bought a 10- or 11-pound bird for the 6 of us) and as heavy as 30. Birds that big take hours to cook, and when they finally do come out of the oven, chances are they’ll be drier than any other meat you’ve ever eaten. There is a way to mitigate this and preserve the turkey as the culinary star of your Thanksgiving gathering. If you do your calculations and you need more than 20 pounds, split that into several birds. That is, don’t buy a 24-pound bird. If that’s what you need, buy an 11 and a 13, or 2 12s, or a 10 and a 14, and so on.
If your turkey is frozen, you must thaw it before proceeding. Budget 24 hours per 5-6 pounds of turkey in your fridge. Keep the turkey separate from everything else in a clean, cold (in your fridge, not getting any hotter than 40 Fahrenheit) space. Exact timing will vary depending on the power of your fridge, the exact weight of your bird, the shape of the bird, and how much other stuff is in your fridge when you thaw your frozen bird, so be conscious of that. Only after your turkey is thawed (or if your turkey was bought fresh) should you move on to these next steps.
Some people brine their turkeys. That is, they make a solution of salt and spices dissolved in water and they leave their turkey (taken out of its packaging, neck and organs removed from the cavity and discarded) in that solution for up to 36-48 hours before they cook it. The point of doing this is that osmosis pulls unseasoned moisture out of the turkey and replaces it with moisture from the brine—properly salted and infused with all the herbs and spices in the brine. In principle, I love this idea. I’ll do just about anything to make my food as flavorful as possible. In practice, though, it’s a lot more complicated. You need the right time, location, and vessel to do this in a way that is both safe and effective. Most people cannot meet all three criteria. You need a cooler that’s at least 5 gallons (the size of the cylindrical coolers of Gatorade that the winning coaches get dunked with at the end of the Super Bowl), you need a place big enough to keep that cooler’s contents at around 40 degrees, and you need access to enough ice and water to fill that container several times over since you need to renew the ice at least every 8 to 12 hours, or as frequently as needed to meet the earlier temperature threshold. If you can meet those requirements, sure, make a brine. Bring a gallon of water to a boil with 6 ounces of salt and whatever spices you want. Stir to dissolve. Allow this solution to cool. Remove your turkey from its packaging and place it legs-up in your cooler. Then, pour all of the cooled brine into your cooler. Fill the rest of the cooler’s volume with ice. Change the ice regularly.
As for the size of the bird, I recommend about 2 pounds total weight per guest. (This is why my family of 3 adults always buys a chicken—we are 3 people, and I can certainly get a 5-7 pound whole chicken, but a 5-7 pound whole turkey is practically impossible to find.) 2 pounds per person (this includes the weight of bones and any giblets or organs sold within the bird) is generally a good number. If you’re feeding a lot of kids, use a slightly smaller number to calculate how much to buy for them. If you’re feeding an NFL team, go higher. Chances are, your family get-together will be a mix of kids and adults, and you’ll probably want leftovers, so sticking to 2 pounds per person is generally a good idea.
I’ve heard of turkeys as light as 10 pounds (several years ago, an uncle, aunt, and cousin came over, and we bought a 10- or 11-pound bird for the 6 of us) and as heavy as 30. Birds that big take hours to cook, and when they finally do come out of the oven, chances are they’ll be drier than any other meat you’ve ever eaten. There is a way to mitigate this and preserve the turkey as the culinary star of your Thanksgiving gathering. If you do your calculations and you need more than 20 pounds, split that into several birds. That is, don’t buy a 24-pound bird. If that’s what you need, buy an 11 and a 13, or 2 12s, or a 10 and a 14, and so on.
If your turkey is frozen, you must thaw it before proceeding. Budget 24 hours per 5-6 pounds of turkey in your fridge. Keep the turkey separate from everything else in a clean, cold (in your fridge, not getting any hotter than 40 Fahrenheit) space. Exact timing will vary depending on the power of your fridge, the exact weight of your bird, the shape of the bird, and how much other stuff is in your fridge when you thaw your frozen bird, so be conscious of that. Only after your turkey is thawed (or if your turkey was bought fresh) should you move on to these next steps.
Some people brine their turkeys. That is, they make a solution of salt and spices dissolved in water and they leave their turkey (taken out of its packaging, neck and organs removed from the cavity and discarded) in that solution for up to 36-48 hours before they cook it. The point of doing this is that osmosis pulls unseasoned moisture out of the turkey and replaces it with moisture from the brine—properly salted and infused with all the herbs and spices in the brine. In principle, I love this idea. I’ll do just about anything to make my food as flavorful as possible. In practice, though, it’s a lot more complicated. You need the right time, location, and vessel to do this in a way that is both safe and effective. Most people cannot meet all three criteria. You need a cooler that’s at least 5 gallons (the size of the cylindrical coolers of Gatorade that the winning coaches get dunked with at the end of the Super Bowl), you need a place big enough to keep that cooler’s contents at around 40 degrees, and you need access to enough ice and water to fill that container several times over since you need to renew the ice at least every 8 to 12 hours, or as frequently as needed to meet the earlier temperature threshold. If you can meet those requirements, sure, make a brine. Bring a gallon of water to a boil with 6 ounces of salt and whatever spices you want. Stir to dissolve. Allow this solution to cool. Remove your turkey from its packaging and place it legs-up in your cooler. Then, pour all of the cooled brine into your cooler. Fill the rest of the cooler’s volume with ice. Change the ice regularly.
After brining it (if you choose to do so), or when it is time to cook it if it is fresh, either remove the turkey from the packaging or take it out of the brine. In any case, pat the exterior of the bird dry with clean paper towels. At this point, begin preheating your oven to 500 Fahrenheit. If the bird was not brined, season it generously with salt and black pepper on the exterior and inside the cavity. Quarter an orange and place it inside the cavity. Do likewise with a lemon, quartering a second one to scatter around the bird as well. Quarter 4 onions and peel 3 of them. Those that were peeled go under the turkey with the lemons, and the one that was not peeled will join the lemon in the cavity. Halve a head of garlic through its equator so that all the cloves are exposed. Place that into the cavity. Roughly chop (into 3 or 4 pieces each) 1 pound each of celery and carrots. Scatter the vegetables throughout the roasting tray. Peel 3 shallots and place them in the roasting tray. Not all shallots are like this, but if any of your shallots have two distinct halves, pull them apart. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. (Bones conduct heat much better than flesh, so touching a bone will give you an inaccurate reading much higher than the true temperature). Set the probe thermometer to beep when it registers 165 Fahrenheit. Look around in either of the halves of the breasts; there, you might find a small white circle. That’s an epoxy-based thermometer where un-melted wax keeps a piston down that pops up when the wax melts. They aren’t very precise, and the wax isn’t very good, so it doesn’t melt when it should. Those thermometers are useless, but don’t remove them. Go with your thermometer.
This next idea comes straight from Brown’s Romancing the Bird—even the name is his. Cut a triangle of aluminum foil that fits the dimensions of the breast. Mold the “Turkey Triangle onto the breast now, and once you’re sure it’s the right size, reserve it for later.
Put the bird in the oven at 500 degrees legs-first (that is, legs facing the back of the oven). Time it for 30 minutes. Then, drop the temperature to 350, cover the breast with the Triangle, and continue roasting until the probe beeps. (This is straight out of Brown's method in his classic Thanksgiving episode "Romancing the Bird.") Depending on the weight of your bird, it should probably take another 2-2½ hours. But again, don't go by time or by the little pop-up thermometer. For the best, safest results, rely on the probe. Rest uncovered for 15 minutes before serving with the vegetables. Place the vegetables and the turkey on a platter to rest and from which they will be served, leaving any liquid in the roasting tray. Return the roasting pan to a stovetop burner and click here to learn how to make the proper pan sauce.
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