The Alcoholian

Posted by johngl

About a week ago, we got the 2009 edition of the Cook’s Illustrated compendium in the mail. These are indexed volumes of the entire year’s worth of magazines.  I have them going back to 1193.

Uh, wait, let’s try that again: 1993. Even I am not quite that old.

So, there she was, the most glorious spousal unit, thumbing through the thing and said, “You need to do a turkey you turkey!” I flipped her the bird.

That little scene didn’t actually happen, but it does illustrate the kind and loving relationship we share.

What was I talking about?  Oh, yeah.  Turkey.

When was the last time you saw a bird this golden brown without the use of an airbrush?

Here’s how to do it:

First, get yourself a bird. I don’t care what kind it is as the same technique will work on all of them.

Now, get your hands dirty:

No, I don’t have a breast fetish. Okay. I do have a breast fetish, just not the turkey kind. But you do need to get up and under the skin of the birdie. Move carefully about the breast and legs, separating the skin from the flesh.

Apply salt under the skin:

Use kosher salt so you can actually see the crystals. Just rub it around under the skin all over the bird.  Apply it pretty liberally.  Amounts vary by the size of the bird. If your bird is pre-brined, you may want to skip this step but don’t skip the skin separation bit.

After you have applied the salt to the breast, legs, thighs and back, put the bird in a bag and let it sit in the fridge for at least 12 hours. If you get started right now, your bird will be ready to go tomorrow morning!  Get on it!

This technique is called dry-brining.  Or rather, that is what Cook’s Illustrated calls it.  I just call it salting the bird in advance, just like a do steaks or prime rib.

Now comes the truly unusual part. Take two teaspoons of baking powder (not soda) and mix it with another two teaspoons of kosher salt.

Sprinkle this blend all over the bird right before you put it in the oven.  Make sure and rub it into the skin.

Now, flip the bird on its belly.

That isn’t bacon. That is unsmoked salted pork jowl. Yes, I found this stuff at my local grocer.  Ask for salt pork. I suppose you could use bacon if you wanted the smoky taste.

If you have a probe thermometer, insert into the thickest part of the turkey breast. You will need to monitor the  temperature to know when to flip it. If you don’t have a probe thermometer — the kind that you can leave in during cooking; they have a cable attached to a plastic monitor that resides outside of the oven — you will have to check the bird using an instant read thermometer. If you don’t have one of those, get the heck out of the kitchen as you obviously don’t know what you are doing.

So, anyway, put the barded bird (this is what porking the bird is called — get your mind out of the gutter people! This is not an x-rated blog) into a pre-heated 325 degree oven.  Leave it there, untouched, until the thermometer reaches 130°.

Take the bird out of the oven:

Pull off the pork bits. They should now be crispy. The photo above shows what the bird looks like at this point.  Now just flip it over.

Yes, it looks a bit anemic right now.  That will all change.

Crank the oven to 450° and let it come up to temperature. Put the bird back in the oven and allow it to remain, undisturbed, until the thermometer reaches 160°. Remove it from the oven and allow it to rest.

Carry over heat will finish out the cooking. This one rose to 169° after it came out of the oven. Let it rest until the temp starts to go back down.

I have to say, this came out of the oven looking really good.

When I cut into the breast, it was not at all dry and juices ran all over the place.  I plated this with some quinoa and turkey gravy I’d made using the gizzard and neck (hey, they came with the turkey. Might as well use ‘em).

If you want a nice and juicy, beautifully colored bird this Thanksgiving holiday, give this technique a shot.

Thanks to Cook’s Illustrated for allowing us to say good-bye to dried out turkey breast!

The best things in life should be shared!

Tags: Thanksgiving, turkey

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 10:29 am and is filed under Techniques. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.