160F breast meat is beyond dead. 143-145F is where you want to be. By the time you’re at 150F you can feel the dryness.
Okay, I confess… I’ll ACTUALLY remove it way earlier than I said, but I vaguely remember catching a lot of flak for the idea last year, so I kowtowed and hoped to at least get you guys down into the 150’s.
Sympathize with Jay, you don’t need unhappy guests. Moreover, turkey just sucks! It ain’t worth fighting over. Glad we only eat it once a year.
The Serious Eats method looks interesting. Might try that next time we have turkey.
Last year, I broke the bird down, confit’ed the legs and wings & roasted the breast separately.
Oh boy.
Last night I planned to dry brine the turkey.
Then read in small print that it had already been injected with 8% solution.
Decided to leave it alone and just rub butter under the skin tomorrow.
Question - would it still be beneficial to dry brine/rub salt tonight?
Or will it be too salty/mushy/yucky?
If you brine it, all that will do is ensure that the salt in the meat is evenly distributed (you can use less salt in your brine, if you are concerned). Sometimes the solution injection doesn’t necessarily ensure even distribution. I’ve both brined and not brined pre-basted turkeys, and the difference is negligible.
Ok cool.
Thanks for the response.
I’ll give it a go.
The Good Eats method is sound; but the flavors, while nice, made for the worst fruity weird gravy I’ve ever had.
Lose the oranges, apples and baking spices
Never was Alton so wrong minded as when he did that no gravy “stuffing is dead, long live turkey” episode. I’m gonna make the best turkey of all time, and it’s still gonna be the last thing on my plate to go.
+2. And the time to cook is SO MUCH SHORTER
Did the over night dry brine.
Then used Keller’s method of cooking at 450 for the whole time after brushing with clarified butter.
Excellent crispy skin and juicy meat.
bought a turkey from a chinese bbq joint. AWESOME.
Of all the options…I chose this…along with the following dry brine from Russ Parsons of the LATimes.com. It was awesome, a term I’ve never used with turkeys after umpty-ump years.
With a a 10 lb Huntsingers bird from a local chain…
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Sunday-Wash the turkey inside and out, pat it dry and weigh it [er…it’s on the tag, stoopid.]. Measure 1 tablespoon of salt into a bowl for every 5 pounds the turkey weighs (for a 15-pound turkey, you’d have 3 tablespoons).
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Sprinkle the inside of the turkey lightly with salt. Place the turkey on its back and salt the breasts, concentrating the salt in the center, where the meat is thickest. You’ll probably use a little more than a tablespoon. It should look liberally seasoned, but not over-salted.
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Turn the turkey on one side and sprinkle the entire side with salt, concentrating on the thigh. You should use a little less than a tablespoon. Flip the turkey over and do the same with the opposite side.
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Place the turkey in a 2 1/2 -gallon seal-able plastic bag [anything over our 10-pound bird would have needed a 2nd pair of hands to help with this…just sayin’], press out the air and seal tightly. Place the turkey breast-side up in the refrigerator. Chill for 3 days, massaging the salt into the skin each day [eh…I did it once…didn’t seem to add much…but I didn’t have my electron microscope hooked up to determine ion transfer rates) turning it onto its breast for the last day.
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Wednesday afternoon/PM-Remove the turkey from the bag. There should be no salt visible on the surface [none was] and the skin should be moist but not wet [in our case, bottom was still wet-ish, so I patted it dry]. Place the turkey breast-side up on a plate and refrigerate uncovered for at least 8 hours (we did 7PM to 2PM the next day, which just happened to be Turkeyday
). -
On the day it is to be cooked, remove the turkey from the refrigerator and leave it at room temperature at least 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. [[[NOTE: we then spatchcocked our bird, not hard at all if you have nice shears, roasted it for ONLY 65 minutes-breast-side up the whole way, no basting needed at this short time/high heat and it was done…both thighs (over 165) and breasts (145+)…
The following steps are needed if you do not spatchcock the bird.
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Place the turkey breast-side down on a roasting rack in a roasting pan; put it in the oven. After 30 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and carefully turn the turkey over so the breast is facing up (it’s easiest to do this by hand, using kitchen towels or oven mitts).
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Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees, return the turkey to the oven and roast until a thermometer inserted in the deepest part of the thigh, but not touching the bone, reads 165 degrees, about 2 3/4 hours total roasting.
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Remove the turkey from the oven, transfer it to a warm platter or carving board; tent loosely with foil. Let stand at least 30 minutes to let the juices redistribute through the meat. Carve and serve.
Each of 15 servings: 564 calories; 77 grams protein; 0 carbohydrates; 0 fiber; 26 grams fat; 8 grams saturated fat; 261 mg. cholesterol; 856 mg. sodium.
Stu, thanks for your notes. I have done my turkey spatchcocked as well this year and last (though I bought an 18-pounder). Last year I overcooked, didn’t realize how fast it goes. This year I checked it what I thought was early, and wow, it was done perfectly right then (I got lucky I didn’t wait another 15 minutes). My only issues are 1) getting the breasts to lay flat, and not be weirdly asymmetric (please, no jokes 
) and 2) I like the legs to be crispy and really well done. Next year I may just completely separate the two halves, and may even remove the legs and cook them on the side so I can easily leave them in longer.
I did this out of necessity. Once spatchcocked, the bird was too wide for my oven, so white and dark went their separate ways. And I’m pretty sure I’m going to be doing this every year from now on. Short cooking times, precise temperatures, and well seasoned throughout. This is the way to go if you care how your turkey comes out.
Alan-
I think I’ll be playing The Separation Rag next year as well. Our 10-pounder barely fit our oven as it was.
Brian-
There are some web commentaries I reviewed on carefully trimming around the “oysters,” at the top of the leg, as it represents the tastiest part of the entire bird. Did you try that? I’m going to repeat the dry-brine for Xmas, separating the leg/thighs. I’ll try to salvage the oysters, and revive this thread with my results.
IMG_4066 by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr
IMG_4115 by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr
IMG_4117 by Mel Hill Photography, on Flickr
Sous vide 6 hours at 150 then 500˚ oven for 15 min then a bit of touch-up browning with a torch
So Corey, how did it go?
After a lousy TDay dinner at my aunt and uncle’s independent living facility which was memorable for being the last time I saw my uncle alive (he passed away 2 1/2 days later) and missing Saturday dinner at friends (Arnold came down with a stomach virus Friday and says he was the sickest he’s been in his entire life) I decided to have at least a small real dinner on Sunday so I went out and picked up the fixings for stuffing and a fresh turkey breast which I cooked sous vide. Roasted the skin separately in the oven.
The breast was the moistest and most flavorful that I ever remember having. I’ll do that again. 140 degrees.
I overcoooked the skin. Ooops.
Stuffing was simple old fashioned stuff, made a stock from the breast bones, meat on the bones, carrots, celery and onions, and added to bread, celery, onions, egg, sage and cooked in the oven.
As it happened Arnold’s stomach still wasn’t settled but I enjoyed it and the dog has been ecstatic over the leftovers all week.
You keep fish oil and Vitamin D at the Thanksgiving table? Along with what else? Interesting condiments, I must say.
And as long as I’m being snarky (among friends), why do you sous vide (verb?) in the utility sink? Does the damn contraption leak or are you short on counter space?
