time to talk turkey

Where can you get the best tasting turkey.I’ve recently tried a number of turkeys at thanksgiving and they don’t seem to taste as good as I remember when I was young.Perhaps it is palate decay as I age.I’ve tried Dietsel,a heritage,numerous store young turkeys.I haven’t brined one.What do you think?

If I were going to cook a turkey (and I’m not) I’d try one of the d’Artagnan Green Circle turkeys which are fed on a mixture of grains and surplus vegetables. The diet makes a big difference for the Green Circle chickens so I’d guess the same would be same here.

My Thanksgiving meal will be at my cousins’ and will be take out turkey from Wegmans. Fortunately I really like my relatives :slight_smile:

Don’t know what you grew up with, but in BFE I grew up eating Butterballs.
They taste the same to me now as they did 40 years ago. YMMV

It sounds like you’re already getting high quality turkeys. I think your preparation will affect how much you enjoy the turkey more than whether you have the very best heritage / pasture raised turkey.

Here’s all you need!

Thanksgiving is usually celebrated at the vegetarian’s house. To avoid the tofurkey, we used to cook a turkey breast and leave it in the trunk of the car, sneak out have some real turkey when ever we could. She caught us and now makes a Whole Foods brined turkey each year. For Christmas, Carrie gets a turkey breast and marinates it in liquid smoke for a day or two. It is sooooooo good and the sandwiches with left overs are even better.

Spatchcock, cut into sections, and roast over root vegetables. Remove the faster-cooking sections from the oven, once done.
Avoids dust-like turkey meat.

Deep-fry, if you are into Youtube fame for backyard fires.

Heritage turkey around 12-15lbs. Brine for 12hrs. Dry in fridge for 1 day. Dry rub and evoo. Compound butter under skin. Beer can style (pear juice goes REALLY well) on the BGE, indirect - start with some mild apple smoke, raise temp to 325ish for majority of cook, hotter to finish/crisp skin towards end. Let rest properly. Field questions from friends and family like “why don’t we (you) make turkey all year long”

I have been doing this sous vide/deep fry method the last two years and it is outstanding. Best tasting turkey I’ve ever had.

Ditto. I’ve enjoyed many different turkey preparations over the years, but the turkey on the BGE is the best.

James

Also use a BGE ad do Turkey (or just a breast) a few times per year.

Am I the only one that things the best way to prepare a Thanksgiving turkey is to slowly put it back onto the shelf and walk over to the beef and pork section of the store? I seriously dislike Turkey, but will oblige our Thanksgiving day host and eat a few bits. For me Thanksgiving is all about the side dishes anyway.

I was just in an argument with my sister and wife about this earlier in the week. My stance is that of all the fowl, turkey ranks at the bottom of the pack. It is too large to cook effectively, the white meat is dry no matter what, and the flavor on the dark meat isn’t nearly as good as other birds. I even tried to propose roasting 3 chickens and was shot down (and called un-American).

In an attempt to keep this post at least somewhat on topic, and not a complete rant…Here is what I do on years our house hosts:

  1. dry brine. Mix salt, thyme, pepper, lemon zest together and very generously coat a thawed (buy fresh not frozen) and dried bird with the brine. Put into a fridge on on a baking sheet with a cooling rack insert, uncovered, for a day or two. This lets the salt work its magic, and give you a place for the juice runoff to collect.

  2. rinse off brine and pat your bird dry again. Fill the cavity with cut lemons, springs of thyme, rosemary, and sage. Truss the legs (this helps with the whole different parts get done sooner than others). rub the skin of the bird in baking powder (you want crispy skin right?). Sometimes I get frisky and smear some butter between the skin and the meat, but I don’t ever see a discernible difference when I do this.

  3. Place on the rack of a roasting pan. Take a 12’‘x12’’ piece of tin foil and make an anti-government mind reading hat for your bird. Put it over the breasts. Leave it on for the first hour to help with dry breast issues.

  4. Roast at 325 until you hit 160* internal temp. If you aren’t crispy enough on the skin, blast it at 425 for 10-15 minutes to get you the rest of the way to crispy skin. Rest for 20 minutes before carving, unfoiled if you want to maximize your crisp skin, foiled if you want to maximize juiciness.

TW

I steam the seasoned but unstuffed turkey for three hours, and then roast at high heat for thirty minutes.

This is my bird . 32 pounds .Got it from a local butcher shop that we use . First time getting a full turkey from them (did get do a half spatchcock turkey earlier this year that was great). Turkey is organic , free range, and not frozen. From Amish country in Pennsylvania .


Put onion , orange, and lemon, and fresh herbs in the cavity . Rub of garlic , oil, butter , and various seasonings on top . Cook breast side down -will attempt to flip it with an hour to go or so. In pan is some chicken broth and orange juice . And I will turn it 180 degrees halfway through .

I thought about using roast/convection setting but just chose not too. Not too familiar with the process and not the day to test it .
Happy Thanksgiving!!
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Butterball. Hopefully bleached. Brined overnight with salt, brown sugar, allspice pods and rosemary.

I use Alton Browns method to cook it. Stuff turkey with apples, oranges, lemons and rosemary. 30 minutes at 500 degrees then reduce to 350 degrees

Looks like this after 30 minutes
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Roasting away, keep a butter soaked cheese cloth on top till the last 45 minutes. Started at 425, dropped to 325 once in the oven.

32 pounds? FFS, that ginormous.

I’m running an 18 lb Mary’s Heritage that’ll I’ll cooK in the oven using a recipe from Adam Noble. Family coming up from CA had to turn around because of snow at Redding, so we opened up dinner to Facebook… and I ended up with 10 more people and a smoked, spatchcocked turkey to boot :slight_smile: Will post some pics.

Well, I ordered a smoked turkey from Greenberg in Texas. Was supposed to be delivered Nov 25-27 but, due to the big storm here in Denver, was delayed and won’t be delivered until tomorrow (Friday). Luckily, I was able to call Ted’s Montana Grill and pick up some turkey from them to go with all my homemade sides. Guess we’ll have two Thanksgivings in this household.

Wow, that’s a monster. Good luck flipping it, you’ll need a couple of drunk relatives to help.

First for us … we ordered a turkey from the wonderful Chinese bbq restaurant SunWah and it was amazing. Great deal for a huge bird which was so tasty. Sides by my daughter and son in law, both chefs, were a neat mix (fry bread, mashed potatoes, wild rice with cranberries, Brussels sprouts with guanciale, purple carrots roasted, stuffing with sausage and chestnuts, interesting charcuterie and cheese … all amazing)

When cooking turkeys ourselves, we roast at a low temp … I stick to herbs and olive oil but my daughter one year basted until lacquered with a local bourbon infused maple syrup … highly recommended.