Friday, November 25, 2011

Turkey turkey

MI wish I had taken a photo of the bird I cooked from Weather Top Farm in Check VA for it was excellent, magnificent. Monday after I returned home with the 12 1/2 pound (seemed heavier than Mr. Lee who weighs 13 lbs!) organic,pastured turkey, Baldwin suggested a dry brine and he handed me a fresh bouquet of herbs (sage, thyme and rosemary). I rubbed sea salt and rosemary over the bird and covered it in the refrigerator until Thursday morning. (Luckily I invited Alma to drive with me to pick up the bird - and we did not get lost!)
Thursday morning I brushed off any excess salt and whiped out the cavity. I stuffed turkey with organic tangerines, organic apple, onion and celery and lots of Baldwin and Mindy's herbs. Early that morning I had began cooking a stock for the gravy with the neck, liver and heart - with carrot, onion, celery, jalapeno, herbs, lots of salt and pepper. I calculated that the bird would take 4 hours and I decided to cook it breast down for the first 45 minutes. I go with the Joy of cooking and heat the oven to 450, immediately turning the oven to 325 when the turkey goes in. I pushed a couple of tbs of butter up under the skin of the breast and rubbed olive oil over the rest of the skin. Thru out the cooking I basted the bird with olive oil about every 25 min - sometimes I basted with stock. I debated whether to cook in my gas oven on Convection Roast or Convection Bake. Ach! I went with the bake until the last hour when I switched to roast. I tented the breast with foil, but the bird was very brown anyway. I am writing this down so that next year I have something to which I can refer. um.

1 comment:

  1. It was the best turkey ever. We should just get on the list now for next year's turkey. :)

    ReplyDelete