The Turkey

The turkey is deserving of its own entry. J.T. is the turkey man - he owns the turkey, start to finish. Traditionally, we stuff the bird with, uh, stuffing - bread stuffing with celery, thyme, onion, sage, garlic. Then salt the outside, and baste it with its own juices while it cooks for 3-4 hours. And we cook it upside down so the breast meat doesn't overcook. Getting moist white meat is the ultimate goal. With about a half hour left, J.T. flips it right-side-up to brown the top. There are other scientific steps made throughout the process, but I don't know all those secrets.

This year we did two things different. We brined the turkey and used a dry spice rub. We had huge success brining some chicken breasts before so we were eager to try it.

The result? Well, the turkey managed to overcook a little, so the white meat was drier than desired, negating some of the effect from brining. And the spice rub made no notable difference; we won't bother with that again. But overall, success. It finished 30-45 minutes early, which had a rippling effect on the rest of the dishes that suddenly got moved up in the schedule. My theory on finishing earlier than expected was the oven door was never opened to check the temperature (remote thermometer) or to baste (basting would wash the spice rub off).

A number of Cook's Illustrated sources tell you how to cook a turkey. I can recommend the "The Cook's Bible" by Christopher Kimball.

Spice Rub, from Cook's Illustrated, Nov/Dec 2003
Rating: okay
Bread Stuffing, a guide for making your own recipe, from Fine Cooking, November 2001
We did the "Classic Bread Stuffing" recipe suggestion.
Rating: good