Blue Gartr Meal Time: Bacon optional? Bacon required.

[Zetanio]

I put those statements in poor order, which I fixed in my recipe post. The resting thing should have been with sticking it in the fridge overnight rather than reheating it on a slow simmer.

To get flavors to develop, like making a stew or a stock, you want to simmer that shit for a long period of time. This lets everything breakdown and meld together just like you said. I'm not sure if it sitting in the fridge overnight really does much in that regard, maybe mellows out some of the flavors?, but dad always knows best.

All of my cooking experience comes from my dad who did 90% of the cooking while I was growing up. I'd actually like to know if it does have some kind of culinary backing, letting it cool down and sit cold overnight. May have to do some Googling.



Brining is a great idea. I made Thanksgiving dinner last year at my place and the turkey was fucking delicious if I do say so myself. I didn't make the brine, though, I got my turkey from Fairway in a brine already.

Honestly, if possible, go and get a digital, in-oven thermometer and set an alarm for 165. I credit the turkey I made last year to the brine and the thermometer. If it's not out at the right time you're gonna have a bad time.

I don't really have tips other than that. Brine and the correct timing is basically all you need for a good turkey. Make sure the sides are good too.

All of this.

[SamanosukeShiva]

If you want to be spot on with the brining, use weight as measurement, to make sure you're not oversalting.

Generally, for white meats, you want the salt ratio to be 1.5%-1.75% of (water+meat weight). By measuring salt using weight, it won't matter if you use table salt or kosher salt. Something large like whole turkey usually takes at the very least 24 hours, and 72 hours max. Another advantage of measuring by weight is, you won't ever get the meat too salty, overbrining will just affect the meat texture, not saltiness.

Also, keep in mind the concept or carryover heat, as this is key for doing any whole bone-in roast foods. The temperature of the meat will continue to rise even when it's out of the oven. So if you take out your turkey out of the oven at 165F, the temp will continue to rise approx. 5-10~F for a while, and your turkey breast might be overcooked by the time you carve it an hour later. For turkey I prefer cooking it low and slow to get even distribution of heat/cooking, and when it's fully cooked, give the turkey quick brush of oil and crank the heat up to get color on the skin.

A trick that I used for turkey, is the same technique that I do with whole roast chicken or duck, brine for 24hr, then drain pat dry, and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for another 24 hour to dry out the skin. Makes for crispy as fuck, peking duck style skin, and because of the brine, still juicy inside.

Also for people that are thinking of stuffing. The thing about stuffing is, when done right, it's really delicious because it soaks the turkey juices inside, but if you don't cook the stuffing to proper temp, you'll risk food-born illness. Personally I just cook them separately, and I mix in whatever pan juices I can get.


Also, best advice I could give you, invest in a kitchen thermometer, walmart has $8-15 digital kitchen thermometers, they works.

something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Digital...en+thermometer

I do a lot of meats smoking, so this kind of thermometer is amazing since I can just leave the probe in the meat, and when it reaches the internal temp I want, the alarm will go off.

[Zetanio]

My boss's friend bought a giant sous vide setup for his turkey this year. Gonna be 6 hours of that followed by a finish on a giant cinderblock grill fire outside.

At least he's using his rich people money for important things.

[SamanosukeShiva]

speaking of sous vide, ChefSteps made their own sous vide machine. ChefStep is a company that was started by the Modernist Cuisine grads, and invested in by Gabe Newell (lol). Smaller size sous vide machine with pretty much double the capacity of anova/other kickstarters sous vide machine.

https://www.chefsteps.com/joule

[BerenTebogo]

If you want to be spot on with the brining, use weight as measurement, to make sure you're not oversalting.

Generally, for white meats, you want the salt ratio to be 1.5%-1.75% of (water+meat weight). By measuring salt using weight, it won't matter if you use table salt or kosher salt. Something large like whole turkey usually takes at the very least 24 hours, and 72 hours max. Another advantage of measuring by weight is, you won't ever get the meat too salty, overbrining will just affect the meat texture, not saltiness.

Also, keep in mind the concept or carryover heat, as this is key for doing any whole bone-in roast foods. The temperature of the meat will continue to rise even when it's out of the oven. So if you take out your turkey out of the oven at 165F, the temp will continue to rise approx. 5-10~F for a while, and your turkey breast might be overcooked by the time you carve it an hour later. For turkey I prefer cooking it low and slow to get even distribution of heat/cooking, and when it's fully cooked, give the turkey quick brush of oil and crank the heat up to get color on the skin.

A trick that I used for turkey, is the same technique that I do with whole roast chicken or duck, brine for 24hr, then drain pat dry, and let it sit uncovered in the fridge for another 24 hour to dry out the skin. Makes for crispy as fuck, peking duck style skin, and because of the brine, still juicy inside.

Also for people that are thinking of stuffing. The thing about stuffing is, when done right, it's really delicious because it soaks the turkey juices inside, but if you don't cook the stuffing to proper temp, you'll risk food-born illness. Personally I just cook them separately, and I mix in whatever pan juices I can get


Also, best advice I could give you, invest in a kitchen thermometer, walmart has $8-15 digital kitchen thermometers, they works.

something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Taylor-Digital...en+thermometer

I do a lot of meats smoking, so this kind of thermometer is amazing since I can just leave the probe in the meat, and when it reaches the internal temp I want, the alarm will go off.

This is what I just set in motion and was coming here to check up on actually. I got a smaller bird since only 4 people (10.5lbs) and I followed some rando advice online that said 3/4 cup salt and 4 quarts water. I dissolved the salt in the first quart then added more water after. I mixed in some "poultry seasoning" into the salt, but since it was pretty salty to begin with I did like 75% of the 3/4 cup as salt, and 25% of the 3/4 cup as poultry seasoning, so I still only had 3/4 cup of salty stuff. I added in a bit of black pepper and shit too but basically just dissolved all salty things and poured it over the turkey.

Current plan is to let it sit for like 24 hours, then pat it dry, then let it sit uncovered in the fridge for what will probably be 18-20 hours until I need to start cooking it. Should I do a light seasoning rub right before putting it in the oven or should I just trust that the brine did the required job?

Edit: Also, 325? 350? Oil before roasting? Foil over breast at all? Preferred time/lb at preferred temp? All over the internet this shit varies too much and I trust you guys more anyway.

[SamanosukeShiva]

Use herbed butter, or just plain room temp butter, the room temp butter should be like toothpaste consistency. With that you can just smear the butter all over the turkey. If you use spice rub, just use it very sparingly, and make sure it's the type of rub that will not burn at long period of cooking. But the turkey if it's brined, should be salty enough without additional rub.

Personally I'd just use 325F, timing wise, counting lb/time is just very unreliable, you'll get overcooked and undercooked parts. Get a probe thermometer, stick it to the thickest part of turkey leg. turkey is done with internal temp of leg reaches 160F. Ideally you can prepare a foil covering in advance for the breast. Once the internal temp hits 150F, you can foil the breast. But that's not really necessary, if you use probe thermometer, when your turkey leg reaches 160F internal temp, the breast meat should still be within the range of temperature sweet spot.

[SamanosukeShiva]

Oh also for better result, going in the oven, don't put the turkey in cold straight out of the fridge, you'd want the turkey in room temp for 1-2 hour before cooking.

[BerenTebogo]

Great, thanks.

[FNH]

I'm planning on smoking a turkey my work gave me. It's a cheapo frozen one, so not going to brine it because that can sometimes be too salty. Going to inject it full of apple juice, jam some butter under the skin, cover it in a rub and let it sit until about dawn on thursday. Then smoke it at about 225 with apple wood until ready. Did one spatchcocked last year because it was a last minute thing. It was ok, I was happier about the bbq sauce experiment I tried(3 parts sweet baby ray's 1 part italian dressing). I want to do a Norman Rockwell style for presentation sake, plus the longer smoke time. If it's not good I'll chuck at the homeless sitting outside the walmart. I'll report back with pics with the results. I probably should have taken pics of the brisket I did a couple weeks ago. I'm planning on doing another for christmas, so I'll make up for it then.

[Zetanio]

With a bird that small I would go a higher fast cook. Especially if it's brined.

450 in a deep cast iron pot or something similar (Le Creuset deep dish thing) for 2 hours.

I also skip buttering the outside if doing a fast cook like this, salt the skin, skip the stuffing, shove two halves of a lemon with some thyme and sage in the cavity.

Simple is best.

[BerenTebogo]

With a bird that small I would go a higher fast cook. Especially if it's brined.

450 in a deep cast iron pot or something similar (Le Creuset deep dish thing) for 2 hours.

I also skip buttering the outside if doing a fast cook like this, salt the skin, skip the stuffing, shove two halves of a lemon with some thyme and sage in the cavity.

Simple is best.

This seems like a surefire way to ruin the bird. Is there any reason why it's a good option for a smaller bird?

[Zetanio]

This seems like a surefire way to ruin the bird. Is there any reason why it's a good option for a smaller bird?

Without stuffing it's like cooking a big fattier chicken.

Cooking with stuffing inside the bird adds a shitload of time to actually get the interior to temperature. It leads to shitty turkey and meh wet stuffing.

[Zetanio]

With a very large bird it's kind of irrelevant because of the inherently longer cooking time anyway.

With a deep big pot/cast iron, it works pretty well.

[BerenTebogo]

Without stuffing it's like cooking a big fattier chicken.

Cooking with stuffing inside the bird adds a shitload of time to actually get the interior to temperature. It leads to shitty turkey and meh wet stuffing.

Planning on not doing stuffing so a 10lb bird at 325/350 is still only going to be around 2 hours anyway, no?

[Zetanio]

Planning on not doing stuffing so a 10lb bird at 325/350 is still only going to be around 2 hours anyway, no?

Nah, you'd be looking at a minimum of 2 3/4 hours and the skin wouldn't be as crispy. The bird is brined so the drying out risk is pretty low unless you absolutely blow it.

[Zetanio]

You can always low and slow it covered to about 150 degree internal and then slam it up to 425 for the last 30-45 minutes uncovered to crisp as well.

[BerenTebogo]

You can always low and slow it covered to about 150 degree internal and then slam it up to 425 for the last 30-45 minutes uncovered to crisp as well.

This was my plan more or less minus the covering. That makes some sense though. I have to transport the bird like 20 min away once it's done and almost every other party involved is known for being unable to do things on time. I think low and slow is gonna offer me more wiggle room to make sure everything is ready.

Last thing I want is to show up with a bird that is ready to be cut into to find nobody is ready for shit.

[Zetanio]

This was my plan more or less minus the covering. That makes some sense though. I have to transport the bird like 20 min away once it's done and almost every other party involved is known for being unable to do things on time. I think low and slow is gonna offer me more wiggle room to make sure everything is ready.

Last thing I want is to show up with a bird that is ready to be cut into to find nobody is ready for shit.

If you foilwrap the bird after cooking you can time it pretty well. Bring it with you, wrap it in a towel and it's 15 minutes from ready at all time.

[BerenTebogo]

Full wrap the bird or like encapsulate the bird-pan system in foil?

[Zetanio]

Full wrap the bird or like encapsulate the bird-pan system in foil?

Either way works but bird-pan system will save you some effort and mess. Solid pots are way easy to wedge into cars.