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November 30, 2008
To Brine, or Not to Brine
Our tradition for Thanksgiving is roasted turkey. And over the years, I have roasted many, many turkeys. When we lived on Platina, our Thanksgiving, Easter and Christmas turkeys were chickens. Turkeys were simply not practical in a tiny boat oven. We have hosted families and friends to enjoy turkey with us. Some of the turkeys have been relatively small, some simply enormous. One year, we bought one from our neighbour, who raised them organically on their farm. I brought it home on the handlebars of my bike.
I'm not actually a big fan of turkey. I find it dry and somewhat flavourless. If you have to dump gravy (mostly fat) on the turkey, it's probably because it's so dry it sticks to the roof of your mouth and is difficult to swallow. I guess that's why cool white wine is a good idea, too.
Too, it's a lot of work. If you survive the early morning craft of making dressing (assuming you don't make it from a box), then you have the basting for seemingly hours on end.
When it's good, it's really good.
So I keep trying. I have tried cheese cloth. Credit Martha Stewart with this one. It made for a moist turkey, but taking the cheese cloth off was messy, difficult and not worth the anxiety. I never tried again.
Some Americans deep fry their birds. It is something like the second or third source of house fires in the country. In a Manhattan shoe-box apartment, I'm not planning to try this one, no matter the promise of moist turkey.
Last year, we celebrated American Thanksgiving in Bonaire. I had sailed with Mike and Judy on PorFin from Puerto Rico to Bonaire, and Chis flew down to join us when we arrived. Judy slow-cooked the turkey in a crock pot on the dock. It was outstanding.
This year, we celebrated American Thanksgiving again (instead of the Canadian equivalent in early October). But I was flying back from Toronto on Thanksgiving, and we decided to have our turkey feast on Saturday night.
I picked up an organic free-range turkey breast at Whole Foods. A whole turkey was simply too big. On Saturday morning, with a cup of organic freshly roasted French Roast coffee, I planned the balance of our Thanksgiving feast. In my surfing of recipes online, I stumbled on the idea of brining the turkey. The concept is simple. Soak the turkey in brine (water, salt, sugar and spices) for several hours.
It was, simply, unbelievable! I highly recommend it. It is moist, flavourful, and is even better the next day. Say that about a traditionally basted roast turkey? I doubt it. Our Christmas turkey (breast or chicken) will definitely be brined.
Posted by dave at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)