Turkey seems to be one of those rare food items that is the sole domain of the home cook (how many times have you eaten turkey at a restaurant?) so I am always interested to hear people's methods.

Also, the first few thanksgivings I hosted I did Turkey in a Bag.  Despite really good results, I don't like cooking in plastic, and the presence of ink in the paper bags I was using was beginning to trouble me, so I have been experimenting.

Last year, I got a fresh turkey, did not brine it, basted it while in the over (probably didn't do anything except let hot air out of my oven) and tin-foiled the breast.  I roughly hit the right temperatures, but the flavor of the white meat left a little to be desired.

This year, I am using a fresh turkey, I am going to brine it, and I am debating using Harold McGee's method of icing the breast, or spatchcocking which seems to work well with chickens.

What are y'all doing?

halfway through cooking, try covering the entire top half of the bird in bacon!!! dolci did that last year and it was moist and awesome!

If you must cook a whole turkey, then brine it like you said.

Personally I'd rather just buy turkey breasts, brine them, pan sear them to get the skin crisp and then finish them in the oven. Afterwards make a pan sauce (maple pepper is my favorite) or gravy (star anise gives a nice flavor) while the breasts rest. You could do the same thing with the dark meat portions as well if you prefer that over white.

I think it's kinda silly to cook them whole...but I may be in the minority there. It's tough to get it all cooked correctly though.

I cut mine in half with an Arai Corsair at highway speeds. Doesn't everyone?

We're getting ours at Luby's, with the dressing. The wifely unit is no more of a cook than I am. But I am a damn good dish washer!

I do like the bacon idea. What isn't better with bacon?

Hold on, I am writing this down...

Reach highway speeds... select turkey with poor survival instincts, aim... when turkey is "done", limp toward mashed potatoes and/or hospital

May your turkey day feast be tasty and much more stress-free than mine  

Bacon on turkey.  I don't know why I didn't think of that last year.  Bacon, as we all know, is nature's tin foil - plus, leftover roast turkey sandwiches, honestly my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal, can only be improved by bacon.  

I am now reading that McGee doesn't like a brined turkey - since it is insurance for overcooking/de-juicing, I aim to hit the right temperatures one way or another, I may not go this route...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/dining/12curi.html

I've tried making stuffing from scratch, but can never get it quite right, so now I use a boxed mix.  

I'll use a little less water than the directions call for, form it into a largish ball, then wrap the whole ball with a pound or two of bacon.  (Maple-cured)

The turkey is brined in a mixture of apple juice, salt, and a touch of brown sugar.  Remove the giblets before brining...

Take the turkey out of the brining mixture, drain out the inside, and shove the bacon-wrapped stuffing ball inside.  Cover the turkey with a pound of bacon. Put it in the oven.

Make sure you have another pound of bacon in reserve, because all your guests will open the oven and pick all the bacon off the turkey and eat it while it's still in the oven.

Re-cover the turkey with the spare package of bacon.  

Also note, that with everyone opening the oven to get at the porky deliciousness, it will take an extra hour or so for the turkey to be done...

I do have a good stuffing recipe to share:
Prepare a bag or box of stuffing mix as directed
Dice up about six slices of lightly toasted bread
Brown a pound of sage breakfast sausage
Throw the following in a pot, with some butter or leftover oil from the sausage and cook until softened a bit.  You want to cook these ingredients about halfway, since the whole thing will go back in the oven:
- about 20 oz of sliced mushrooms
- half a dozen stalks of celery, sliced about 1/4"
- 1.5 to 2 onions, small
Add herbs to taste:
- fresh thyme and rosemary - optional but recommended.

Add the rest of the ingredients back into the same pot, add chicken stock and mix until a baseball-sized ball of it int your hand it will just stick together.  I am going to forgo stuffing the turkey this year, and add some drippings from the turkey to the stuffing to keep it moist in the oven if needed.

Brine and smoke with apple wood. 

Fry baby fry!!!!

Make a lattice of leeks to rest the turkey on, and as stated earlier, cover the top/breast in back.  Make sure there's enough butter in there, and pour about half a bottle of a good Cab (Malbec if you want it to be spicier) in the container.  Pull the turkey out every 15-20 minutes to ladle the wine back onto the turkey and voila.  It's a bit of a pain to do, and it takes a while but DAMN it makes a juicy bird!

I've found just going to my mother-in-law's house is the best recipe. I get there with the family and a turkey comes out of the oven every year as good as last year.

Covering the bird in cheesecloth holds the butter/basting liquid next to the skin longer and really holds in the moisture. 

Another thing I do is push my fingers between the skin and the meat.  Then I spoon melted butter, mixed with minced garlic and herbs to coat the meat underneath the skin.  Epic bird.

Doesn't look like anyones mentioned putting a compound butter underneath the skin yet.  Last year I made a compound butter of sage, thyme, rosemary, and black truffle.  Around the cavity you can peel the skin away from the meat all the way down to the neck, and this allows you to place a generous layer of the compound butter between the skin and the meat.  It keeps the bird moist, imparts a ton of flavor and aromatics into the mean, and when you slice it you can see the herbs that were left behind after the butter was absorbed.  This can be done in conjunction with the brining.  I highly recommend it.

Quote from: NoisyDante on November 23, 2011, 07:30:54 PM
Doesn't look like anyones mentioned putting a compound butter underneath the skin yet.  Last year I made a compound butter of sage, thyme, rosemary, and black truffle.  Around the cavity you can peel the skin away from the meat all the way down to the neck, and this allows you to place a generous layer of the compound butter between the skin and the meat.  It keeps the bird moist, imparts a ton of flavor and aromatics into the mean, and when you slice it you can see the herbs that were left behind after the butter was absorbed.  This can be done in conjunction with the brining.  I highly recommend it.

i've done this before and it works really well.  though when i use the truffles i dont put it into the butter, i slice them thin and place them under the skin after i've buttered the meat.

i dont stuff my turkeys as i feel that while it makes the stuffing taste great, it dries out the turkey.

current fave stuffing recipe is a pancetta, prune, chestnut recipe... pretty easy and the flavor combo comes out great.

and most of the time, in terms of gravy, i just use some red wine to deglaze the pan and make a red wine mushroom gravy out of the pan drippings.  works great with most sides.

pops does a brine/dry rub/hot smoke for the bird.

best. thing. EVAR.

stuffing from scratch, gib gravy, the whole lot.

and he won't share any of his kung fu with me... I'm pretty sure I wasn't adopted, so I don't know what his deal is