I was going to cook a turkey in my kitchen last year. It didn't happen, the kitchen was mid renovation, no turkey. A year later and there's a turkey.
It's the first turkey I've cooked. I've taken part in numerous turkeys, though I guess when you add up the two a year, maybe, by a bunch of years, there really aren't that many turkeys.
I bought a roasting pan, it was $150, and that Henckels carving knife on the left, another $150, and a free range turkey, $70. That's a $370 turkey. Prayers answered indeed.
But it was delicious. The turkey was brined for 12 hours, perhaps a little longer. Did it make a difference? I don't know. It was the best turkey I've ever made.... And theories about temperatures, hot then cold, or just hot and fast, or high pre-heat and then immediate temp drop. Should the stuffing be done in the turkey? Or outside of the turkey in a roasting pan. Breast up, or breast down to stop it from drying out, or breast down for a bit and then flip it half way through. Everyone claims their way is the best.
Brined. Put into a 450 degree preheated oven that was immediately dropped to 325 degrees. A friend sent me a message, said his turkey cooked way quicker in his convection oven, my oven is a convection oven too and so I dropped the temperature a bit but when it wasn't cooking fast enough I cranked it back up to 375. 4 hours of cook time to get it to 170 degrees internal temperature, stuffing cooked inside. And it was pretty stellar.
And now I get to perpetuate the myth of my perfect three temperature cooking method. And a stuffing recipe that was pretty good. I'm not usually a fan of stuffing but this I ate with enthusiasm.
One turkey down.
And one week to go for a complete year of photographs.
Interesting times. I'll be sure to not pray.
No comments:
Post a Comment