Turkey Trot

From Meg's Kitchen

Mary and I have decided that with the holiday season quickly coming up  we would start on a holiday series.  We have no real plans to create a series of whole meals (unlike my Brazilian series) - more hit and miss along with family and friend memories.

My memory of the worst turkey served...  Ninth grade,  our family's first Thanksgiving in Rio de Janeiro.  Mom wanted to host a typical Thanksgiving dinner for all the friends and neighbors who had helped us to adjust over the last 6 months.  The turkey was purchased as well as the ingredients for the sides and then the trouble began.  Our maid/cook - Giselda - insisted that the turkey should be marinated in wine for a really long time.  Unfortunately she lost the battle with Mom and we had the world's toughest bird for Thanksgiving.  A word to the wise, when you walk an animal to market be sure to marinate it well  before cooking.

OK - I have to admit that although I have always loved chicken I am not fond of turkey.  So over the years I have experimented with different ways to prepare turkey, in hopes of enhancing my fondness. I have grilled it, turned it 1/4 turn so that every part of the turkey was up, stuffed it, roasted without stuffing, brined it, let it "air dry" in the refrigerator and even made a dish that required layering slices of turkey with rice and mushroom duxelles plus other ingredients requiring the use of every pan and pot that I owned. I have baked a turkey in a holiday rental house in an oven that was on at 500 degrees or off. However, I have never tried  and I probably never will a turducken or deep-fat frying a turkey.

This year I plan to repeat spatchkocking a small turkey (we will be 6 for dinner).  Spatchkocking requires removing the backbone and breaking the breastbone to lay the bird out flat (it takes some muscle).  This way the turkey cooks faster and the skin crisps up nicely.  "Serious Eats" has a short video showing how to do this at http://www.seriouseats.com/thanksgiving#techniques and a step by step article at http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/11/how-to-spatchcock-cook-turkey-thanksgiving-fast-easy-way-spatchcocked.html. An instant-read thermometer is a necessity.  Please do not rely on those "pop-up" numbers - I way over baked a turkey one year trying to rely on it to pop-up. In fact, buy a fresh bird without the pop-up. I will brown the backbone and neck and then make some stock to use for gravy while the bird is roasting.

Mary's comment:

A quick note from the Southland, where just about anything is deep-fried. I have eaten, though not cooked, a deep-fried turkey. The result was juicy, tender and all around wonderful.