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Turkeys
Birds
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General & Historical
The domestic turkey was developed by the Aztecs and their predecessors
in Mexico, but the roasting methods we are so familiar with were developed in
Europe, originally for roasting Peacocks. You will find a lot more
fascinating but useless information on our Turkey
page.
In recent years a lot of research has been done on how to roast a turkey
with the least trouble, with a high probability the meat will be moist and
tender, and with a low probability the guests will die of bacterial
infestation. The method we present here is based on this research and is
current "best practices".
In 2006 the Los Angeles Times kitchen did a carefully controlled test of
four methods of roasting turkeys: salting, brining, high temperature roasting
and the traditional covered roaster. Salting finished first, brining
second and the covered roaster third, all with pretty good results. High
temperature roasting finished last due to uneven cooking. We cover salting
and brining here and the covered roaster method on the
Method #2 page.
Equipment You Will Need
- An oven with good temperature control and sufficient room for the turkey
and its roasting pan.
- A roasting pan. Highly preferred are shallow pans fitted with a V rack,
and with convenient handles on the pan and the V rack. These are readily
available at prices from $15 to $150. Disposable aluminum pans are too
flimsy for even a small turkey - a disaster waiting to happen - and they
have no rack.
- If brining, a pot, bucket or watertight brining bag of sufficient
size to hold the turkey and enough water to submerge it completely .
- If salting, a watertight bag sufficient to hold the turkey.
- Salt, lots of it (If salting or brining the turkey).
- A refrigerator with enough room for the turkey submerged in a brining
bucket or in a brining bag.
- Aluminum foil, wide.
- Rubber Oven Gloves - these are for turning the turkey over part way
through roasting and removing it from the V-rack after roasting. If you
don't have them or are outraged by the price as I am, get the thickest set
of flock lined rubber dish washing gloves they have at your local market,
in size "extra large". These will do fine if you are organized and work
quickly. "Turkey lifters" and other gadgets generally don't work well.
- A meat thermometer with a probe long enough to penetrate to the center
of the turkey. One with a long cable that allows you to monitor the bird
without opening the oven is great and some are quite affordable.
- Bamboo skewers.
- A basting brush (a clean 1" bristle paint brush will do).
- Butter, and something to melt it in.
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
The first challenge is what turkey to buy, then the general plan of action
- there's a lot to consider.
- Weight? Fortunately you aren't going to find any of
those 80 pounders at your local supermarket. The larger and heavier
the turkey the more hassle you'll have with it, the longer it'll take and
the more leftovers you'll have to deal with.
Here's a chart of weights by approx roasting time, servings yield,
and thaw time if frozen.
| Weight | Unstuffed 325°F | Stuffed 325°F | Servings | Fridge Thaw |
|---|
| 4 - 8 lbs | 1-1/4 to 2-3/4 hrs | 2-3/4 to 3-1/2 hrs | 3 to 5 | 1-1/2 to 2 days |
| 8 - 12 lbs | 2-3/4 to 3 hrs | 3 to 3-1/2 hrs | 5 to 8 | 2 to 3 days |
| 12 - 14 lbs | 3 to 3-3/4 hrs | 3-1/2 to 4 hrs | 8 to 9 | 3 to 3-1/2 days |
| 14 - 18 lbs | 3-3/4 to 4-1/4 hrs | 4 to 4-1/2 hrs | 9 to 12 | 3-1/2 4-1/2 days |
| 18 - 20 lbs | 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 hrs | 4-1/2 to 4-3/4 hrs | 12 to 13 | 4-1/2 to 5 days |
| 20 - 24 lbs | 4-1/2 to 5 hrs | 4-3/4 to 5-3/4 hrs | 13 to 16 | 5 to 6 days |
| 24 - 30 lbs |
|
| 16 to 20 | 6 to 7 days |
- Fresh or Frozen? These terms are defined by U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
- "Fresh" turkeys can be cooled to 26°F, well below
the freezing point of water so they may have ice inside but the flesh should
still be pliable. Rinse the ice out of them and they're ready to start
working with. A turkey that has dipped below 26°F must be labeled
"previously frozen".
- "Frozen" turkeys are generally stored below 0°F.
- Thawing: FDA insistence that turkeys be thawed in the fridge
at 40°F or below (see time chart above) is absolute bunk, even dangerous,
and there's no supporting data for it. The bacteriaphobes at the USDA have
always approved cold water thawing as safe for
commercial preparation. Actual tests showed higher bacteria counts for
refrigerator thawing and a high risk of contaminating other food items. If
you won't be ready to cook when nearly thawed just slip the critter into the
fridge until needed (being careful to avoid contaminating other stuff), but
do cook as soon as possible.
While refrigerator thawing is still the current FDA/USDA recommendation,
their instructions for cold water thawing seem similarly unreasonable.
Keep turkey sealed in its bag, make sure the bag has no leaks (put it in
another bag if it does), and allow 1/2 hour per pound and change the water
every 1/2 hour (that's 10 hours for a 20 pound turkey). I suspect unbagged
thawing in rapidly changing cold water would be more effective and
probably safer.
- Processing & Packaging?
- Self Basting: meat pumped full of stuff at a turkey factory. The
stuff varies greatly from one manufacturer to another but is supposed to
assure the breast meat is moist and edible no matter what. Flavor may be OK
or a bit odd depending on composition of additives. Do not salt or brine.
- All Natural: not pumped full of stuff - good salting or brining
candidate.
- Kosher: processed by hand through several tedious steps involving
salt and draining. The price will be higher than for regular turkeys. Do
not salt or brine.
- Free Range: Double the price but tastier and works well with
this method but also with the open roaster method.
- Heritage: These need to be ordered months in advance and the price
is definitely in the Yuppie / Gourmet range. You can expect excellent
flavor and the covered roasting method is very much the way to do
these.
- Future Turkey: We hope the move to flavor will result in "Heritage"
class birds at "Free Range" prices when volume ramps up - but we aren't
anywhere near there yet.
- Salt or Brine or Not? The point of salting or brining
is to assure the meat will be moist and tasty after cooking. Brining soaks
some salt into the meat and salt absorbs water, thus moist flesh.
Do not brine "self basting" or kosher turkeys. In the first case,
whatever concoction the factory has injected the turkey with is supposed
to do the moisturizing job and with a kosher turkey it's already pretty
salty (tasters generally prefer brined over kosher, but if you're keeping
kosher, enjoy).
- Salting is starting to overtake brining in California
due to experiments by the Los Angles Times kitchen. It provides superior
results and is less of a problem since all that water isn't needed.
- Salt & Seasoning Rub? This has a similar objective to
brining but the exposure time is very short and it's more appropriate for
turkeys roasted by Method #2 using a
covered roasting pan.
- Tom or Hen? Some experts prefer a tom (male) in the
larger sizes since they say some hens tend to have breast meat so thick other
parts will be overdone by time the breast is up to temperature. Other
experts say there's really no difference except size range. In any batch of
turkeys the larger will be the toms and the smaller will be hens.
- Stuffing or Dressing? Stuffing the turkey is traditional,
but most experts today recommend baking the stuffing in a separate casserole,
in which case it is called "dressing".
Add some chicken stock to it to replace juices from the bird (see my
page Turkey Stuffing & Dressing for
complete details and procedures). The reason to do dressing is a
shorter roasting time and much better control over doneness of the turkey,
thus greater probability the meat will be moist. In most cases little
flavor is imparted to the turkey from the dressing so there is little
lost there.
A trick I've used is to just stuff the front cavity so the breast is
nicely plumped out and do the rest as dressing. This stuffing is relatively
shallow and will easily be up to temperature, and may slow down cooking of
the breasts a little giving the thighs a chance to catch up.
- Make Gravy or Not? Traditionally, a stock is made from
the neck, giblets and other offcut parts. This is mixed with defatted
drippings from the pan plus additional stock and thickened into gravy for
the meat and potatoes. Some modern menu plans have no need for gravy so
making it isn't always necessary. Gravy adds an element of complexity but
can be done successfully if properly organized and as much as possible done
in advance (see my Turkey Gravy) page.
- Air Dry? This is a gourmet trick to get the crispest
possible skin, but it adds an entire day to the preparation cycle and ties
up refrigerator space. If you have a spare refrigerator you may consider
this. After draining the brine and rinsing, dry the turkey
with paper towels and place on a wire grate on a small baking sheet in the
refrigerator and leave uncovered for 8 to 24 hours.
Procedure
This procedure is for a natural turkey that is fresh or thawed and will
be salted or brined. If you have a "self basting" or kosher turkey, skip the
brining steps. Not salting or brining a natural bird risks drier, less
flavorful meat. My recommendation is to use a fresh turkey if at all possible
instead of frozen - it's easier, safer and takes less planning.
Lead Times - these are the ideal times.
- Thawing: 8 hours for cold water thaw (see notes under "Decisions"
above).
- Brining: 24 hours.
- Salting: 3 days.
- Air Drying (optional): 1 extra day.
Pre-Prep - Four to One Days Ahead
- Thaw your turkey - thoroughly de-ice fresh turkeys. Unpackage the
turkey, fish out the neck and the bag of giblets and set them aside.
- Brining: Submerge the turkey in a tub of cold brine and
place it into the refrigerator for the required time:
- For a 4 hour brine (not recommended), 1 cup of salt per gallon of
water.
- For an overnight brine, 2/3 cup of salt per gallon of water and figure
about 1 hour per pound of turkey. Do not overbrine.
It is possible to brine a turkey outside the refrigerator in a covered cooler
with an ice pack but make sure the brine temperature never goes above
40°F.
Salting: Figure 1 T of salt for every 4-1/2 pounds of turkey.
Grind the salt to powder in your spice grinder and spread over the
turkey, more salt in thicker parts. Put up in a water-tight bag and
refrigerate. The ideal timing is three days in the fridge, turning the turkey
at least once a day.
Air Drying: (optional) Place the turkey on a pan in the
refrigerator uncovered for one day. This step is to produce a crisper skin
but I've never had time for it.
- Prepare a broth from the neck, giblets and wing tips. This broth may be
used for making gravy, moistening and flavoring dressing, or any other
broth use (see "Evening Before" steps for
Turkey Gravy for the procedure).
T Day
- Prepare your stuffing / dressing by whatever recipe you chose to use.
- Prepare your roasting pan. Cover the V-rack with aluminum foil and punch
a bunch of holes through it so it'll drain well.
- IF you are making gravy, put a cup each of chopped celery, carrots and
onions in the roasting pan along with 3 cups of water to keep it from
burning until the turkey starts dripping (rather late in the process).
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Remove the turkey from the brine (if used). Rinse thoroughly under
running water, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
- Let the turkey rest on the counter for one hour to come close to
room temperature.
- IF your turkey did not come with the drumstick ends held by a clip,
you can tuck them through a hole cut in the skin under the tail. Failing
both, bind the legs together and down to the backbone with heavy string.
- If you cut off the wing tips fasten the wings to the sides of the
turkey bamboo skewers and break them off to length. If you did not cut off
the wing tips, tuck them behind the back. This looks real uncomfortable
but at this point the turkey probably won't notice.
- IF you are stuffing the bird, do so just before it goes into the oven,
not earlier. Give the cooking temperature a head start by first heating the
stuffing as hot as you can handle it. For complete details see our page
Turkey Stuffing & Dressing.
- If stuffing the bird, first stuff the front and use a bamboo
skewer to fasten the front skin to the back behind the neck. Then stuff
the main cavity. Do not pack stuffing too tight as most stuffings expand some
during roasting.
- Melt butter and paint the breast side of the turkey well with butter.
Place the turkey breast side down in the V-rack (you'll be turning
it over later), then paint the back side well with butter.
- Slide the roasting pan into the oven with the turkey still breast side
down. Keep the thigh end at the hottest end of the oven, usually the back.
Roast 45 minutes for a bird up to 18 pounds, 1 hour if over that.
- Bring the roasting pan out of the oven, put on the rubber oven gloves
(see equipment list), pick up the turkey and turn it breast side up.
- Brush the breast side again with butter.
- Tent the breast side loosely with aluminum foil (this will come off for the
last 30 to 45 minutes of roasting).
- IF making gravy, check if the vegetables need more water.
- Turn the oven down to 325°F for a bird over 14 pounds, or 350°F
for smaller or any size if it is not stuffed. Slide the turkey into the
oven, again with the thigh end to the hottest end of the oven.
- Remember to remove the foil tent when you think you have only 45 minutes
to go so the skin will brown nicely (you can put it back on if you guessed
wrong) Generally at 155°F/68°C works.
- Roast until done. It is done when the thermometer shows you are going
to meet USDA mandated temperatures (thermometer must not be touching bone).
We pull at 5°F lower than the USDA recommendations
because the inside temperatures will rise about 5°F while the turkey
is resting. See Safety Notes below for more on
temperature.
Pull when the thickest part of the thigh reaches 160°F.
Total roasting time should be similar to the USDA 325°F chart.
| USDA Approx Roasting Time at 325°F |
|---|
| Pounds | Unstuffed | Stuffed |
|---|
| 4 to 8 | 1-1/4 to 3-1/4 hr | 2-3/4 to 3-1/4 |
| 8 to 12 | 2-3/4 to 3 hr | 3 to 3-1/2 hr |
| 12 to 14 | 3 to 3-3/4 hr | 3-1/2 to 4 hr |
| 14 to 18 | 3-3/4 to 4-1/4 hr | 4 to 4-1/4 hr |
| 18 to 20 | 4-1/4 to 4-1/2 hr | 4-1/4 to 4-3/4 hr |
| 20 to 24 | 4-1/2 to 5 hr | 4-3/4 to 5-1/4 hr |
- Remove turkey from the roasting pan (rubber gloves, again) and place it
on a platter or baking sheet to catch juices that still come out (add
them to the broth).
- Cover the turkey lightly with aluminum foil and let it rest for at
least 1/2 hour (45 minutes wouldn't hurt). This gives the juices
time to redistribute and the meat to solidify so it is possible to carve
the turkey in an organized manner and without injury. See my page
Presenting and Carving a Turkey for
detailed instructions.
- Get any side dishes that need oven finishing into the oven.
- Finish up the gravy if making it.
Aftermath
- Dismantle the turkey for leftovers and refrigerate within 2 hours of
taking from the oven.
- Store stuffing, gravy and meat separately. The USDA says to use gravy in
less than two days, meat and stuffing within 3 days, but most people
consider this rather paranoid. I aim to use up the meat in less than a
week. You can extend the storage life of the stuffing and gravy by
bringing them up to a simmer.
- After cutting off all the meat, break up the carcass and put it in a
stock pot with any bones and other turkey debris. Add any leftover broth
you haven't used for gravy. Put in enough cold water to cover and simmer
for a few hours for turkey broth. Strain, remove the fat (gravy separator),
let the sediment settle, pour liquid off sediment and freeze.
Stuffing & Dressing
"Dressing" is the same as "stuffing", but baked in a casserole rather than
stuffed into the turkey. This gives better control of the turkey (you need only
meet 2 USDA temperature points, not three) and a shorter roasting time.
Complete details and procedures will be found on our page
Turkey Stuffing & Dressing.
Gravy
Traditionally, the neck, giblets and pan drippings are used to make gravy
to go along with the meat and potatoes. Gravy adds complexity but can be
managed if well planed and done as much as possible in advance. Complete
instructions will be found on the page Turkey
Gravy.
Safety Tips
During life the turkey has natural processes for keeping bacteria under
control, but the moment it is killed those processes stop and
bacteria immediately start dismantling it. Some of these bacteria are harmful
to humans and some of them can survive rather adverse conditions, so care is
in order to protect your health and the health of your guests.
A turkey is so large that temperatures changes take a long time so
it presents an unusually high risk of contamination. Consequently exceptional
care in handling is indicated.
- Do not refrigerate a turkey after stuffing, cook immediately. Preferably
stuff with very hot stuffing and get it into the oven at once.
- Observe cooking temperatures given above and take them seriously. Harmful
bacteria multiply very rapidly at temperatures between 40°F and 140°F, a
range your turkey will be in for most of the cooking time.
Note: Thermometers and many cookbooks say poultry must go to
180°F/82°C to be safe. The FDA backed off from this bunk in 2006
and came in line with the USDA's 165°F/74°C. The FDA failed to find
any evidence, even scribbled notes, to justify that ruinous high
temperature (perhaps they were paid off by the beef board to assure turkeys
were always dried out and tasteless).
- When handling an uncooked turkey, do not handle any other food until you
have cleaned up with soap and water.
- Do not let an uncooked turkey come in contact with any other food.
- Immediately upon moving an uncooked turkey, scrub the cutting board or
surfaces it was touching with soap and water and preferably a little bleach.
I generally scrub everything with an "institutional strength" disinfecting
cleanser which releases bleach in the process.
- Observe that leftovers should be in the refrigerator within 2 hours of
coming out of the oven. If there are large amounts store in multiple smaller
containers so the temperature will drop quickly.
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