The
turkey has been brined and has dried overnight in the fridge. What
next? Well, any large hunk of meat will cook better if you put it in the
oven at room temp. So, take that bird out of the fridge about an hour
prior to roasting.
A
word about stuffing. Don’t. Just don’t. I know all the arguments for
stuffing a turkey. I don’t care. If you roast a stuffed turkey until the
stuffing is done, the turkey will be drier than the Sahara. So, please,
just fix dressing instead.
That
isn’t to say that I don’t put anything in the cavity. On the contrary, I
cut up an orange and onion to stuff in the bird with rosemary and sage.
I like to heat the orange and onion in a little water prior to shoving
it up the turkey’s... what end is that anyway??? I can never remember.
Since its salt rub, the turkey has been hanging out in the fridge and it’s time for the next step. It’s an easy one.
The
first time I brined a turkey was after watching Alton Brown’s Good Eats: Romancing the Bird episode. It was good. Amazing, in fact. Brining
improves turkey in ways that you can’t imagine, unless you’ve tried it
yourself. The only problem is, for a turkey, you need a lot of brine.
Plus, a container to submerge the turkey and a lot of fridge space.
Although it gives you delicious results, it’s a bit of a pain. Sorry,
Alton.
Enter
Judy Rodger, the chef at Zuni cafe in San Fransisco. She is known for her dry-brined
roast chicken recipe, which inspired the original recipe for dry-brined
turkey. I’m not sure who took their inspiration from Chef Rodgers, but I
first came across this method in an LA Times article a few years ago.
