By Tammy Thornton
Back in 2003, I decided to host Thanksgiving for the extended family group including in-laws. In those days, we numbered about sixteen people. Now I realize I must have been temporarily insane because I had a seven-year old and a five-year old, and was nursing a one-month old baby.
Planning was crucial. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a make-ahead feast article in my Bon Appetit magazine. It gave an organized schedule to separate the tasks for the week into a less stressful, manageable plan. The pages of that magazine are now tattered, but I still follow the same basic schedule. One of my favorite parts is making the brine for the turkey. With the gigantic pot of salted water and spices, I feel like I’m stirring my witches brew.
Brining your turkey infuses it with flavor and keeps it moist and juicy. Salt causes things to retain water, something I painfully remember the day after eating out at a chain restaurant. If you follow my trusty schedule, you should begin brining your turkey T-day minus two; so for a Thanksgiving meal, start on Tuesday. Plan ahead and think about what you are going to do. I’m your poster child for learning from my mistakes. Consider that a twenty-pound turkey, plus eight quarts of water, is heavy. I usually purchase a disposable styrofoam cooler or very large pot to use in the refrigerator to hold the beast, and use a rimless cookie sheet underneath to support the whole thing. Use large bags (double or triple) inside your cooler or container. The last thing you want is a broken styrofoam container and a turkey brine flood. In the past, I used clean trash bags, but things have come a long way since 2003. So, in recent years, I have been able to find brining bags, or at least turkey roasting bags. Make sure your turkey is fully immersed into your potion and secure the bags. Some people recommend using a standard large cooler that can be used outside of the refrigerator to save valuable refrigerator real estate when you need it most. But, personally, the fear of giving 20 people salmonella makes me opt for the refrigerator.
Your turkey should be immersed in its brine for 18-20 hours. If you are a procrastinator like me, who has had a turkey that wasn’t quite defrosted, this will finish it off. (Don’t forget to remove that gross bag of neck and giblets.) On Wednesday, remove the bird from its brine, drain thoroughly, pat dry, and store it in a large roaster layered with multiple paper towels. In print, this sounds so simple, but you may want to enlist the help of a friend or partner. I have performed this step with near-catastrophic results that were worthy of an “I Love Lucy” episode. The water and turkey will be very heavy and you don’t want that raw turkey water on your floor. Don’t let all these warnings scare you off though. You will be glad when you and your family taste the end result.
When it comes time to roast your turkey, don’t stuff a brined bird. Brining a turkey does not make it overly salty, but it could cause your stuffing to be too salty. Bake your stuffing outside of the bird in a separate dish. It then becomes “dressing”, which is better anyway, since you can achieve those browned edges instead of the mushy stuffing that comes out of the turkey’s cavity. Also, when you stuff a turkey, you must cook it for a longer amount of time to ensure that the stuffing has reached a healthy temperature. Often this results in an overcooked, dry turkey.
When you roast your turkey schmear it with herbed butter under the skin and inside the bird. Instead of stuffing, loosely add a few apples, onions, and herbs that will infuse flavor and can be disposed of later. Once your turkey is fully cooked according to your recipe and thermometer, be sure not to skip the step of letting it rest. Depending on the size of your turkey, it should rest between 20-30 minutes. If you carve it straight out of the oven, you will lose all the juicy goodness that you worked so hard two days ago to achieve. It will give you time to finish the gravy and get Aunt Hilda to the table.
When you display your plated turkey, throw a few of the extra fresh herbs around the platter. It will make everything look a little fancier with small effort. When you serve the carved turkey, please pass around homemade cranberry sauce. It’s so easy to make, and can be made many days in advance (email me for the recipe). It would be a travesty to cover that culinary goodness in the canned jellied stuff that still has the tin can lines on its side.
Once you’ve hit this step, sit back and enjoy all the good stuff you worked so hard to make. Your family and friends will appreciate the extra time you spent brining your turkey as they taste its tender goodness. They may not even notice that the mashed potatoes are lumpy. Most of all, look around the table and thank God for those loved ones surrounding you. God bless you all and Happy Thanksgiving!
Tammy Thornton is a mom of four, a substitute teacher, and a Sunday school teacher. She is passionate about gardening and cooking, and loves the beach.
