Dry brining

Dry Brining

Dry-brining is the way to go. Avoid the salmonella pool. All you need to dry brine is salt and meat. The ratio is 1 tablespoon of salt for every 5 pounds of turkey.

I got a heritage bird. If you’ve had a really dry flavorless turkey, it’s probably because it was one of those conventional Butterball birds.

The reason for taking out the backbone is that the turkey will cook faster and more evenly. This is not a requirement if you just don’t want to deal with that.

https://food52.com/recipes/15069-russ-parsons-dry-brined-turkey-a-k-a-the-judy-bird

The general rule of thumb is that if you’re going to roast it, 400-425° F in a normal, not convection oven and you want to go by temperature. Get a probe thermometer and stick it in the thickest part of the breast. you want that at 160-165°. Your legs you want at about 175-180°.

Please for the love of god don’t put bread and eggs and milk inside your turkey. The cavity of the bird is a salmonella cave.

I am of the opinion that mashed potatoes are a high degree of difficulty for Thanksgiving. They tend to come out like paste if you don’t serve them right away. Roasted potatoes are superior. I like Hasselback or scalloped potatoes.

The pie dough is more afraid of you than you are of it, but like a swarm of bees, it can smell fear. Use good butter. Splurge for the European stuff. Unsalted so you can control the amount of salt.

Salt, butter, flour, and a little bit of cold water. That’s it. You don’t want your pie dough to get gummy. Put it in the fridge for at least half and hour, up to a few days.

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