Thanksgiving Cooking Craziness Has Started!
Gentle reader, the cooking has officially begun in the Mad Minerva household! (I can only hope I'm a little more coherent than the Swedish Chef when making "chocolate moose")!
I know this is only the day before Thanksgiving, but some things can (and should) be done beforehand. I went to the grocery store late last night, squeezed through the crowds, and came back laden with food. I felt like a camel in one of those ancient caravans . . . and I was indeed even carrying peppercorns, just like in the ancient spice trade routes!
So far I've made a huge batch of homemade cornbread (most of it will be turned into cornbread dressing tomorrow) and I've also done the preliminaries for the turkey. Here is my favorite Thanksgiving turkey recipe, which I've used for several years in a row, and it always produces a fantastically moist and tender bird. The brining is what does the magic, and my guests have always enjoyed it:
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock (I use the bouillion cubes for this)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil
Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.
Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.
A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.
Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.
Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.
(Note: You can make this in smaller amounts and try it on chickens, game hens, etc. Brining will always give you a wonderful result. -- MM)
Will keep you posted on the cooking as it progresses! I'll add updates to this post. So! The sun is finally out after several days of miserable rain, school is out, and I'm happily wandering around an apartment that's toasty and warm from all the baking. Besides, I'm juggling peppercorn bottles and wrestling frozen turkeys instead of reading academic journals! Life is GOOD.
UPDATE 1: Menu for the Big Day will include the following: roast turkey with homemade gravy, cornbread dressing, green beans with garlic and olive oil, sweet potatoes, creamy corn casserole, spinach "souffle," and a huge pumpkin pie. Did I forget anything? It's all homemade by your humble correspondent except for the pie. I got lazy and bought a frozen one. So sue me.
UPDATE 2: Turkey now marinating. We start roasting tomorrow mid-morning!