Other that at the Holidays, I rarely roast turkeys. I’ve had successes and failures, but I’ve never achieved a perfect bird. The white/dark balance is off, or the skin isn’t crispy or is overbrowned. Something.
This Thanksgiving I roasted unstu
ffed and indirect on my new Big Green Egg, and the results were very good. I’d “dry brined” for a prescribed time and added an icepack to the breasts (allegedly to help slow the cooking there) and roasted at 325F with a temp probe in the thigh. Underneath was a drip pan with aromatics, mushrooms, stock and wine.
As I said, the results were good. And my fears that the drippings would wind up too bitter with smoke proved unfounded. But there was serious weirdness along the way…
Mid-cook, I measured the breast temperature. I was panicked to find the breast was already at 180F while the thigh was just 150F. Oh, crap! What to do? I covered the breasts with a blanket of cold bacon strips, and removed the dripping pan. Kept cooking until the thigh hit 180F. I didn’t even want to know where the breasts were at that point.
I was cursing myself for placing the drip pan so close to the bottom of the bird–obviously the liquid had slowed the thighs more than the breasts. Oh, well, better dry white meat than undercooked dark…
When carving time arrived, I was double-shocked to find that the breasts were still moist! What Fresh Heaven was this? I know not whether to attribute this to the overall moist environment in the Egg, or to the dry brining, or even the icepack. But the cook worked well in ultimate fact. The bird was, overall, probably better than most of my efforts. Maybe the lesson is to simply be thankful for the food and family and the time to enjoy them.
So what have been your mistakes, failures and lessons from cooking whole turkey?
