Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I'm too lazy to read 18 pages of Cookaholics posts re: Thanksgiving and searching on 'turkey' wasn't giving me a 'new' recipe idea, so I'm taking the easy way out and asking you to point me towards something suitable for a 11 pound young thing looking for a hot time on the ol' town tonight

As usual, THANKS!

May we assume you have taken it out of the freezer by now?

How would your hot young bird look lounging in a 75º hot tub for the next two days? If the sun still shines in Canadia in October, try browning it in a solar oven right before serving. Serve it with a Sauvignon Blanc from some part of the world where it tastes like fruit instead of grass.

Two words...sous vide.

Perhaps a dumb question, but do you have to fully break down a turkey for sous vide? I would assume that you couldn't get a good seal otherwise, but I've been wrong before.

Yes, you need to break it down. Bag the white and dark separately cooked at different temps/times. It's oh so good.

I did some duck confit sous vide for an event I catered yesterday. Sublime...

Amy

How do you crisp the skin?

You can do it a couple of different ways, everything from a sear to broiling to deep frying. It kind of depends on what you're looking for.

Amy

I'm going to SV a turkey breast, haven't decided how I'm going to crisp it yet. I happen to have the deep fryer set up....

Also, this time of year, Turkey drumsticks are amazingly cheap, so I buy a bunch of those and confit them, duck leg style (but SV) and they are amazingly good. Not quite duck leg good, but also a little less strong so they work for a few more things.

Ahhh, yes, SV, the Thousand dollar turkey -- -- -- maybe not.

I've fallen back to an experimental 'brine' composed of 3 parts Kikkoman soy sauce, 1 part BBQ sauce, and 4 parts cheap merlot. Monsieur Bird has done penance on the counter/fridge sufficient to bring the corpse to 33F internally and has since been bathed for 4 hours in said 'brine' - tightly wrapped in a unused ( ) garbage bag at room temperature. Soon the 'wash & dry' cycle will begin and then the final 'roasting by an open fire' (à la the chestnut sing-along version... ). I'm tweaking CI's Nov. 2012 "simple grill-roasted turkey" method without all of the tons of salt and kickin in a little apple wood smoke. As for the Reisling suggestion, fortunately, I have a lovely Selbach Oster 2006 that actually tastes unlike grass, cat pee, and all of the other 'popular' wannabes - it tastes like grapes

Further reports after the obligatory nap That would be while 'others' are cleaning the kitchen