Advice on Cooking a "Tender" Turkey

I'll be buying a 10-12lb Butterball Turkey today. This will be about the 4th bird of cooked, and they have always tasted great. I rely on the "pop-up" thermometer in the bird, and "moving" a drumstick, to let me know when the bird is done.
I'm sure there are a lot of great cooks in Tug-Land.
Any advice on cooking a tender bird would greatly be appreciated! Thanks to All!
And by the way, Have a Blessed Thanksgiving!

Many people think Cat's method produces the most tender turkey. See it here: brined turkey recipe from the TUG Archives

Phil

Buy a meat thermometer - until I did I always overcooked my turkeys.

Bev

Container to use for soaking the turkey in brine

What type of a container do you use to soak a turkey in a brine solution?

It's pretty well accepted that brining a turkey yields the moistest, and most flavorful, bird. In addition, a meat thermometer is a good idea to make sure you do not overcook the turkey nor undercook it.

However, remember that the breast will cook quicker than the dark meat, and needs to be cooked to a lower temperature than the dark meat. That means that if you roast a turkey in the traditional method in the oven, you likely will either overcook the light meat or undercook the dark meat.

Many have advocated cooking the turkey upside down to solve this problem. The downside to doing that is that the bird is not as "pretty" when it comes out of the oven. Others will cook the bird until the white meat is done, then cut it off and put the turkey back into the oven to finish cooking the dark meat. Again, the problem is that the bird is not as visually appealing when it comes out of the oven.

If you don't stuff the turkey, the cooking times of the light and dark meat are closer together, so that could solve the problem. Except that I consider stuffing to be a big part of the Thanksgiving dinner, and I think that my stuffing flavors the turkey better, so dressing just won't do. Yet, there are the problems.

EAM said:

What type of a container do you use to soak a turkey in a brine solution?

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I use my canning pot. You can also buy food grade 5 gallon buckets, if it will fit in your fridge.

Hoc said:

However, remember that the breast will cook quicker than the dark meat, and needs to be cooked to a lower temperature than the dark meat. That means that if you roast a turkey in the traditional method in the oven, you likely will either overcook the light meat or undercook the dark meat.

Many have advocated cooking the turkey upside down to solve this problem. The downside to doing that is that the bird is not as "pretty" when it comes out of the oven. Others will cook the bird until the white meat is done, then cut it off and put the turkey back into the oven to finish cooking the dark meat. Again, the problem is that the bird is not as visually appealing when it comes out of the oven.

Click to expand...

From Cat's recipe, linked above:
Use a V-rack to keep the bird up and out of the dripping so the flesh doesn't get incinerated. If you don't have one, you can approximate it by putting wadded-up pieces of tin foil down the center of your roasting pan. You just want to keep the flesh away from direct contact with the steaming hot juices. Start breast DOWN for the first 2 hours. Then turn each leg side up for 1/2 hour, then finally breast up and baste every 20 minutes.

Phil

We fired one last year. I sort of figured the bird would come out dry as a bone but it was exactly the opposite. It came out very moist and tender. It also took a lot less time to cook than using the oven or a rotiserie.

there is one problem with cooking the bird upside down 2 hours in a V-rack, if you have brined it. the rails of the rack make lines in the liquid-infused breast of the turkey, which are noticable at service. i'm going to try 2 layers of HD aluminum foil (with several holes punched through for drainage) between the rack and the bird this year. you never know until you try. ----ken

Yes, you're right that it does put lines in your bird. That's never bothered me because I simply carve in the kitchen and bring out the platters, but for those who want to pressent the finished bird whole at the table, I can see why you wouldn't like that.

Let us know if the foil does the trick for you. Just remember to make the wads deep enough so that they do the job of keeping the flesh out of the drippings during cooking, or there's no point.

If it doesn't work well, however, remember that the gastronomic appeal trumps visual perfection, unless you've been asked to do the cover shot for Bon Appetit.

cat:
actually Ruth R. asked me to put my turkey on her mag. i'm afraid there will be no brining this year since i have a butterball (given to me; i can't throw it out!). i'm still going to roast breast down half the time, although bb says up the whole time (with aluminum foil protection at the end). i wonder if they suggest that so that you can use their cute little turkey lifter. anyway, i'll let you know how v-rack plus a couple of perforated hd foil layers works out. look for it on the next G issue. ha ha -ken