Recipe: Notes on a juicy turkey

Hi Donna - You are not alone with that dry turkey! Half of the recipes and advice I've seen on tv and in print regarding Thanksgiving are about how to get a juicy turkey. One of my favorite places to get advice of this sort is Cooks' Illustrated, and I'll list some of their advice for you:

~ The biggest trend is to "brine" the turkey - keeping it overnight in a slightly salty water bath. The science seems to be that the salt allows the moisture to get inside the meat, and when the meat cooks, the heat seals the protein and keeps that moisture in. Since it is the night before Thanksgiving, I'm assuming this won't be an option for you this year.

~ They also discuss the fact that a stuffed turkey has to be cooked longer in order to get the stuffing up to a safe temperature, which makes the turkey itself over cooked. Their recommendation on this is, if you must stuff the turkey (instead of cooking the stuffing on the side), to cook the stuffing for 8 minutes on high in the microwave and stuff in the turkey JUST before placing the turkey in the oven (you can't do this ahead of time!). That way, the stuffing will finish cooking at the same time as the turkey (cooking time for your turkey will be as if it was not stuffed).

~ They suggest that you remove any plastic "pop up" device included with the turkey and use your meat thermometer. The leg meat needs to be at 170-175, the breast meat can be less.

~ They also suggest that you cook your turkey on a rack over the roasting pan with the breast side down for about 2/3 of the roasting time, then turning it over. This way the juices flow down into the breast, but the skin over the breast can get brown after turning it over. I have to say that turning a big turkey over is not easy, though. Use big wads of paper towels as oven mits and grab both cavities to do it. This method has worked well for me. I brush melted butter and the pan drippings over both sides of the bird, too.

~ Julia Child suggested cutting the legs off and putting them in the oven about 40 minutes ahead of the breast meat so that they all came out of the oven at the same time without overcooking the breast meat. I think this is a good idea, but many people feel it necessary to have a whole, perfect bird to carve in front of the masses, so they wouldn't like this idea. If you are used to cooking and carving beforehand, as for a buffet service, then this works well.

Hope some of these ideas help you out! Happy Thanksgiving!!