November 23, 2016

knife skills & turkey carving must knows

Happy almost Thanksgiving everyone!! I love this holiday for all the food, especially the mashed potatoes.

What’s your dream bite? I load a fork with mashed potatoes, turkey, cranberry sauce and gravy and that is the ultimate Thanksgiving bite for me :)!!

All that said, I just wrote an article (a shot a short video) on knife skills and turkey carving for The Scientific Parent … go check it out this link.

***

Okay, so let’s talk about a few things …

If you’re like most Americans you bought a frozen turkey, which means you’ll have to defrost it. Growing up my mom defrosted her meats on the counter, which is what she was taught. However, this is something you should avoid doing for your Thanksgiving turkey and with meat in general. Leaving meat to defrost this way creates a breeding ground for bacteria due to the warm temperatures. The safest way to defrost your turkey is to move it from the freezer to the fridge 2-3 days prior to cooking, to ensure it’s fully defrosted come Thanksgiving morning!

Do you wash your bird? Unfortunately, this is a giant no-no! Please do not wash your turkey! Why?! When we wash raw meat in the sink, we spread all sorts of harmful bacteria in and around the sink, which is then easily spread around the kitchen. Lots of bacteria all around the kitchen is the last thing we need when cooking for a crowd. Instead of washing your turkey tap the turkey dry with a clean paper towel, and throw the paper towel out afterwards.

Once the bird is dry, it’s time to season the bird. I like to season my turkey with salt and pepper, inside and out, and stuff your bird with seasonings – using rosemary, sage, thyme, half an onion, garlic and half a lemon. Just remember, that whatever you stuff inside the turkey while it cooks should be discarded when you take it out because you run the risk of it not being fully cooked.

Now, let’s truss our turkey, which means to tie it up nice and tight, and nothing get burned during the cooking process. Here’s a quick how to:

Wrap the twine underneath the bird and around the wings.

Pull the twine tightly underneath the breastplate and tie a tight knot to secure everything.

Season the bird from the outside with salt and pepper and lots of butter.

Then it’s time to get our turkey in the oven.

When cooking any type of meat, the first step is often sear the outside of our meat, to caramelize the outside and give it intense roasting flavor. It’s kind of obvious that a Thanksgiving turkey is a really large bird, which makes searing it in the traditional sense quite a challenge. With a turkey we can sear it in the oven. Preheat the oven to 450-degrees Fahrenheit and cook the turkey at that temperature for about 30 minutes.

If we keep the turkey in at that temperature the entire time we will end up with a very dry, or maybe burned, bird. So after 30 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 350-degrees for the remainder of the cooking time. Plan on cooking your turkey for 20 minutes per pound. How do I know it’s done? The internal temperature should read 165 degrees Fahrenheit and any juices will run clear (no more pink).

Let’s fast forward three-or-four hours and our turkey is now cooked to perfection. It’s time to serve it, right? Wrong! One of the most crucial parts in having a juicy turkey is letting it rest after cooking. Letting the turkey rest allows the juices to evenly redistribute. The rule of thumb is to rest the bird for HALF of its cooking time. In this case, if your turkey was in the oven for 3 hours, the rest time should be 1.5 hours.

But won’t the turkey be cold by the time it’s done resting? Not if you do this small trick: cover your turkey with aluminum foil straight out of the oven, I promise you that I will stay piping HOT that whole time. This also frees up your oven for making all the other thanksgiving dishes needed for a feast.

Now comes the fun part, carving our beautifully roasted turkey.