Thanksgiving is here!

[beagle]

Time to start pulling out those cookbooks folks...Thanksgiving is HERE!

Personally I like Alton Browns recipie for Turkey:

Good Eats Roast Turkey
Recipe courtesy Alton Brown

See this recipe on air Thursday Nov. 23 at 11:00 AM ET/PT.

Show: Good Eats
Episode: Romancing the Bird (A Good Eats Thanksgiving)


Good Eats Roast Turkey
1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage
Canola oil

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

Early on the day of cooking, (or late the night before) combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area (like a basement) for 6 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

A few minutes before roasting, heat oven to 500 degrees. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside wide, low pan and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with canola (or other neutral) oil.

Roast on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F. for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven, reducing temperature to 350 degrees F. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

[momof3]

Believe it or not, I got this receipe off of Kidd Kradtiny boy thingy in the Morning web site. It sounds good and very easy, so I'm gonna try it.

Kidd's Famous Brown Bag Turkey Recipe
No, this turkey recipe won't burn your house down because you're using a brown paper bag...but it will taste great!
First, take everything out of the inside of the turkey. There will be a giblet bag and some other stuff. You don't want to leave that in there.
Next, add vegetables to the inside of the turkey. This is easy because the veggies are just for flavor...you're going to throw them away later.
You don't even have to peel anything. Take an onion and cut it into quarters. Roughly chop a nice long carrot. Do the same to a couple of stalks of celery. Add several cloves of garlic that you mash between a broad kitchen knife and the counter. Throw it all inside the turkey.
Then rub the turkey all over with olive oil. . . not butter because butter usually has salt in it and that will dry out the turkey. Salt is in the enemy of a moist turkey!
Slide the turkey roaster with the turkey into a large brown paper bag. Staple shut. If you have a huge turkey, use two bags, sliding end of the turkey into one bag and the other end of the turkey into the second bag.. It won't stick to the bird because of the olive oil. Sprinkle with water. Place into pre-heated 350 F oven.
The bag won't burn because paper burns at 451 and we're at 350. If you have an electric oven, be sure to lower the rack so that it doesn't touch the heating elements. The advantage of the brown paper bag over the Reynolds's cooking bag is that the paper breathes so the turkey roasts. In the Reynolds bag the turkey steams, giving it a different taste. Also the brown paper bag retains the same advantage of the plastic cooking bag...no splatters all over the oven.
Roast for 13 minutes per pound.
Remove the nicely roasted turkey to a platter. To make the gravy, strain the pan juices into a really big pot. Any juices that accumulate on the turkey platter get poured into the pot.
Add six oz. of boiling chicken broth and 1/8 cup of corn starch to the gravy to thicken it up. Cook at low heat and stir and cook and stir. If it seems like it isn't going to be thick enough, add a little more corn starch.
You're done!

[beagle]

I heard about that on the radio too. I don't know anyone who has tried it though. Please come back and let me know how it turned out, I would love a real "tried it" opinion!