While we're trading recipes...
Oct. 16th, 2003 08:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gridlockjoeand since U.S. Thanksgiving is approaching, here is a recipe for Citrus Slow-Cook Turkey. This produces the moistest, most mouth-watering turkey ever.
(courtesy Alex Burton)
First of all, make sure your bird is thawed and make sure it is hollow. If it isn't hollow and naked it will have to be cleaned, and you'll need to go to someone else for those instructions.
Now, I want you to take a grapefruit, an orange, and a lemon, and a lime too, if you've a mind. You must peel the grapefruit, lemon and lime completely. Leaving any of the white pith you find on these fruits will make your bird bitter. That is, if the bird isn't already bitter about sacrificing its life for a family feast.
Once you've peeled the fruit, cut it into chunks and stuff it all into the cavity of the bird, which you have previously checked out as being hollow. If you find a little paper-wrapped package in there, that's the giblet and neck. Put those aside; we'll have a use for them later.
Okay, then. Here is your bird all stuffed with citrus fruit. I wouldn't truss the turkey if I were you. Just let it lie there with its legs apart.
Now, put your turkey full of citrus fruit onto a rack and put the rack in a pan to catch the drippings. We will make gravy with all the drippings.
Here comes the important part. The turkey goes into the oven at 200°F. That temperature is important, even critical. Do not trust the thermostat setting on the oven regulator on the stove. Those things can be off as much as 30°, and that would be a disaster here. Go out and buy a good oven thermometer and use that to set the heat. I'm serious. We don't want the temperature to go above 212° because that is boiling and that will boil the moisture out of the meat and cause your turkey to be tough and dry.
We are going to cook this bird for one hour per pound of turkey. Seems like a long time? Yeah, it is, but one hour per pound it is. Do not cover the bird. Do not salt it. Salt draws moisture out of the muscle of the turkey and makes it tough and dry.
Let's return to that package of giblets now. Cut them into little pieces and place these in a pan of water along with a spoonful of soy sauce and some thyme. Simmer for an hour or so until the giblets are render. Then put the whole shootin' match in the blender and puree it.
When the bird is done — and don't worry that an extra half hour will dry it out, because it won't — scoop out the fruit and put it in a sieve. With the back of the spoon squeexe what juice is left into the bottom of the pan and add that to the pureed giblet mixture to make the gravy.
You ought to let the bird rest a bit after coming out of the oven before you carve him or her. The turkey will be moist and tender because it was cooked in its own juice rather than dried out in a blast furnace.
I hope someone will try this and let me know what they think.
(courtesy Alex Burton)
First of all, make sure your bird is thawed and make sure it is hollow. If it isn't hollow and naked it will have to be cleaned, and you'll need to go to someone else for those instructions.
Now, I want you to take a grapefruit, an orange, and a lemon, and a lime too, if you've a mind. You must peel the grapefruit, lemon and lime completely. Leaving any of the white pith you find on these fruits will make your bird bitter. That is, if the bird isn't already bitter about sacrificing its life for a family feast.
Once you've peeled the fruit, cut it into chunks and stuff it all into the cavity of the bird, which you have previously checked out as being hollow. If you find a little paper-wrapped package in there, that's the giblet and neck. Put those aside; we'll have a use for them later.
Okay, then. Here is your bird all stuffed with citrus fruit. I wouldn't truss the turkey if I were you. Just let it lie there with its legs apart.
Now, put your turkey full of citrus fruit onto a rack and put the rack in a pan to catch the drippings. We will make gravy with all the drippings.
Here comes the important part. The turkey goes into the oven at 200°F. That temperature is important, even critical. Do not trust the thermostat setting on the oven regulator on the stove. Those things can be off as much as 30°, and that would be a disaster here. Go out and buy a good oven thermometer and use that to set the heat. I'm serious. We don't want the temperature to go above 212° because that is boiling and that will boil the moisture out of the meat and cause your turkey to be tough and dry.
We are going to cook this bird for one hour per pound of turkey. Seems like a long time? Yeah, it is, but one hour per pound it is. Do not cover the bird. Do not salt it. Salt draws moisture out of the muscle of the turkey and makes it tough and dry.
Let's return to that package of giblets now. Cut them into little pieces and place these in a pan of water along with a spoonful of soy sauce and some thyme. Simmer for an hour or so until the giblets are render. Then put the whole shootin' match in the blender and puree it.
When the bird is done — and don't worry that an extra half hour will dry it out, because it won't — scoop out the fruit and put it in a sieve. With the back of the spoon squeexe what juice is left into the bottom of the pan and add that to the pureed giblet mixture to make the gravy.
You ought to let the bird rest a bit after coming out of the oven before you carve him or her. The turkey will be moist and tender because it was cooked in its own juice rather than dried out in a blast furnace.
I hope someone will try this and let me know what they think.
