Cookin' with Jack, part 11: Roast Turkey

By Jack Brummet

Buy a fresh, unprocessed turkey (they call them "natural").  Or if you have the $$$, get a free range or free range organic heritage bird (which can cost about three times what a natch turkey costs). Remover the neck and giblets (make some stock with them for your gravy or to add to the pan).

Brine:
Two gallons water (or substitute half a gallon of apple cider for part of this).
1 1/2 cups of kosher or sea salt
Two cups of brown sugar
six bay leaves, crumbled (fresh if you have a bay tree)
a handful of fresh rosemary, stripped from the vine
the peel of one orange, torn into smaller pieces (sure, squeeze the juice in too)
four cloves of garlic, minced or smashed
3 shallots, sliced or diced
a handful of peppercorns (3 tablespoons)
a handful of coriander seeds (say 3 tablespoons).
ten whole allspice, smashed with the flat side of a chef's knife

Put all the ingredients above into a pot. Bring it to a boil. Turn off the heat.  Let it cool, and then put it into the freezer to get cold.

Brine the turkey for 36 hours.  This is enough for a 20 pound bird.  You can put all this into a brining or turkey cooking bag and then add the turkey. I don't quite get the bag thing. I have a lot of pots, and usually use a very large stainless steel pot.

36 hours later, remove the turkey and toss out the brine.  Give the turkey a good rinse, inside and out.

Don't salt the turkey (we already did that).  Stuff the cavity and vent very loosely with a mixture of onions, chopped whole lemons, rosemary, shallots and sage.  Whatever you like can go in there.  Add a cup and a half of stock to a roasting pan, and put the turkey on a rack (topping it up as it cooks).  Rub butter or olive oil over the skin.  Rub some more under the skin, and tuck bay leaves, sage and rosemary under the skin (which looks awesome as it cooks).

Crank the oven to 500.  When it hits 500, throw the turkey in.  In half an hour, turn it down to 350.  Turkey generally cooks at about 13 minutes per pound, or in about four and a quarter hours.  Start checking the temperature with a fast read thermometer at 3 1/2 hours.  When the temp in the center of the thigh hits 150-155, take the bird out and let it sit for 20 minutes.  It will rise to around 160 degrees.  Perfect.

Do not take a knife to it before that!  Carve and serve with all the wonderful side dishes.  Actually, I'm not a huge fan of most of them.  Except stuffing.  For me, the ideal Thanksgiving would be turkey, stuffing, a huge green salad, and a spoonful or two of fresh cranberry sauce: one bag cranberries, half a cup of sugar, one cinnamon stick, a couple of crushed clove berries, the juice of two oranges and two limes (and throw in their minced peels).  Cook ten minutes, until the cranberries pop.  Serve them at room temperature (not cold).   You can add ginger if you like (I have and it works), but it's perfectly fine like this,

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