The News Journal, DE
11-14-07
Are you ready?
If you plan to eat at home this Thanksgiving, get a bird that's top-flight
By PATRICIA TALORICO, The News Journal
Never let the bird best you.
If you have a plan of action, wrestling a weighty Thanksgiving turkey in and out of the oven and presenting a platter of moist meat with golden brown skin shouldn't be too difficult. Follow along and expect no gripes about your gobbler this year.
So let's talk turkey.
It all comes down to the meat -- and some cooks believe the flavor of a fresh, local turkey is always superior to a frozen one.
Delaware-raised birds can be found at T.A. Farms on 4664 Mudmill Road near
Willow Grove. The Kent County wholesale and retail operation has been growing and processing turkeys for nearly 30 years. The 3,000 all-white, hybrid turkeys are grain-fed from locally grown corn and soybeans. The birds receive no growth stimulants or medications.
Brian Palmer, whose family has been running the farm since 1979, said the birds are free to wander inside a building or outside in fenced pens. Palmer said more customers than ever appreciate regional food and buying directly from a farmer whom they can meet in person. "It's a big niche market for us," he said.
The turkeys range in size from 16 to 26 pounds and come with "pop-up" timers.
The cost at the farm is $1.89 a pound, and turkeys must be ordered by Saturday.
Customers can call 492-3030 or visit the Web site, www.tafarms.com.
Palmer said T.A. Farms turkeys also are available at Willey Farms in Townsend,
Fifer Orchards in Wyoming and Hill's Fresh Plants & Produce in Milford. The markets set their own prices for the turkeys.
At Johnson's Country Market in Roxana, customers can order fresh, free-range, all-natural Delaware-raised turkeys until Sunday. Pickup days are Tuesday and
Nov. 21. Call 436-3276. Orders are being taken for Christmas until Dec. 20.
"We have them anywhere from 14 up to 30 pounds," said Rebecca Johnson, who runs the Sussex County market on Del. 20.

The USDA-inspected turkeys, which cost $2.25 a pound, have never been frozen. The turkeys come completely processed -- the giblets and neck are in a bag or in the cavity of the turkey -- and have pop-up timers, Johnson said.
While the market is now operating on its "winter hours" schedule -- from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays -- Johnson said it will be open the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
"We raise own sweet potatoes, apples and peppers and potatoes and all the different types of winter squash. People like to buy them for their meal," she said.
Full-flavored turkeys also can be found in the supermarket frozen-food section.
(A recent look at area markets have turkeys priced as low as 99 cents a pound.)
According to a turkey taste-test in the December 2007 issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine, a panel of 24 tasters sampled eight turkeys and "consistently found the frozen birds to be moister than the fresh."
Why? The magazine consulted Dong Ahn, an Iowa State University professor of animal science , who said that a "fresh" bird can sometimes be tougher and drier than a frozen one due to refreezing.
Turkeys labeled as "fresh" can actually be chilled to 26 degrees. Irregular shaped ice crystals can form in the meat, and if the temperature changes during storage or transport, the crystals will melt and then refreeze. As they do, the crystals poke the cell membranes of the meat, making holes and causing a loss of moisture.
Based on its turkey taste-test, Cook's Illustrated recommends Rubashkin's
Aaron's Best frozen kosher turkey, about $2 a pound, and Butterball's frozen basted turkey, which costs about $1.50 per pound.
Clean the oven
Before the cooking even begins, take a good look inside your oven. Give it a good cleaning at least two or three days before the big meal. You don't want the turkey picking up any flavors of burned food or reheated pizza, do you?
Size matters
Determine what size turkey to buy. Figure on about a 1-pound per person. That means:
•A 12- to 15-pound bird will serve 10-12 people.
•A 15- to 18-pound bird serves 14-16.

•A 18- to 22-pound bird will serve 20-22.
Don't forget the thaw factor. You must let a frozen turkey rest in the refrigerator a full 24 hours per every 4 or 5 pounds. In other words, a 15-pound bird will take three days to thaw. Keep the turkey in its original wrapper and place it inside a pan that's big enough to collection any juices. (Fresh turkeys do not require thawing.) Make sure you have a pan big enough for the turkey. If you don't want to invest in a heavy-duty roasting pan for cooking, buy two disposable aluminum pans, stack them together and then place the pans on a sturdy baking sheet.
The that bird a bath
Brining a turkey basically means soaking it in a water/salt solution that's been flavored with sugar, spices, herbs and vegetables. Do this for anywhere from 4 to
14 hours (but no longer than 16 hours), and the bird will plump up and become infused with flavor. But keep in mind that brining is no cushion for overcooking. A turkey left too long in the oven will produce dry meat no matter what you do.
Brining tips
* Make the brine solution a day ahead of time and refrigerate. A basic brine solution is basically 1 cup kosher salt and 1/2 cup sugar dissolved into two gallons liquid, along with herbs, spices and vegetables, if desired. The liquid can be water, vegetable stock, apple cider, white wine or a combination of any two liquids. The brine also can be flavored with honey, molasses and maple sugar.
But note that the more sugar you add -- in any form -- the faster the turkey will brown.
* Use a fresh turkey. Don't brine a self-basting or kosher turkey; both have already been soaked in salty stocks.
* Don't stuff a turkey after it's taken a brine bath; the stuffing will taste too salty.
Gravy made with pan drippings may also taste too salty.
* Always cook a turkey within two days of brining. And don't brine any longer than
16 hours.
* While the turkey must be chilled during brining, if you don't have room in your refrigerator for a stockpot, tub or bucket, there are options. Try placing the turkey, neck side first, into two doubled-up, turkey-size oven roasting or extra-large plastic bags. Roll down the bags' edges slightly so they'll stay open. Put them into a large cooler. Now, carefully pour in the brine solution. (Get someone to help you.) Squeeze together the inner bag and seal it with a twist tie. Close the outer bag with another twist-tie. Lay the turkey, breast side down, in the cooler and add several bags of ice.

What's inside counts
Don't forget to remove the giblets and neck from the cavity of the turkey. To stuff or not? According to "How to Cook a Turkey" (Taunton, $19.95) from the editors and contributors of Fine Cooking magazine, some cooks don't like to stuff a turkey because of food-safety issues and because they feel the turkey roasts more evenly. Also, the stuffing gets a nice crust when it's baked separately. If you stuff, do it loosely and before the bird goes into the oven. The stuffing inside a bird should reach 165 degrees.
Cooking times
Rick Rodgers, author of the reliable "Thanksgiving 101" cookbook (William
Morrow, $15.95), suggests roasting a turkey at 325 degrees. (He initially covers the breast area with aluminum foil and then removes it during the last hour of cooking. Rodgers bastes every 45 minutes with juices from the bottom of the pan.) An instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh should read between 180 and 185 degrees.
For a stuffed turkey (for an unstuffed bird, subtract 20 to 40 minutes from the total cooking time):
8 to 12 pounds -- 3 to 4 hours
12 to 16 pounds -- 4 to 4 1/2 hours
16 to 20 pounds -- 4 1/2 to 5 hours
20 to 26 pounds -- 5 to 6 hours
Deep-fry it?
Cooks who love this cooking method -- dipping a turkey in a 10-gallon stockpot of boiling oil -- swear by the taste of the crispy skin and juicy meat. Sorry, but I see too much room for disaster. Nothing ruins a holiday like a visit from the local fire department or a trip to the emergency room. Indeed, Underwriters Laboratories
Inc.'s safety experts find this method so risky and dangerous they won't certify any turkey fryers with their UL Mark.
APPLE-CIDER BRINED TURKEY
In 2004, I tweaked a brined turkey recipe from Food Network star Alton Brown with great results. Instead of using vegetable stock as Brown suggested, I used apple cider. Brown's original recipe also calls for candied ginger, but I used fresh, chopped ginger. Feel free to improvise and add more vegetables or herbs to the brine solution as you like.

1 (14- to 16-pound) fresh turkey
FOR THE BRINE:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon apple cider (Brown used vegetable stock)
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1 tablespoon of fresh chopped ginger; don't bother peeling it (Brown used 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. The night before cooking, combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket. Place thawed turkey, breast side down, in brine, cover, and refrigerate. Turn turkey over once, halfway through brining.
Before roasting, preheat oven to 325. 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 a 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. Cover breast area with a layer of aluminum foil. (Remove the foil during the last hour of cooking.) A
14- to 16-pound bird should require about 3 3/4 to 4 1/4 hours of roasting. Insert an instant-read thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. It should read 180 degrees. Let turkey rest, loosely covered, for 15 minutes before carving.