Bay CrossingsCuisine

Herb & Spice Rubbed Turkey

By Mary Swift-Swan

November is turkey month. In America, cooking turkey at Thanksgiving is a tribute to help given by the Indians who showed English colonists how to survive by growing crops and hunting for meat in the new world. Wild turkey was and is hard to successfully hunt. Fortunately Turkey is easy to raise. Start to finish it only takes about 4 hours to cook. Triptafan, a chemical we get from eating turkey, is so relaxing it could put a few drugs off the market. It makes it easy to relax and enjoy time spent with friends and family after a Thanksgiving dinner. To cook a Turkey at home there are a few decisions to first make:

Fresh turkey is not frozen as hard as a frozen turkey. They thaw faster. Make room in the refrigerator to allow the turkey to thaw slowly without becoming a science experiment. For a frozen turkey 14-23 lbs, expect it to take three days. If a same size turkey is "fresh frozen" it would take two days. Our choice is a frozen turkey. That gave me three days to create this recipe.

The following savory recipe was inspired by the bounty from a family garden of sage, thyme and marjoram, plus rosemary that had a growing spurt this year.

Bread Stuffing is dryer if made on the stovetop or in a casserole verses in the bird. Add bits of giblets and juices from the roasting pan to provide a flavorful yet crispy stuffing. Instead of bread stuffing, a favorite is to use apple and onion. These draw out strong flavors and adding back sweet and spicy ones. This technique works well with wild as well as frozen domestic bird.

While the oven is heating, remove from the wrapper the turkey. Pull out the packet of giblets and the neck bone stuffed in the cavity of the bird, save to use for stock or gravy. Cut off the tail and pull the legs free of the truss. Rinse the bird inside and out. Remove any fat that can easily be pulled off. If the bird was frozen, rub inside and out with a section of cut lemon to freshen the taste. Let the juice of the fresh lemon sit undisturbed on the bird for ten minutes. Pat the bird dry inside and out, changing paper towels often to ensure a dry result. Then rub the bird inside and out with a light mixture of course salt.

Next mix softened butter with the herbs and remaining seasonings forming a mash using the back of a spoon and set aside. Work your hand between the skin and bird gently and slowly to lift and separate the skin. Stop when it appears you might tear the skin. Next rub the herb & spice mash inside the bird cavity and neck opening, then between the skin and body of the bird. Place half of the apple and onion into the cavity. Put a fresh sprig of rosemary at mid point. Fill in the remainder of the cavity with apple and onion. Put the legs back into the truss. The cavity does not need a tight closure with this type of loose stuffing. Finish by filling the neck cavity with the remaining apple and onion sections and skewer neck close. Finally rub the mash on the outside of the bird.

Careful to not disturb the rub too much, place the bird breast down in a V rack, set inside a roasting pan. Then, insert a knife cutting a two-inch slice on either side of the back and on each thigh. Again, as far as you can without tearing the skin, separate the skin from the bird using these slices as points of entry. Rub a layer of herb and spice mash between the skin and body followed by rubbing the outside of the back. Leave the bird breast down in the V rack.

Tent the bird with foil to avoid early or excessive browning. To tent - loosely cover with overlapping foil strips leaving air between the foil and the bird. Secure the sides of the tent by wrapping the foil around the outer edges of the rack that stick up above the pan. Place in the oven. Last add water to about 1/4" after in the oven to prevent drippings from burning and cook a moist bird. Close the oven door and roast without opening the oven door, up to the last 45 minutes, according to the chart below.

Forty-five minutes before the bird is done - remove from the oven and place on top of the stove. Close the oven to keep it hot. Remove the tent. Turn the bird with two forks one from each end. Redress the rub on breast and place back in the oven. Begin basting after 10 minutes and continue every 10 minutes with juices from the pan. When the oven is open baste quickly so the bird won't cool.

A key challenge in cooking a truly wonderful Turkey is the internal temperature should be 160 for the white meat and 170 for the dark meat. When cooking till the dark meat is done the breast meat is similar to flavorless sawdust. Cooking the turkey initially with the breast down will result in a moist bird that is fully cooked. The upper portion of the oven is hotter. During the last phase, the upper oven cools by opening it to baste. Check the temperature with a meat thermometer. Avoid punching too many holes into the bird while checking the temperature in the final 35 minutes. Once a hole is made, reuse it.

When done, rest the bird for 30 minutes under a tin foil tent prior to cutting. This allows juices and full flavor to be pulled into the meat. Remove from the rack and place on a platter. Remove the apples and onions to allow it to cool faster. They can be added to the casserole or stove top stuffing or toss them. If the meat is cut when too hot, the juice can run out of the bird taking much of the flavor with it. Resting the bird is the perfect time to make gravy using the pan juices (minus oil) and finish potatoes or stuffing to compete the meal. A special touch is to provide a small bowl of extra herb and spice mash for friends and family who do not want gravy. For gravy, stuffing or mash potato recipes write info@Bay Crossings.com