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Omnivoria:
Brine Your Turkey!
by Alice Swan, from the November 2006 newsletter
When I was a kid, Thanksgiving was the single day out of the year that my mom ever cooked a whole turkey. I can’t say that I ever spent a whole lot of time looking forward to, or enjoying, that turkey (except for the wishbone, the breaking of which was a yearly ritual for my brother and me). It was usually a rather dry, bland affair, and to make things worse, my mom’s family seems to have a genetic disorder that makes us unable to make decent gravy. Luckily, I love mashed potatoes, and am perfectly happy to eat them with butter instead of gravy.
Another part of the problem with my mom’s Thanksgiving turkey is that she was for a long time uncharacteristically reluctant to try anything new when it comes to roasting the bird or making stuffing. The first year that my husband and I spent Thanksgiving by ourselves, my eyes were opened to the tasty possibilities of turkey thanks to a lemon, sage and salt rub applied under the skin of our turkey, and my non-genetically-hindered husband’s gravy (sour cream is the secret ingredient). Since that year, we’ve had occasion to cook our own turkey a number of times, and the moistest, tastiest turkeys we’ve had have been the ones we brined. Even my mom is now convinced that brining is the best way to prepare a whole turkey. More on brining in a moment, but first let me tell you about the turkeys available for your Thanksgiving dinner from the Co-op.
The Co-op carries a whole slew of turkey products from the Diestel Family Turkey Ranch, located in Sonora, California, in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. The ranch was founded by Jack Diestel in 1949, and is now run by Jack’s son Tim and his wife Joan. The Diestel family runs the entire turkey operation, from milling the turkey feed, to processing and packaging the finished products. And they produce LOTS of turkey products (www.diestelturkey.com if you’re interested in seeing them all). Many of them can be found in the freezer section at the Co-op; ground turkey is one of my favorites, and I regularly substitute it for fattier ground beef or pork. It’s economical, and has great flavor despite its low fat content. The Co-op also carries several varieties of turkey sausages, bone-in turkey breasts and whole turkeys for roasting.
The USDA allows the word ‘natural’ to be used on meat products with very little restriction, but Diestel Natural turkeys (like all the natural meats carried by the Co-op) deserve their designation. All Diestel turkeys are free-range, and are never fed antibiotics, growth stimulants or animal products. They are fed a low-fat, all vegetarian diet that is better for them than the typical high-fat, high-protein diet fed to conventional turkeys, and are allowed to mature about 6 months longer than most. The result is a leaner, meatier, tastier turkey. Because the turkeys are older when they are processed, they have more of that coveted breast meat that slices so nicely for day-after sandwiches. Diestel also offers certified organic turkeys that, in addition to the above treatments, receive certified organic feed. Talk to the nice folks in the meat department for the particular types of turkeys available for Thanksgiving.
Brining a turkey takes a little advance planning, but is not difficult. One can buy a turkey-brining bag at fancy kitchen stores for about $10, or you can buy a package of two turkey roasting bags (that are meant for roasting the bird in the oven—I think the idea is that it holds moisture in so the turkey doesn’t dry out, but it seems a little weird to bake your turkey in plastic to me) for less than $2 at most grocery stores. Luckily, our climate usually cooperates to provide natural refrigeration at Thanksgiving time, so you can brine your turkey, and set it on a porch or in a garage (to keep it away from animals) so that you don’t have to try to make room in the fridge for it; just make sure it’s cold enough wherever you put the turkey to keep it properly refrigerated.
The brine in the featured recipe smells wonderful while it’s cooking (all the spices are easily found in the bulk spice section at the Co-op), but if you want a simpler version, the water and salt are the two most important ingredients. Just be sure to heat your water to dissolve the salt, or you may end up (like one of my friends did last year) with a turkey that’s very salty on one end, and tastes like it had never been brined on the other end.
Alsatian-Brined Turkey
(From Food & Wine, November 2004)
5 quarts cold water
1 ¼ cups coarse salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup yellow mustard seeds
¼ cup dried chopped onion
2 tablespoons caraway seeds
2 tablespoons black peppercorns, lightly crushed
2 tablespoons juniper berries, lightly crushed
6 bay leaves
One turkey
1 ½ cups Riesling
In a large pot, bring 4 cups of the water to a boil, Add the salt, sugar, mustard seeds, dried onion, caraway seeds, peppercorns, juniper berries and bay leaves. Stir to dissolve the salt and sugar completely. Remove the pot from the heat. Line a large stockpot or bucket with 2 very large, very sturdy plastic bags. Put the turkey into the bags, neck first. Pour the warm brine over the turkey. Add the Riesling and remaining 4 quarts cold water. Seal the bags, pressing out as much air as possible, and refrigerate for 2 days. On Thanksgiving morning, drain the turkey (and discard the brine), scraping off the spices. Stuff and roast as you wish (Diestel turkeys all come with roasting instructions), and then enjoy your wonderfully moist and tasty turkey!
See article on Brining for Flavor
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