FeedMe

T-Day

Here we are. After one hour at 425, breast down, here's the turkey (the one in the pan is the turkey, smarty-pants):

 

Flip, paint with butter, back in for another 1-1/2 or two hours.

And, Kathy made a:

T-minus-1: Cool and Dry

My dry-brined and herbed turkey looks like the loser in a mud wrestling contest.

A nice rinse and a pat dry and he's looking like a contender again. I sprinkled with a new coat of herbs and put it in the refrigerator, uncovered. This drying day will help the skin get nice and crisp.

 

Tomorrow: Roast and boast!

T-minus-2: Massage

I have all the ingredients for my sides. Bummer that Costco no longer carries shelled pistachios. And I couldn't find the pine nuts.

So I massaged my bagged bird. Tomorrow: It's unveiled and begins to dry.

T-minus-3: A Massage

All I did today was massage my bird.

Well, that's what the recipe says to do. 

Dry-brining's easiest moments are the three days of sitting and waiting, while molecules work their magic. The salt has dissolved and the salty water is on its way into the turkey, sodium ions towing water, raveling (or is it unraveling) proteins, making places where water will remain, giving us a moist, seasoned turkey dinner.

The massaging is probably just because a cook can hardly leave something alone for three days.

T-Minus-4: Dry Brine Begins

With four days to go, today is a good day to brine! That will give me three days for the dry-brining and another day to let the bird dry in the refrigerator.

If you're not ready to begin today or tomorrow, you can wet-brine in 24 hours (it's just as good, but somewhat messier). And note that you can wet- or dry-brine with a partly frozen bird. 

Step one is to prepare the arena. Wash your hands and set out all the materials and tools you will need. Once your hands are in the poultry, best not to rummage through the kitchen drawers. When working with poultry, always assume it's contaminated and wash well any surface or implement that touches the bird.

I try to work one-handed, handling the poultry with only my left hand, leaving the right hand clean for handling spice containers and such. That's hard to do with a 20-pound turkey but if you can manage it, there's not as much hand-washing.

In the picture, you see the still-wrapped turkey, a storage container to receive the neck and innards, a small bowl with the salt-herb dry-brining mixture, a knife, and in the back, a plastic bag in a large point, ready to receive the bird.

Make your dry-brine mixture, which is one tablespoon of kosher salt (half as much if you use table salt) per five pounds of turkey. For my 2-pound bird, that worked out to 4 tablespoons (which is 1/4 cup) of kosher salt.

This year, the dry-briners reported that herbs in the salt work, so I am trying it. I added about 3/4 as much herbs as salt. That's a lot and I will let you know how it goes. I used a blend of Penzey's Bavarian Seasoning (mustard, sage, rosemary, thyme, and garlic) plus some grocery-brand poultry seasoning.

Prepare the bird. Unwrap the bird. Discard the liver and put everything else — neck, gizzard, heart — a food container. Cut off the last section of each wing and add that to the container.

Rinse the turkey. Pat dry with paper towels and use them to soak up any water in the cavity. You don't have to do a thorough job.

Sprinkle 1/4 of the mixture inside the cavity, spreading it around as best you can. Sprinkle the rest on the outside of the bird, especially on the breast and thigh, where the meat is thick. Drop the bird into the plastic bag and sprinkle in any remaining herb.

 

Seal the bag and refrigerate for three days. A couple of times a day, massage the bag to help redistribute the spices. (I doubt this matters much but it probably helps the turkey relax.)

Thaw. Or Not.

In a post earlier today, I warned you that you need to get your bird thawed pronto if you plan to dry-brine.

Maybe not.

In an update to the article that made dry-brining popular, Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times food writer, says:

My first major discovery came after several e-mails asking whether it could be done with frozen turkeys too, rather than adding three days of defrosting time onto the three days of dry-brining. It seemed like a good idea, so we tried it in the test kitchen and it worked perfectly.

So no longer do you have to buy your turkey a week in advance. Just rinse the frozen turkey in cool water (to start the defrosting process), pat it dry and salt it. Then proceed just as you would with a fresh turkey. By the time it's defrosted, it'll be seasoned and ready to go.

I'll add one little caution: Your bird will need some thawing, since you have to be able to pry the neck and organs from the cavity! A few minutes in the microwave and an hour at room temerature will probably suffice.

He offers an additional time-saver, adding flavoring with the salt:

I rubbed a turkey breast with a mixture of salt ground with minced fresh rosemary and grated lemon zest. Yup again, great flavor, with just a hint of rosemary suffusing the breast meat. The lemon zest was barely detectable.

He claims the flavor penetrates the meat, something I've not found to work with wet brining. He contacted Zuni Cafe's Judy Rodgers, who originated the dry-brining idea, and reports she is in enthusiastic agreement, mixing crushed herbs with the salt.

More: 

• LA Times: Story on Dry-Brining.
• LA Times: Recipe

Mine is already thawed so I won't be able to test that idea, but I will be adding herbs. I will let you know how it goes.