Gallons and gallons of turkey soup: cooking a large bird

We decided to break with tradition and have a Turkey for Christmas this year.

However, at the store, we purchased a much larger bird than normal. We usually purchase a 13-14 pound bird. This time we have a 23 pound bird. It is quite the monster.

We never stuff the turkey and we brine it before cooking it. We usually place carrots, celery, and onions in the turkey's cavity.

Anyone have any cooking or preparation advice?

My dad would, but I don't. Have you ever deep fried a turkey? I don't think you have to brine them when you do it, but I might be wrong.

An interesting option. However, since it's about 20 something degrees at the high, I'm not sure I want be outside that long.

Also, I'd prefer if I had some local expertise. I don't know anyone that has deep fried a turkey before.

Here's what I do.

I clean my bird, then stuff it with onions (Green, Red, and either Yellows or Whites), carrots, whole garlic cloves, celery stalks, sliced mushrooms, and occasionally some kind of squash- zucchini, yellow, whatever. Make sure you have some left over for the pan as well.

I melt butter, mixing it with a dry white wine. The wine should be one you'd consider drinking- not a "cooking" wine, which is generally wine-flavored salt water. Into that blend, I mix red & black pepper. I pour that over the bird, then powder the turkey with onion powder, garlic powder and a little paprika.

Place bird in the pan- on a roasting rack if you have one- nested in a bed of the veggies you stuffed it with. Hit the veggies with a little of the spices that went on your bird.

Then make sure you have about 3/4-1" of wine in your pan (enough to almost cover your veggies).

Pre-heat oven to 425F.

Roast bird uncovered in 425F oven for 30 minutes, then turn the temp down to 350F. DO NOT OPEN OVEN to baste or anything else- this method involves steaming the turkey, and opening the oven will screw this up.

Cook at 350F as per its recommended minutes/weight.

After the bird cooks and everyone's had their fill for the day, debone that bird. It will take up less space in the fridge.

Then, take your turkey carcass and put it in a large stock pot with water and whatever drippings and overcooked veggies (some usually get a little blackened) there may be left.

Bring the water to a simmer (not boil) and let cook at that level for a while. We're talking hours.

Then remove carcass and strain the liquid.

Your reward will be a flavorful and nutritious stock- perfect for soups, stews, gumbos, redbeans and the like.

Ah, sounds delicious.

I have been very impressed with your food inspired posts. You need to have a Youtube channel with recipes and techniques.

Now, I don't know know anything about wine. I live in Utah. We do drink, but it's either beer or hard liquor. What kind of wine should I get? Bare in mind, the State and all wine comes from the State liquor store.

I'll admit I try hard with my cooking but sometimes my food comes out more like the Swedish Chef.

I have a food thermometer. I don't have a fancy probe style. I usually will place the thermometer into the breast. If the breast isn't warm enough, is it okay to keep checking on it every 30 minutes or so?

I did the same thing on a 4 pound pork roast. It was okay, but not great.

I'd imagine any salesperson in a liquor store could help you find a dry (relatively sour/tart) white wine. Typically, it will be called something like a Chardonnay, a Pino Grigio or even a "table white" (usually a blended wine).

I'd imagine a bottle for cooking with would run you between $8-20, and you'd get several uses out of it. That will give you a decent wine for the purpose- not too pricey but not so low-priced that you'll get a bad aftertaste or a strong bitterness. You might even find you prefer drinking dry white wines like that if you're a beer/hard liquor drinker.

Personally, I tend towards local wines (I'm in Texas) like Becker Vinyards, St. Genevieve, Cap Rock, and so forth, for cooking. That's just because they're local, and I like to support the home economy when I can. I've also had good luck with Yellow Tail, an Aussie brand.

For drinking, I actually prefer German Rieslings or Eisweins and Italian Moscatos- generally fairly sweet wines- when I drink white wines, but I'd drink any of those brands' dry whites as well.

For the record, I developed the recipe as an outgrowth of a Cajun recipe which involved using beer instead of wine. That recipe didn't use veggies, though, and they used bargain beer.

That given, I'd imagine that you could probably get nice results with a wheat/blonde beer or similar lighter flavored, dry beer. I bet some of those imported Mexican (Dos Equis, Tecate) or Japanese (Kirin, Ahahi) beers would also work, too.

IOW, don't use Guinness!

As for beer...

Guinness, Shiner Bock and similar darker beers I reserve for marinades & ingredients for beef recipes. There used to be an Irish pub near where I live that mixed Guinness with their ground beef for burgers. Best damn burger I've ever had- I've not yet gotten the mix right, though.

And the Guinness/Harp brewery has a cafeteria that serves a Guinness marinated beef tips dish that is apparently the most popular dish in all of Ireland (based on how much it gets ordered).

Shiner Bock or Blonde plus your choice of seasonings makes a killer marinade for fall-off-the-bone ribs. (I usually mix in a bit of Worstershire sauce and lemon juice, FWIW.)

I haven't gotten around to trying harder stuff, like Sake or liquors, but if you find the right pairing, I'm sure you could get some cool results.

For instance, poultry and fruit flavors go well together- I bet a Grand Marnier sauce would go great with chicken!

As for checking the done-ness of the meat, I generally go by a chart in my cookbooks. (I have to look it up every time.)

I figure out the cooking time/lb and use that as my guideline. I don't check the bird's temp until I'm within 30 minutes of the suggested total cooking time- mainly because of that whole steaming thing: the fewer times you open the oven's door, the more humidity remains within the cooking area, and the juicier your turkey.

After trying this a few times, you'll be able to eyeball it a little, and you'll be able to get closer to estimating when your bird is actually done, meaning you won't have to check the temp as early or as often.

(Again, meaning a juicier bird.)

Wycen said:

Have you ever deep fried a turkey?

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Blecch. A silly fad, a terrible mess, more trouble than it's worth, and a fire hazard to boot... In my own opinion, of course.

For the last two years, I've brined and grilled my turkeys at thanksgiving with excellent results. It gives them a wonderfully smoked flavor, and is perfectly tender and juicy inside.

Thanks Danny. I appreciate it. Your posts are quite helpful (xp for you).

Mmm, smoked turkey. What do you use for a smoker?

ssampier said:

Thanks Danny. I appreciate it. Your posts are quite helpful (xp for you).

Mmm, smoked turkey. What do you use for a smoker?

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Just a gas grill. I picked up an cheap old 9x13 cake pan to use as a drip pan.

You place the drip pan right on top of the flame element (or in the middle of the coals, if you're using charcoal), and fill it with water. I put wood chips right in the water of the drip pan. The pan of water keeps the humidity up (like Danny's "steaming" method), gives the turkey indirect heat form the flames, and helps prevent flare ups by catching the drippings.

Other than that, try to keep the temperature of the grill steady, don't let the turkey touch the sides of the grill, and roast the turkey just like you would in an oven, and about just as long.

I brined my turkey, and rubbed it with Bacon Salt. On the grill, I basted it with melted butter about once every half hour.

Here's a photo of our 20 lb turkey from Thanksgiving, after about two hours...

I'll put in a small note - turkey done on a grill does get a nice smoky flavor, but it isn't (in my humble opinion) equivalent to "smoked turkey". On the grill, while your heat is indirect, the thing is still really hot.

A "real" smoked turkey (for my personal definition of real, I admit) is cooked not by indirect grill heat, but by only the heat available in the smoke itself. This is still "hot smoking", but it takes a lot longer than on a grill, and is usually more labor intensive. You also need a more dedicated smoker - my father had one made out of ceramic chimney liners, and we got the most scrumptious turkey (goose, pork, fish, you name the meat) out of it.