Three years ago ( WOW – I cannot believe it has been that long ) I wrote this post on a few tips I have learned on how to keep your turkey juicy.  With Thanksgiving tomorrow for the folks in the United States, I thought I would share some turkey tips again that I have used in the past and present.

Most turkeys become dry for two basic reasons.

• The first is that the bird is being overcooked. All meat, fish, and poultry dries out if it is cooked too long.
• The second cause of dry turkey is the way it is prepared and cooked.

What I would like to go over in this next section are some ways that will ensure your turkey stays juicy the next time you fire up your oven.  I think I am about to go against a lot of traditional techniques, so by all means feel free to comment and tell me that I am losing my mind.

1. Create a bed for the turkey in the roasting pan – I like to use carrots, celery, onion (slice them large and create a flat surface for the turkey.  Place a rack on the vegetable base.
2. Flavor the bird. When you buy turkeys they do not come seasoned!  Use your favorite seasonings on it  – flavoring the cavity is a great tip and I also like to throw an apple in the neck cavity.  It keeps it juicy as well as adds a nice flavor.
3. Use a roasting pan three inches deep or less and a rack for even roasting. If the bird sits on the bottom of the pan, or the pan’s sides are too high, the heat cannot penetrate the bird uniformly. Turn the roasting pan at various intervals to further facilitate even roasting.



4. If you stuff the turkey with a good moist stuffing, the juice from the stuffing will penetrate the bird from the interior and help prevent drying.
5. For the first 20 minutes, I like to cook the bird at a really high heat (450 degrees).  This will allow the skin to brown on the outside and lock in the juices.
6. After 20 minutes reset the oven temperature to 325 degrees, and turn the turkey upside down so the breast is on the bottom and add 1/4 cup of low sodium chicken stock flavored with black pepper (this will act as a basting mechanism for the turkey. Since the breast cooks faster than the dark meat and needs less cooking, situating it on the bottom( breast side down) exposes it to less direct heat.
7. Do not truss the bird. The dark meat will cook faster unfettered and thus reduce the chance of the breast overcooking by the time the dark meat is done.
8. Don’t bother basting. The meat, covered by the skin, will not absorb the juices. Also by opening and closing your oven too many times you are losing valuable heat.
9. DO NOT go poking the turkey with a knife or fork to check for done ness.  You will lose valuable juice.  Some folks like to use the pop up meat thermometers which are fine when they work.  I like to use the leg check technique.  If the leg when you wiggle it is very easy to move and the skin breaks the bird is done.  You can also use the 20 minutes per pound rule for no stuffing and 25 minutes per pound for a stuffed bird.
10. The last step you need to remember is that once the turkey has reached the proper temperature, remove the turkey from the oven and allow it to sit 20 minutes. This is another step that will help keep the meat moist. If you carve the meat immediately, all the juices will run out and the meat will not be as moist as it could have been.

Well that sounds like a lot of tips and alot of writing for zesty.  I hope you like these tips and as I said earlier – they are just my practices and techniques.  I would love to hear all your turkey roasting techniques so readers can get some great ideas in preparation for the holidays.

Have a great Wednesday and a happy holiday.  Take Care!

zesty

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Every now and again I get sent stuff.  Super fun for me cause I love mail and for the most part everything I receive is either really cool, useful or tastes great. For this particular post… I received a copy of a new book  – Keys to Good Cooking: A Guide to Making the Best of Foods and Recipes just released this month by Harold McGee.  I just want to give you a little scoop on what it is all about.  Deal?  Thought so.

About Harold McGee

Harold McGee writes about the science of food and cooking. He’s the author of the award-winning classic On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, and writes a monthly column, “The Curious Cook,” for The New York Times. He has been named food writer of the year by Bon Appétit magazine and to the Time 100, an annual list of the world’s most influential people. He lives in San Francisco.

My Thoughts

Keys to Good Cooking is just what I expected from McGee: a well-researched, well-written reference. The book is divided into twenty-four chapters, each one focusing on a category of ingredients (fruits, meats, dairy), on tools (small and large), or on techniques. One major topic in Keys to Good Cooking is food safety, including proper handling, cooking, storing, and buying.

Some features of the book that I really enjoyed were the organization and concise way of displaying the information.  Being a reference book, He intends for his readers to simply look up what they need to know before they use a specific ingredient or try a new preparation method, and the book is full of extremely useful information!.

This cookbook does not have any recipes in it, at least not recipes as you know them now.  It’s more of an explanation.  McGee explains how to shop for fruits, vegetables, meats, all foods; he tells you want to look for, what to avoid, how to store it in your house, how to clean it and when do throw it away.

One of my favorite lines in the book…

Cooking  can be one of the most satisfying things we do in life.  It’s a chance to make things with our own hands, nourish and give pleasure to people we care about, and choose exactly what we eat and make part of ourselves.

Since I love eating and preparing food so much, this one hit pretty close to home.

Video Clips about the Book

Below are a couple of videos that give you a simple look into Harold’s style and the premise around the book as well.

Stay tuned for a book giveaway( maybe tomorrow) and have a super day.

Take care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty

I thought I would take some time and share with you some tips that I have learned in the past about cooking one of my favorite foods – pasta.

I hear time and time again from people that have problems cooking pasta.  Whether it be over-cooked, under-cooked, tasteless or all stuck together, a lot of people struggle with cooking pasta.

First of all, 90% of cooking pasta is simply being there. That is, letting the telephone ring through to voice-mail; perhaps leaving guests in the living room talking amongst themselves and simply keeping your focus on the task at hand. By tending to the pasta, you’ll be able to do the only test available to judge its doneness: to taste.

These tips today will hopefully help you in the future when you are craving the starch that I love so much.

Follow along and by all means add your tips in the comments below as I may have missed some other great techniques.

Ten Tips for Cooking Pasta

1. All pasta is not created equal. Choose a brand with a solid reputation in the marketplace. Depending on your location the brands may vary.
2. Use a pot that’s large enough to accommodate the pasta without crowding. For one pound of pasta, an eight-liter pot is good; a ten-liter pot is better. Pasta needs room to move freely as it cooks. At a minimum, use nothing smaller than a six-liter pot.
3. Use plenty of water. For one pound of pasta, you should use at least six liters of water.
4. Add salt to the water. About 1 Tbsp per liter of water. Salt adds flavor to the pasta that helps to create a well-seasoned dish.
5. Bring the water to a full, rolling boil before adding the pasta. One of the prime causes for pasta sticking together is that the water had not yet come to a full boil. When you add pasta to water that has not yet reached the boiling point, it releases natural starches, which act like glue. Since the pasta is simply sitting in the water at the time, the strands stick together.
6. Keep the heat up and get it back to a boil quickly. In the case of pasta strands, like spaghetti or linguine, stir the pasta until it has become submerged in the cooking water, then cover the pot until the water returns to the boil. When the water reaches boil again, uncover the pot and finish cooking uncovered.
7. Stir the pasta two or three times throughout the cooking process. Pasta cooks in eight to ten minutes.
8. Never add olive oil to the pasta cooking water. The olive oil coats the pasta, and prevents sauce from adhering to it when you’ve put the entire dish together.
9. Cook the pasta to the ‘al dente’ state. The only way to judge this is by tasting.  Note there will be a small amount of carryover cooking between the time you remove the pasta from the stove, drain in the sink, and combine with the sauce.
10. Never rinse pasta. When you rinse pasta, you’re washing away most of the starches and nutrients that you were seeking to enjoy in the first place.

So be there. Be attentive. Taste, and learn when pasta has cooked to the consistency that you like. Follow these ten little steps, and you’ll develop a reputation as a pasta guru.

Zesty Tip: When cooking pasta, regardless of the sauce you are using, I always like to add a little bit of the pasta water to the sauce to add great flavor.  Try it next time and tell me what you think.

I hope you have a great Wednesday and I look forward to hearing your tips as well.

Take Care

zesty

Download my Free Recipe Book: Simply Zesty