Plan Ahead: Thanksgiving Turkey
Long time readers know my love of all things HomeBrew Chef – the meals he puts on, his ability to pair dishes with obscure brews, the whole package that is Sean Paxton is very impressive. So it should come as no surprise that when it came to making our Thanksgiving turkey, I looked to him for advice. More specifically, I consulted his website.
Turkey and me get along pretty well, for years now I’ve made a bird that has impressed even me. That said, I knew it was time for me to get serious about cooking a Turkey-day creature with beer, preferably using a beer brine. Brines are nothing new to the cooking world, the blend of acids, sugar and salt have been used a long time to make meat more tender, more flavorful and in this case, more interesting. For turkey, there’s a few schools of thought on choosing the right beer for the brine – and believe me, I’m not saying this way is the only way. One school of thought believes that it’s a good thing to impart strong beer flavors on the bird, so use of porters and stouts, even hoppy ales are in order. Another believes that the soft caramelized malts of Munich are a better match, a play of subtle flavors that doesn’t overpower the turkey. I’ve had the porter and hoppy ale turkeys before, thanks to my good friend Mike, and those come out pretty damn good – I’ve experienced that first-hand over the years. Therefore, I opted to go the more subtle route and chose a locally brewed Octoberfest with a hit of German doppelbock.
The ingredients for this are fairly straight forward:
4 Quarts Beer – I strongly recommend locally brewed Octoberfest, Marzen or Bock of some sort.
4 Quarts Ice or Water
2 Cup Kosher Salt
1 Cup Sugar
4 Each Bay Leaves
3 BunchThyme, fresh
3 Each Yellow Onion, peeled and chopped
3 StocksCelery, sliced
3 Each Carrots, peeled and sliced
2 Each Lemon, quartered
4 Each Garlic Cloves, peeled and sliced
Homebrew Chef says you have the option of just blending ingredients cold, or heating them up in a large pot. Having planned this out in advance, I opted for heating the ingredients up a bit – and given the results see no need to ever try the cold brine method.
Once the brine had simmered and cooled, I placed the turkey, brine and ice in a bucket and let it soak for about 36 hours before rinsing it thoroughly and prepping it for cooking.
One deviation I made in the recipe was the stuffing of the turkey with apples, onions, carrots and celery. This was done primarily to ensure the bird wouldn’t dry out, but also allow the savory aromatics to absorb into the meat. This is a sometimes touchy subject among cooks, so do what you will here. Oh, I didn’t “stuff” the cavity either. I do know that the moist bread crumb mixtures used can slow the cooking process in the middle of the turkey, leading to dryer outer layers.
Another personal preference for me was to cook the turkey on the BBQ, covered with foil (shiny side in) and placed on a rack, inside a large pan, trying to maintain a temperature of 350 degrees. Beneath the rack we added more beer, admittedly the dregs of beers we were sipping on throughout the day. As the turkey cooks, you’ll likely want to feed the pan with more beer or water, encouraging steam in the process. Depending on your grill, the temperature maintenance may be more difficult than you like – you certainly don’t want to leave it unattended for very long.
For the full recipe and cooking instructions, be sure to check out Sean’s website – www.homebrewchef.com. I promise, if you follow the steps he lays out, you’ll have yourself one fantastic Thanksgiving Turkey that your family and friends will go nuts for – even the ones that don’t like beer.
