Three days of brining, chopping and roasting
The holidays are over and with them this year's turkey dinner. The bird was largely a success, but with some definite lessons for future birds. Especially in the stuffing department. As I mentioned before, I was making the bird at my in-laws place in Halifax, and being a stranger in a strange land left plenty of time for working up a recipe and a plan of attack. As always, I wrote out all the recipes by hand. A little trick I developed first just to copy recipes out of books so as not to ruin them, how many sticky or warped pages are the result of this. And secondly, as a sort of dress rehearsal for the actual day by working out the recipes from prep chopping to cooking schedules so that everything comes out hot at the same time. It gives me the impression that I just made the dish a few days ago rather than a year. So there is a greater confidence in the kitchen, especially a foreign one.
Day 1
Shopping and Brining
The bird was on it's third day of thawing in the neighbor's fridge (long story), still a little frozen which turned out to be a blessing by the end of the day. So today was Brine Day. But first...Shopping!!! Big lesson learned, when working in someone else's kitchen, you never know what they have in their pantry and more importantly how fresh it is. So rather than take inventory, I went to the Bulk Barn where I could get the exact amounts of ingredients I need for the recipes and little goes to waste. And the rest of the goods I picked up at the Superstore, except for ginger and wild mushrooms which were a bit too exotic for the SS so we took a special trip to some organic fruit place for those . The brine was my old faithful Apple Cider brine I suspect I picked up from Canadian Living Magazine years ago. I used the sweet cider, not the hard cider as recipe originally asks for. I've tried both and enjoy the sweetness and the golden colour the non alcohol cider gives the bird. But I've included a combination of both in the recipe.
Day 2
Stuffings!!!
Stuffings!!!
This year, I did something I thought I'd never do. As a kitchen purist I thought if it doesn't involve the turkey, I'm not doing it. But something inside me wanted to make both a meat lovers AND a vegetarian stuffing. Why? who knows, maybe I just wanted to try two different stuffings and needed and excuse. My original plan was a Sausage and Sourdough Bread Stuffing for the meaties, and a Wild Rice and Mushroom Stuffing for the veggies. using the same base and herb mix for both to save myself some work. But at the last minute I made some changes that I would later regret.
Mistake #1
Something made me think that a good substitute for a nice country sausage would be pepperoni. And I'm not even talking about good quality dried stuff. I'm talking about the big processed one's that give you a headache after eating a slice. Why? I thought "well, since there is literally a Pizza joint on every street in Lower Sackville, they must really love their pizza, So why not make the stuffing taste like pizza?" I guess playing to the crowd never really works out and it didn't work out in this case. When you're eating something as subtly flavoured as turkey. The overpowering processed taste of cheap pepperoni really doesn't work. Strike one!!! Although I have to admit, a couple of days later, on it's own. I did mind it. If I added some hunks of mozzerella and a squirt of ketchup I might be on to a whole new pizza cuisine. I'll open a shop in between Pete's Pizza and Frank's Pizzeria.
Mistake #2
Wild Rice seemed a little bland in my mind, so I thought I'd try a Cornbread stuffing instead. Making a pan cornbread from scratch was easy enough. And on it's own tasted fine. But once again when relating to the subtlety of the bird. the cornbread flavour was too strong and the texture too grainy. Strike 2. And I can't say it got any better with time.
I tried my best to get both stuffings done the day before but once again working in someone else's kitchen led to unforeseen difficulty. And then we went to mass.
Mistake #1
Something made me think that a good substitute for a nice country sausage would be pepperoni. And I'm not even talking about good quality dried stuff. I'm talking about the big processed one's that give you a headache after eating a slice. Why? I thought "well, since there is literally a Pizza joint on every street in Lower Sackville, they must really love their pizza, So why not make the stuffing taste like pizza?" I guess playing to the crowd never really works out and it didn't work out in this case. When you're eating something as subtly flavoured as turkey. The overpowering processed taste of cheap pepperoni really doesn't work. Strike one!!! Although I have to admit, a couple of days later, on it's own. I did mind it. If I added some hunks of mozzerella and a squirt of ketchup I might be on to a whole new pizza cuisine. I'll open a shop in between Pete's Pizza and Frank's Pizzeria.
Mistake #2
Wild Rice seemed a little bland in my mind, so I thought I'd try a Cornbread stuffing instead. Making a pan cornbread from scratch was easy enough. And on it's own tasted fine. But once again when relating to the subtlety of the bird. the cornbread flavour was too strong and the texture too grainy. Strike 2. And I can't say it got any better with time.
I tried my best to get both stuffings done the day before but once again working in someone else's kitchen led to unforeseen difficulty. And then we went to mass.
Day 3
Game day
Game day
Getting up bright and early on Christmas day, I got the bird out of the brine and dried it off and continued working on the stuffing and my bird rub. A version of my Paprika/Fennel dry rub and butter. Next time I think I'll use olive oil or melted butter because it will clump if the bird isn't completely dry. I left the bird out for an hour thinking it's dry enough. On the outside yes, under the skin, not so much. But I managed to rub the bird inside and out. Popped it into the oven covered in foil. I've decided not mess with changing temps, rotating the bird, or any other tricks for a crispier skin. With the marinade the bird will stay juicy and the rub will make the skin crispy enough. 350 is where the temp stayed throughout. Meanwhile I worked on the stuffing amongst the present openings. And I couldn't have timed the bird more perfectly because it was done just in time for dinner. Resting time and all. I was happy with the results this year. A well cooked bird. The colour was wonderful. My wife has a picture of it somewhere but she hasn't given me a picture she's taken in the last 3 years so let's not hold our breath. Suffice to say. The results were well received.
So This Christmas Bird was a success, the stuffing not so much, next year I'll stick to a bread stuffing. Maybe I'll try the wild rice and mushroom. But I've also learned a lot this year. One thing I learned is if you don't have a baster, just tilt the pan to one side and ladle the juices over the bird. Try to keep the bird from touching the side of the pan, because the bird will cook unevenly. Sharp knives and fridge space are invaluable. And last, although I may forget the specific reasons I decided this over time, I will never make Christmas dinner in anyone's house other than my own. Cooking in someone else's kitchen is a nightmare. And because, as Alan Sorkin wrote in the Social Network "the internet is not written in pencil. It's written in ink." I'll keep my reasons to myself and though they may fade away, I will look back at this blog posting and hopefully past Christos can remind present Christos why he had to stop.
Merry Christmas Everybody!!!
So This Christmas Bird was a success, the stuffing not so much, next year I'll stick to a bread stuffing. Maybe I'll try the wild rice and mushroom. But I've also learned a lot this year. One thing I learned is if you don't have a baster, just tilt the pan to one side and ladle the juices over the bird. Try to keep the bird from touching the side of the pan, because the bird will cook unevenly. Sharp knives and fridge space are invaluable. And last, although I may forget the specific reasons I decided this over time, I will never make Christmas dinner in anyone's house other than my own. Cooking in someone else's kitchen is a nightmare. And because, as Alan Sorkin wrote in the Social Network "the internet is not written in pencil. It's written in ink." I'll keep my reasons to myself and though they may fade away, I will look back at this blog posting and hopefully past Christos can remind present Christos why he had to stop.
Merry Christmas Everybody!!!
