How to Roast a Perfect Turkey
Partial Video Transcript
This is an organic fresh turkey that I bought at my local grocer, it was very expensive. It is 12½ pounds and usually when I made a turkey I make a very large turkey. I usually don’t cook a turkey that’s under 22 pounds. But because it’s just for us then I’ll have a carcass to make some soup and we’ll have some leftovers. This is what we’re going to go with today. Additionally what we’re going to use in the turkey, some celery, some garlic, I’ve just cut the tops off of, onion, I didn’t even peel it, some baby carrots that I had in the drawer, if you have whole carrots go for it. These need to be used and we’re not going to really eat them, we’re just going to use them to perfume the turkey. I have an orange that’s quartered and I have two apples over here, and I’ll show you what we’re going to do with those. I have some butter. And I just went outside in the garden and I washed these off. I’ve got some sage, some thyme, some rosemary and some bay leaf. And they’ve been freshly cut. And I just washed them so we’re going to use those as well. And it smells like Thanksgiving, just coming inside from the garden, having picked those, it’s fantastic. So I’m going to set these aside and then … and I also have some butter, if I didn’t mention that, I have a stick of butter.
Okay. So I’m going to show you from beginning to end because I know that there are maybe some of you out there who have never attempted to cook a turkey and it may feel like a daunting task. This is not something to be afraid of. A turkey is just a large chicken. I’m not going to brine it. Brining would be done 24 hours in advance. I’m just going to go with the basic roast on this bird today. The other thing is never trust these. Don’t ever trust these. I pull them out, they’re ridiculous. I like to wash my turkey very well. My sink is clean. I have previously watched my sink. I like to give the turkey a bath in cold water, pull out the neck and place it in the pot that I have waiting off to the side where I have chopped up – roughly chopped up about four stalks of celery, including the leaves, a handful of baby carrots and an onion that I quartered. I didn’t even peel it. And I am additionally going to throw a head of garlic in there. Here, I’ll just do that right now. And we’ll fill it with water. And I’m also going to put some seasonings in here in just a little while. This is going to simmer on top of the stove while your turkey is roasting. I have a weird stove. I have one backburner the oven vents out of. It gets hot enough that this will actually boil. So I’m just going to set this on that burner and early afternoon as the turkey is roasting, this will actually make the stock that we’re going to make our gravy from.
Next page: Carving the Perfect Turkey
Image Sources:
