Everyone is well aware of "Black Friday," a day for bargain purchases. The best find though is not at Target, REI, or even Amazon.com. Instead, it's at your local grocery store; it contains all the orphan turkeys not lucky enough to find a home for Thanksgiving. These birds won't keep till Christmas so they're priced to move. And move you should!
This year, I was intrigued by a glazed turkey recipe in Cooks Illustrated. The turkey is butterflied (i.e. you rip out the backbone--a true test of the quality of your kitchen shears), roasted for a few hours, then basted with either a cranberry-molasses or apple-maple glaze. This recipe is a departure from my usual ritual, which begins with brining. The advantage of this recipe is that you can go from store to oven in only a few hours. I will say the meat is not as juicy as a brined bird, but it's still very acceptable. Perhaps what I like most about this recipe is the baking powder rub that goes on the outside of the bird which REALLY helps crisp up the skin in the oven. Since I only had one bird, I tried the cranberry-molasses glaze. If I did this again, I'd probably cut back on the amount of vinegar and mustard which I found overpowering.
If you'd like the recipe, it can be found in the Nov/Dec 2010 issue of Cooks Illustrated. Below, I offer a photographic summary of the day's labors.
Glazed Turkey with Cranberry-Molasses Glaze
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| Cranberries about to simmer in apple cider, ginger, and vinegar |
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| The roasted bird...looks good doesn't it? |
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| If you prefer dark meat, this cut is for you. |
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| A tongue of sage for the potatoes. |
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| Turkey isn't complete without potatoes and homemade gravy! |
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