And The Winner Isn't....

I've read a few articles lately about an alternate method for cooking turkey.  The perceived problem is that dark meat takes much longer than white meat to cook, so if you cook a whole turkey until the dark meat is tender, the white meat will be overcooked, dry and chewy.  The suggested solution is to cook pieces of turkey, not the whole bird, beginning with dark meat pieces, and adding the white meat pieces later in the process.

I found a fresh butterball turkey for .99 a pound, and broke it down.  The process isn't that difficult.  You could buy pre-cut pieces, but you wouldn't end up with the remaining carcass, and you know how much we make stock and soup with carcasses.

Since we were cooking just for the two of us, we only used 1/2 of the turkey pieces, and froze the rest for another time (lucky thing).

The recipe we decided to try called for braising.  We sauted the limited selection of veggies the recipe called for, browned diced bacon and spicy sausage, browned the turkey pieces thoroughly, soaked dried mushrooms, removed the breast, left the legs and thighs (dark meat) in the pan, and added enough chicken stock and liquor from the mushrooms to come halfway up the meat pieces.

We then placed the pan in a 300 degree oven for two hours, checking a few times to keep the liquid level up.  This recipe called for leaving the lid off, which is unusual when braising.

At two hours we put the breast on top of the other pieces in the pan, and cooked until it reached about 170 internally.

So how was it?  Both the dark and white meat were very moist, but the flavor was not interesting at all.  The liquid from the assorted dried wild mushrooms didn't improve the taste for either of us, and I like mushrooms.  And then there was the lack of stuffing, which Michele would not forgive.

Verdict?  The braising produced good texture, and we can probably use our own skills to bring out the flavor.  On the next try we'll use a more attractive selection of veggies (less the mushrooms) and better spicing.  We'll use turkey stock for the braising fluid, maybe with a little pinot noir.  I have reasonable expectations.  I don't have a response yet for Michele's sour attitude toward the lack of stuffing.  I mentioned stove-top stuffing and her attitude worsened.

This is the roasted turkey carcass, resting in the stock pot, ready for some hot-tubbing with carrots and onions and celery.  We roasted it in a separate pan while we were braising the turkey pieces.  We just rubbed it with olive oil and applied a little spicing.  It may not look pretty, but it will taste pretty good when we are through with it.

And here is the most successful result of today's efforts:  a big jar of turkey stock that will provide braising liquid for the next attempt, and some nice soup for tomorrow's dinner.

Ohh...I'm getting hungry.  See you later.