Tag Archives: turkey brine

Ye Olde Garden

Pre-Thanksgiving look at the garden

It’s that time of the year. Almost every year that I cook for the holidays, I make sure to use ingredients in my garden, even if it is only one sprig of rosemary. But since it’s been 10 days since my last post, I thought it time to do a little inspection.

The Shu ornamental pepper continues to hang on for dear life. Peppers are perennial in zones 9 and beyond, but here in my garden, it’s going to be a challenge to keep them alive in the ground during winter. My potted peppers have been sitting outside since this past weekend when we saw temps reach the high 70s. We’re back down to the high 30s to mid-40s during the evenings, but we will continue to reach the 70s in the daytime for the Thanksgiving holiday.

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All the garlic have emerged and are looking tall.

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The sage seems to appreciate the cooler weather; I used some sage leaves from this specimen for my turkey brine last night.

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Those appear to be larkspur seedlings surrounding one of the irises. Unfortunately, the man sprinkled it heavily on one side not realizing I only had one pack of Shades of Blue Larkspur (Consolida ambigua). I may have to purchase another pack.

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Finally, a good macro picture of the Oertel’s Rose yarrow blooms!

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I love the white-mottled Snow-n-Summer asiatic jasmine foliage; emerging leaves are a beautiful shade of pastel pink.

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 The Autumn Monarch azalea is our only fall-blooming azalea this year. It received a fair amount of protection from the neighboring Hot Lips salvia this year, unlike the other azaleas on the opposite end of the bed.

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A lone vinca has grown in the lee of an azalea. I had already pulled out its neighbors, but kept this one to see how it would fare. The petunias also appear unstoppable. Even with this crazy weather, they are continuously putting on new growth.

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My eggplant doesn’t appear to put on much growth in the last 10 days; though the plant is leaning farther due to its weight. It still feels way to hard to the touch.

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Valentine dianthus…what a beauty. All the dianthus in the garden favor this cool climate; most are putting on several buds if not blooming.

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A surprise on the camellia: this bud has swelled to 5 times the size as other buds.

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Lemon thyme: I plan on cutting several sprigs of this to insert into my turkey. The other herbs of course are looking fabulous. The Thai basil looks amazing with its flowery spires; I just dread how many seedlings I’ll get out of it. The Red Rubin basil also loves this cool weather. I am curious to see if they will endure into next year.

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Recipes

Turkey Brine Recipes

I prepared two turkeys for the Thanksgiving LAN party weekend, with different brine solutions based on some recipes I found on the net. For the first 15lb turkey (a Jennie-O brand young turkey), I used the following recipe with some amazing results:

1 gallon apple juice
1 pound brown sugar
1 cup salt
1/2 cup of garlic salt
2 cups pineapple/orange juice
1 gallon ice cubes

Combined the apple juice, sugar, salt and garlic salt in a large stock pot. Brought it to a boil and stirred it to dissolve the sugar and salt. I then poured the pineapple juice the ice cubes (which I hoped amounted to 1 gallon of water) to cool off the solution. After I tasted the solution I was rather appalled that it was too salty, so I added more ice. I then submerged the raw turkey in the brine, breast side down and made sure the cavity was filled. I refrigerated the pot overnight for no more than 18 hours, so that the turkey wouldn’t turn out too salty.

To prep it for roasting, I drained the turkey and coated it with virgin olive oil steeped with fresh chopped rosemary and chopped garlic. The remaining olive oil with pieces of crushed garlic went into the cavity along with a small branch of rosemary. With the oven heated to 500F, I decided to brown the turkey for the first 30 minutes. Afterwards, I reduced the heat to 350F, covered the turkey in foil and roasted for 2.5 hours. For the last half hour I took a baster and drenched the turkey in its own drippings.

During this time, I attacked the second turkey, a Kroger brand premium young turkey weighing a little over 12lbs.

1.5 gallons apple juice
1.5 pound brown sugar
1/2 cup of garlic salt
2 cups pineapple/orange juice
2 tablespoons of ginger shavings
1 dash of cinnamon
1 med navel orange sliced

Once again I combined the dry ingredients in a stockpot with a gallon of apple juice and brought it to a boil to dissolve. I added the last half gallon of apple juice and 2 cups of pineapple juice to cool the solution. I peeled part of a ginger root I had previously frozen and shaved it into the brine. Afterwards, I submerged the turkey, breast side down again. Added the orange slices at the end, and inserted one into the cavity as well, then it was off to be refrigerated for about 18-20 hours.

A word about the two turkeys: they were frozen and store-bought. I read on the labels that they had already been pre-injected with a solution that supposedly would make for a moist turkey. Also, I removed the giblets and necks and did not add them to the brine, but I added the necks to the turkeys while they roasted.

So back to Turkey 1. It roasted for a total of 2.5 hours, which of course, wasn’t nearly long enough since the bottom half of the turkey was still mostly pink. I suspect that I needed a bigger roasting pan, since it barely fit into the one I cooked it in. After cooling for 30 minutes, DH brought his carving skills to bear on the turkey, and resulted in slice after super-moist slice of turkey breast almost dripping off the bone. After taste-testing several parts, I was pleased to discover that the saltiness of the brine was barely detectable. The undercooked dark meat (already deboned, sliced, and shredded) went back into the oven for one more blast of heat, about 20 minutes uncovered. I also reserved the drippings and added it to my gravy.

On to Turkey 2. I brined it a little longer since I wasn’t overly worried about the salt content overpowering its flavor. Drained it and stuffed it with the orange slices and another small branch of rosemary. I also used the same rosemary-garlic-olive oil concoction to coat every inch of it. Then off it went into the oven at 350F, breast-side down and covered with foil to cook for an hour. For the next hour, I turned it over, breast up, covered with foil and cooked it for another hour. For the last half hour, I removed the foil to achieve browning and generously basted it with its own drippings.

Carving the second turkey revealed that it was superbly moist and juicy like its predecessor, but sweeter with no hint of saltiness. Maybe it was a little bit too sweet, and I didn’t detect the cinnamon at all. For future endeavors I might use a chipotle-raspberry or a sweet-chili sauce to glaze…also add more ginger and garlic. Again, the bottom was undercooked (though not as much as T1), even though it spent half of its cooking time bottom side up. I think I need a deep roaster pan with an actual rack to achieve even cooking. I reserved the drippings and used it only to wet the turkey when it went back into the oven to finish cooking.