Tag Archives: vinegar

Dining, Recipes

Recipe: Adobo Turkey Tails

Turkey tails! I spotted these in the frozen meat section of my local grocery store. Since I’m a big fan of tails, I thought I would do something with these tails. Originally I thought of smoking or frying them, but I stumbled on an idea on the internet that sounded really great. Adobo turkey tails!

1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
.5 cup medium sweet soy sauce (ABC Kecap Manis)
40 garlic cloves, crushed/chopped
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp coarse kosher salt
1 tsp black peppercorns, crushed
2.5 lbs turkey tails (bone-in)

 Place the defrosted tails in a hot pan and cook until browned. No need to add oil to the pan, these tails ooze enough fat to brown themselves. Add peppercorns, garlic and cook until brown. Add 1 cup of vinegar and bring to a boil.  Bring heat down to medium heat and add the rest of the vinegar, sweet soy sauce, salt, and sugar. Mix thoroughly and continue to reduce sauce, taking care to coat each tail evenly.

1/8/2013 AdoboTurkeyTails 1

These were yummy. Regrettably, I had some gastrointestinal upset which I suspect came from the tails. My man also suffered some stomach pains after consuming the adobo. I discovered that the brand label Pride of the Farm and meat packer Cargill Turkey has a history of food recalls related to salmonella contamination. While I thought that the vinegar and high heat would have sufficiently killed off most of the microbes, it doesn’t any of the toxins produced by them. Of course, this also led me on a furious clean up with bleach of all the kitchen surfaces to ensure everything was sanitized.

Dining, Recipes

Vinegar-brined Turkey pt 2

The turkey brined in vinegar for 14 hours bottom side first then another 12 hours breast side. On the morning before roasting, I also brined in a soy-water solution, which in my opinion didn’t really accomplish much. I then stuffed the cavity with garlic cloves and roasted the bird in the oven at 375 for 3 hours.

Suffice to say, the turkey turned out palatable, not out-of-this-world good. Next time I am going to stick to a salt brine for 18-24 hours, depending on the size of the turkey. Or even an apple juice/cider brine.

As for the rest of the Thanksgiving meal, it turned out that a roux is a great ally for thickening gravies and creamed corn. Two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of flour makes the fixins work out every time. Well, in the case of the creamed corn, perhaps a little too well, since the additional milk made the side dish incredibly thick.

Oh…and when will I learn that chopped turkey innards just don’t taste well in gravy? I had the fiance chop them up really fine but I still couldn’t appreciate the taste of it. At least adding a chile garlic sauce spiced up the gravy, giving it a good bite.

Mental note for next year: apparently the fiance doesn’t like garlic or cheese in his mashed potatoes. Not even rosemary! Nothing but plain, bland potatoes. Yuck.

Dining, Recipes

Vinegar-brined Turkey pt 1

My 12-pounder brined breast up in the fridge for the past 14 hours. I turned it breast-down for the next 12-14 hours. The vinegar brine I’m risking this year is an apple-cider vinegar brine, with chopped garlic, garlic powder, black powder and a little salt. It is generally the same brine I use for frying chicken. The difference here is that I’m roasting the turkey, instead of frying it, which will impart a different flavor to the meat altogether.

I’m concerned that the salt content of this brine will not be enough. I’m pondering putting the turkey in a second brine of just plain salt-sugar water. Depending on what I marinade the exterior with (leaning towards soy-sweet chile sauce), I may leave out the sugar.

I’m also thinking about stuffing the turkey cavity with garlic cloves, which I plan to use in mashed potatoes. I just have to make sure that the turkey is completely dried of vinegar brine so that the garlic won’t flavor the potatoes with vinegar.

Now what to do with those turkey innards…?