With Thanksgiving I thought I'd share one of my tips for a successful holiday Turkey - brining. Rather than share my own video, which I don't have, I have shared this one of food dude Alton Brown in one of his goofy videos that explains why this is such a great way to create a wonderful bird.
What I like to do is do the brining days before and then let the turkey soak for at least two days. Then I put it in a gas barbecue and you get some incredible results!
My particular barbecue has four burners along the bottom so I only light the outer burner and put the bird furthest from this burner. Then we just leave the lid closed and wait - yummo turkey is on its way.
One of the reasons I like the barbecue method is that you get to still use the house oven for pies, cakes, green bean casserole, and allow space in said oven for yucky yams. Hey, I don't like 'em but Peggy does - happy wife, happy life! Oh, I forgot the crescent rolls - that's been a Thanksgiving tradition in my family since I was a kid and I can easily eat a whole tube of them.
Another good thing about brining and barbecuing a turkey is that it's so much safer than deep-frying simply because you won't have five gallons of boiling oil to spill all over the place. Yikes - there are some scary videos out there of deep-frying gone wrong - leave the deep-frying for Twinkies. Oh, wait…
Lastly, if you happen to find yourself in Santa Rosa one of our favorite places to pick-up spices for anything, including turkey brining, is Savory Spice Shop. The spices in this shop are just wonderful and aromatic as spices should be.
I hope you enjoy the video and sure wish you the very best Thanksgiving!
Tony Barthel