by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 01/29/2017 at 22:26
by "Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
Published 01/29/2017 at 22:26
Tags: Fit guy in a little kitchen
STARS: 10
As a Jew married to a Catholic, I don’t exactly have competing demands on my time at Christmas. My mother-in-law hosts Christmas Eve “dinner” of assorted finger foods, plus gets sliced roast beef from the supermarket, and roasts bland-ass turkey, for theoretical sandwiches that nobody* eats.
* My brother-in-law typically has a sandwich because he’s an eating machine. Everyone else is too full of bbq meatballs and cocktail weiners.
But, this past Christmas, my mother-in-law asked told me to make turkey for the sandwiches that nobody eats, so I decided to come up with a recipe that people would actually, you know, eat. Since there’s always way too much turkey, I got only a turkey breast, dry brined it (basically putting a bunch of salt on it overnight) and made a compound butter of garlic, rosemary, sage & thyme which I melted and brushed all over the turkey before roasting it at a high temperature to really crisp the hell out of the skin.
I use my handy dandy meat thermometer where you stick a probe in the meat and monitor the temperature rather than set a timer, to cook it until it reaches precisely 165°F internal temperature then let it rest for a good 15 minutes before carving.
I figured this would taste pretty good but even I was unprepared for just how damn good that turkey was. So on my most recent grocery trip when I strolled through the poultry section and noticed the same fresh turkey breast from a suitably hippie-friendly supplier, I bought one to make the same thing again.
My Sunday dinner was the aforementioned turkey, roasted sweet potato wedges, and some mixed fresh veggies.
Damn son.
"MrDakka" (mrdakka)
01/29/2017 at 22:34, STARS: 0
I’m told this helps
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/29/2017 at 22:35, STARS: 1
Generally I’m not a fan of injecting things. Unless you’re cooking low & slow like bbq you end up with watery meat. There are plenty of better ways to develop flavor & moisture.
"for Michigan" (formichigan)
01/29/2017 at 22:46, STARS: 0
You’ve inspired me to start working on a new way to do turkey for Thanksgiving this year.
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
01/29/2017 at 22:48, STARS: 0
I would marinate it, put it in a sous vid, then flash it in hot skillet. Maybe braised red cabbage, & honey roasted carrots on the side.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/29/2017 at 22:57, STARS: 0
We’re talking about a turkey breast here, there’s only so much trouble I’m willing to go through for it. The dry brine gets a lot of flavor into the meat and roasting it at high temp with a few bastings develops the flavor of the garlic and herbs, and crisps the skin.
It’s a weirdly shaped piece of meat, to brown it in a skillet would take a lot of maneuvering.
"The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock" (jukesjukesjukes)
01/29/2017 at 23:01, STARS: 0
I’m aware they are slow processes, but being paitent can yeild great results.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/29/2017 at 23:15, STARS: 1
The benefit of sous vide is to get something like a steak, which is normally cooked in contact with or directly over high heat and to incomplete doneness, an even temperature all throughout, instead of a temperature gradient from the outside to the inside.
You can brown a sous vide steak on a skillet because a steak is flat.
A turkey breast is round with weird lobes and contours to it. You’re never going to get the surface evenly browned. You don’t cook it partially, you cook it through. It has skin which in order to be crisp requires time for the fat in the skin to render out. None of which lends itself to bring a good candidate for sous vide.
Look, I’m all for taking the time to do something right but I’m very much against doing shit with a supposedly fancy technique just so you can say you used that technique.
"BorkBorkBjork" (tbirdlemons)
01/29/2017 at 23:34, STARS: 0
Wait, people don’t fry turkeys?
"valsidalv, reminding you that infiniti is an option" (valsidalv)
01/29/2017 at 23:42, STARS: 0
Looks good. L’chaim!
"Steve in Manhattan" (blogenfreude01)
01/30/2017 at 00:05, STARS: 0
As a Jew you bring ham ... as I often do. Or pasta and bolognese with ground veal and sausage. I break the rules.
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
01/30/2017 at 00:05, STARS: 0
Are your Catholic in laws from the Midwest? My family is Catholic and we’d crucify someone if they tried serving finger foods at a family gathering, not to mention a holiday. My in laws are Midwestern Catholics and they can’t cook for shit. I’m convinced Midwesterners are so inbred that they can’t actually taste anymore.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/30/2017 at 00:12, STARS: 0
We’re in Wisconsin but as far as I know my inlaws aren’t inbred, at least I hope not since that would also make my wife inbred.
The standard menu at Christmas Eve is cocktail weiners made by rolling little mini hotdogs in Pilsbury crescent roll dough, bbq meatballs, Merkt’s port wine cheddar cheese spread with an assortment of crackers, veggies and artichoke dip, and the roast beef and turkey sandwiches that nobody eats.
My brother-in-law’s wife (my wife’s brother’s wife) this year attempted to make some kind of buffalo chicken dip. I didn’t know what it was at first, took one taste of it, and was like, WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ABOMINATION AGAINST ALL CULINARY LAWS???? It was like, some kind of shredded chicken, probably pre-cooked stuff, in melted cream cheese and way too much vinegary hot sauce. It was atrocious. I warned my wife not to touch it. Then the other people were talking about how they ate too much of it. How they ate any of it is beyond me.
This year we followed that up with Christmas dinner at my brother-in-law’s house where his wife made baked ziti as something “fancy.” It was ok. Our appetizer was bruschetta with the pre-grated parmesan shreds on top. At least it wasn’t the shelf-stable stuff.
There is in fact good food in the Midwest but a lot of the stereotypes are also true.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/30/2017 at 00:13, STARS: 1
A couple years ago I brought ham but generally I’ve found it’s easier to do what I’m told. My mother-in-law tells people what to do, without asking, or thanking. She’s used to ordering people around and for the most part we let her because she’s old and disabled and we’d rather just keep the peace.
On the plus side, her cat rides around on her walker, which is entertaining.
"Rihanna is the one true" (blairdow1)
01/30/2017 at 00:34, STARS: 0
my dad does ours on the BBQ every year! (California)
"RPM esq." (rpm3)
01/30/2017 at 02:57, STARS: 0
I highly recommend taking that same delicious-sounding herb butter and rubbing it under the skin over the breasts (you can get a hand in there from the neck) and injecting it with a large syringe into all of the large muscles. Same principle, most thorough application possible.
"nermal" (nermal)
01/30/2017 at 10:18, STARS: 0
Any turkey cooking method that doesn’t involve a giant pot of hot oil (and the fire / burn / etc risk that comes with it) is both inferior and flat out wrong.
"surgesilk" (jbuechler)
01/30/2017 at 11:46, STARS: 1
You’d be better off cooking it to about 150 and resting...and spatchcocking it. Much juicier bird
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/30/2017 at 12:11, STARS: 0
I don’t see much point in spatchcocking only the breast. Maybe a whole bird if you’re really inclined.
I know some folks like to take poultry out of the oven before 165° and let it reach that temp while resting, but I’ve found that can lead to the meat and skin just not being done enough. It’s a bit slimy. Getting up to 165° in the oven makes sure everything is cooked enough but still leaves plenty of moisture.
"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
01/30/2017 at 16:10, STARS: 1
If we’re talking a whole bird then sure I’d probably go to more trouble to get the garlic herb butter in more places. But this is a 6 lb breast including the back that you have to remove and a bunch of water that makes its way into the bag. On its own it’s pretty easy to get flavor throughout.
I thought about slapping some under the skin, but I wanted the skin to remain un-fussed with. Doing the dry brine ahead of time gets a lot of flavor into the meat, without it being overly salty. I trim the back off, pat it nice and dry, put it on a wire rack over a cookie sheet and get a nice even coat of what seems like a little too much salt. I let it hang out in my sufficiently-cold garage overnight. The salt draws its way into the meat and encourages the excess moisture to drip off.
Most of the flavors in garlic and herbs are fat-soluble, so by melting the butter and brushing it all over, it takes on a ton of flavor and works it way into the nooks and crannies. Basting a few times helps as well.
Spoon some drippings over the sliced meat and good to go.
"RPM esq." (rpm3)
01/30/2017 at 16:50, STARS: 0
Sounds delicious! I was indeed envisioning a whole bird.