Thanksgiving Tony's Brined Turkey*

By mamapig

Ingredients

• Ingredients for the Aromatics:
• ingredients for the brine
• 1 cup Kosher Salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 1/2 tbsp allspice berries
• 1/2 tbsp candied ginger (spice aisle, you can skip if you can’t find)
• 1 gallon iced water
• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Turkey
• Canola oil (for browning turkey)

Preparation

Step 1

Preparation — Starting the day before:
Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

That night, completely clean out turkey cavity. Combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon “pickle bucket”, the kind restaurants receive their whole dill pickles in (Tip: Home Depot and Ace Hardware sell pickle buckets as “project buckets” which they intend to be used for mixing paint and other projects—however, we keep a special one around just for brining, and do NOT suggest re-using one from your last home improvement project!) As an alternative, you can also use a large cooler, but either way, you must sterilize the container well afterwards with anti-bacterial dish soap. Place turkey breast side down in brine. Cover tightly and refrigerate, or if it is our typical Illinois cold Thanksgiving, in an unheated garage or the back deck for 6 hours (longer is OK). Ideally, turn turkey over once half way through brining.

For the day of cooking :
Preheat oven to 500°. Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes to steep.

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Place bird on rack inside a wide low roasting pan and pat dry with paper towels. Discard brine. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings under breast (you’ll have to force them around) and coat the skin of the whole bird liberally with canola oil.

Roast on lowest oven rack position at 500° for 30 minutes—your turkey will brown beautifully this way. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer tent of aluminum foil and insert thermometer probe into thickest part of the breast careful not to hit the bone to ensure an accurate reading, and remembering that any extra holes will allow juices to seep out during cooking. Return to oven, reducing temperature to 350°. Set thermometer alarm (if available) to 165 degrees. A 14-16 pound bird should require about 2 to 2-1/2 hours of roasting—but boy oh boy can this vary—(meat thermometer is critical to ensure doneness of the bird.). Another good test for doneness is how easily the drumstick pulls away from the bird. Remove aromatics. Let turkey rest loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.