Pellet Fan

All Things Considered => General Discussion--Food Related => Topic started by: bregent on December 25, 2021, 02:58:44 PM

Title: Christmas Turkey
Post by: bregent on December 25, 2021, 02:58:44 PM
My turkey usually turns out pretty good, but this past Thanksgiving I had a hard time getting the white and dark to finish together. Ended up having to put the dark back into the oven for 20 minutes to get it done.

So for Christmas I decided to cook the white and dark separately, using techniques from Jacob Burton.  I broke down a 14lb bird, boned the leg and thigh and made a roulade and the breast was pan roasted.  Everything turned out perfect. It's a bit of work up front, but you can prepare everything days in advance, including the stock and gravy. On the day-of, all you need to do is pan sear the roulade and roast the breast which only takes about 25 minutes.

Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: hughver on December 25, 2021, 03:37:25 PM
Looks good, great presentation.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: Bentley on December 25, 2021, 04:28:49 PM
I don't go to the trouble of boning, but I do like to part and cook the pieces when I do turkey anymore!  You did a nice job on trussing the bird.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: bregent on December 25, 2021, 04:57:59 PM
Thanks. Forgot to mention that I used transglutaminase to keep the roulade together.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: BigDave83 on December 25, 2021, 06:25:18 PM
Thanks. Forgot to mention that I used transglutaminase to keep the roulade together.

I was wondering about that. So you just rolled the dark meat, nothing inside from the looks of it? They look great.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: 02ebz06 on December 25, 2021, 07:36:57 PM
Nice job!!!
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: Bentley on December 25, 2021, 09:16:20 PM
I was thinking Meat Goo!
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: yorkdude on December 26, 2021, 03:15:27 AM
That really is a great presentation.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: BigDave83 on December 26, 2021, 08:07:05 AM
I went and checked out Jacob Burton's YT and found that I had watched the leg deboning and roulade videos. Now I want to go buy a turkey.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: Canadian John on December 26, 2021, 08:29:08 AM

 Nice job.  If looks reflect taste, it's a humdinger.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: pmillen on December 26, 2021, 04:08:26 PM
You can halve fowl so that the white and dark meats are isolated from each other.  In that way you can remove one and leave the other to roast longer.

See this post (https://pelletfan.com/index.php?topic=271.msg1964#msg1964).
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: urnmor on December 26, 2021, 06:45:52 PM
Looks great and very nice presentation
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: bregent on December 27, 2021, 12:27:51 AM
> So you just rolled the dark meat, nothing inside from the looks of it?

The inside is seasoned with salt, pepper, sugar, garlic powder and just a touch of dried thyme. Also, the tender from the breast is rolled in there too, after removing the big tendon.

I was originally just going to separate the white and dark but ran across this technique which appealed to me for several reasons.

* I love leg meat but hate gnawing on all of those tendons and feather bones.
* On the day-of you can go from fridge to table in about an hour
* The meat gets seasoned all over - inside and out

It probably took me 2.5 hours to break down the bird, bone the leg/thigh, roll up the roulades and prepped the breasts. A lot of that was because I kept referring back to the videos to make sure I was doing it correctly. I'm sure an experience chef could get it done it about 30 minutes.

I don't know if I mentioned it but the roulades get sous vide at 145f for 6 hours, then seared - or deep fried if you're up for it.
Title: Re: Christmas Turkey
Post by: Bar-B-Lew on December 27, 2021, 10:53:54 AM
Looks great.