TURKEY EMERGENCY!

The good news is: we were able to order a turkey for Thanksgiving this year. We'll be serving dinner on Saturday for my parents who are visiting and coworker-friends who have to work today.

The bad news is: we picked up the turkey today, and the butcher removed the skin! Do we skip the brining? Do we cover it in butter or olive oil and keep it covered in foil? HELP! I'd try to call Lynn Rosetto-Kasper today, but I can't call her 1-800 number from here. (1-800-537-5252 if anyone wants to call for us!)

Comments

[Gretchen]

OK, a quick search shows that people mainly do this with breasts, SO one idea is to separate the parts and then cook skinless boneless breast (lots of recipes online, using marinades and buttermilk, or reg. roasting; wouldn't brine it). Alternately, you can use an oven bag if you cook the whole thing; do you have them there?

[Gretchen]

You'd then go ahead and cook the wings, legs, thighs separately, which also shouldn't be hard since that's fairly common. Let me know! Also, Butterball has a turkey hotline...am wondering if online access is available to you instead of phone...

[Gretchen]

One last thing...your butcher is a dolt. He should have at least asked you!! Hope he doesn't read the blog.

[Krees]

Thanks for the suggestions! I think we're going to go ahead and brine it to get as much moisture into the meat as possible. Then we're going to try to fashion a skin out of bacon, maybe smearing a layer of butter underneath.

To the butcher's credit, I think they did try to ask me on the phone either if I wanted the skin on or, more likely, if I wanted the neck (which I asked for to make gravy) intact or removed. But of course I had NO CLUE what they were asking me, and no one there spoke English.

We'll see how it all turns out Saturday!

[Merrill]

How'd it go? Brian gave up on brining this year and, instead, cooked the turkey upside-down. It seemed to work!