We had a 32 pound turkey that my friend and neighbor Jeff Rosswurm had raised this year. Debbie’s family was coming over today for a combined Thanksgiving and Christmas gathering, so that seemed a perfect time to use a huge turkey.
I wasn’t too sure how to cook a turkey that big. Most charts of thawing and roasting times ended at 24 pounds. I extrapolated those charts and came up with 7 days to thaw the bird in the refrigerator, and then 8 hours to roast it. I talked with Jeff about those numbers and he confirmed that was about how long it took.
Last Saturday I pulled the turkey out of the freezer and put it in my sister-in-law Lana’s spare refrigerator. A turkey that big takes an entire shelf. By yesterday it was perfectly thawed, still icy and firm, but beginning to yield to the touch.
Our family gathering was at 1 pm. Figuring 8 hours of roasting time, resting time, and a generous cushion since our oven often seems “slow” worked out to putting the turkey in at 3 am.
Yep, that’s 2:55 a.m. on the stove at 280 degrees as it’s preheating. I’m an early to bed and early to rise kind of guy, but that is definitely early.
I went with the Cook’s Country technique of barding the turkey with salt pork. I’d never tried that technique before. It sounded reasonable and easy, and if it failed, well, the only downside was shame, humiliation, and the disdain of my in-laws.
I fired up the laptop and went to the Cook’s Country site to check the recipe.
This is why when you see those incredibly annoying “To The Cloud” commercials by Microsoft you should scoff with disdain. Memo to self: when the information I need is “mission-critical” do not rely on the Internet. Fortunately this recipe is pretty simple and I was able to proceed from memory.
Above is the turkey layered with slices of salt pork. You prick the skin of the breast and legs to let that delicious salty pork fat to permeate the turkey as it cooks.
Cook’s Country has you cover the salt pork with wet cheesecloth, and then cover that with foil.
I’ll the cover entire turkey next time. Any parts sticking out were roasted crisp by the time it was done.
Into the oven it goes at 3:15.
There were still coals in the fireplace from last night, so I tossed a couple sticks of firewood in, rolled up in a duvet on the couch, and caught a nice nap to the hum of the oven until 5 a.m. or so when Spenser and Owen the Wonder Dogs were ready to start the day.
After about 5 1/2 hours the turkey was at about 160 degrees in the breast. Cook’s Country says to cook it to 145 and then remove the foil, cheesecloth, and salt pork. It was roasting faster than I thought and was more done than I wanted.
The turkey is a definitely unappetizing pale color where it was covered. It goes back into the oven now at 425 degrees in convection mode to brown it up.
In about 30 minutes it’s nicely browned. Since I’d overcooked it a bit in the covered stage, I didn’t brown it as long as I would’ve liked. Plus as I mentioned before, the uncovered parts of the legs were very crispy. There’s no meat there, so that’s not an issue.
Since I’d figured 8 hours to roast, a half hour to rest, and then being a belt and suspenders guy added in another hour just to be sure, the turkey was done about 3 hours before we intended to serve it. I dropped the oven to 175 degrees, left the bird in the pan, and covered it tightly with foil. The turkey was moist and flavorful when we cut into it 3 hours later.
I definitely recommend this technique. It’s much simpler than brining, and produced a better result than basting. If you want the recipe details you can find them on the Cook’s Country site, (assuming their server is up) although you have to register to view the recipes. Or just drop me a note and I’ll send you details.
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