Turkey Magic

[Stormin' Norman]

We had a large number of people over for the holiday (Saturnalia) yesterday. We roasted three, 20+ lbs. turkeys, but this year we used a method called "spatchcocking". We did this for a single, smaller bird at Thanksgiving and were thrilled with the results.

Each turkey cooked in 60 - 75 minutes and turned out perfect. Basically, you cut out the backbone and spread the turkey out flat (sort of) and roast it at 450 degrees. This method produced some of the best tasting turkey I have ever had and it sure was energy efficient.

Here is a video from the New York Times which explains the method for anyone who is interested.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Never tried it for turkey, but we do chickens like that all the time. Best way, IMO.

How ma y people did you feed? Sounds like you could easily cover 120 or so with Turkey.

[Stormin' Norman]

We probably had 50 - 60 people coming and going all day, family, friends, employees, etc. Of course everyone was welcome to bring their dogs so, at one point we had 18 labs, golden retrievers, welsh corgis, etc. running around, playing and eating.

We have enough left over to make a good size bowl of turkey salad, one of my favorite things.

Oh, my wife just told me we probably had 75 - 80 people, I wasn't counting, I was too busy supervising the kids and critters, making sure no one was squashed by one of the draft horses.

[Taxed and Spent]

The coming and going type of event should get more play. You get to see more people, and don't have to try to seat and feed an army all in one go.

[redzap78]

Just another way of making dry turkey.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Only dry if you over-cook it. Learn to do it right and enjoy it. Most people overcook poultry and dry it out because the wait for the pop up thing or go to 180 degrees. No need to. .

[Stormin' Norman]

Yeah, we are too old for the pomp and circumstance of a sit down meal, actually, come to think of it, we have never really liked that approach.

We set up some big tables, put out piles of plates and flatware and just keep loading up the tables with food. I have several older refrigerators out in the barn that I power up at the holidays to hold all the provisions and we basically have three kitchens, one on the covered patio, one in the barn / stable area and one in the house.

One of the challenges is keeping all the sneaky retrievers away from the food tables. One year we had an event that was reminiscent of a scene from "A Christmas Story", when the Bumpus hounds conspired and stole the turkey. Here is a clip from that movie if you haven't seen it:

[Stormin' Norman]

Thanks for sharing, good contribution....... ;-)

[trader_4]

We tried it for the first time for Thanksgiving. The only benefit I saw was that it did cook in like 90 mins. Otherwise, it was about the same as any other turkey I've cooked, not the best, not the worst. One thing that did surprise me was that the whole thing still fit in a typical size roasting pan. And this was a 20 lb turkey. Just barely, but it fit.

[trader_4]

Forgot to add that the directions I saw at the Washington Post said you could easily do it with kitchen shears. IDK what kind of shears they used, but I couldn't do anything with mine. I resorted to a chef's knife driven by my ball-pein hammer, which worked fine.

[Stormin' Norman]

Strange, I easily cut out the backbones with a pair of shears similar to these.

[Stormin' Norman]

90 minutes for 20 lbs. seems too long considering the 23 lbs. birds I cooked yesterday were done in 75 minutes. I added lots of chunks of carrots, celery and onions under the birds to add moisture during cooking.

I really liked how all the skin on the bird was golden brown, not just the skin on the top side of the bird. It was also easier to carve.

[gfretwell]

Did you try to cut down the center of the backbone? You are supposed to cut the ribs and chuck the back bone in the stock pot. I also take a cleaver (or PVC cutter if you are nervous) and cut the knuckles off the drum sticks up past the end of that skin roll. Then the tendons will be sticking out after it cooks and you can easily pull them out before you start carving the meat off.

[Stormin' Norman]

That is an interesting idea about the tendons.

[trader_4]

No, I went down both sides of the backbone.

[clare]

Only if you cook it for an hour or more instead of 30-454 minutes. Ise a "turkey popper" to tell you when it is done.

[clare]

a properly used popper will prevent gross overcooking.

[trader_4]

It may have been less than 90 mins, maybe 75, it definitely wasn't any more than 90.

[gfretwell]

It is not mine. I got it from Julia Child. It does work if you want to carve the dark meat off. (that is where the idea of those little hats on the end of the drumsticks came from, to hide the cut ends) Some people just shred it for chili so it is not an issue for them. I like the dark meat and end up using the white meat for the chili. If you do choose to split the turkey, split the skin along the back first and pull it back, then carve out the oysters before you start cutting the ribs, they will stick to the skin if you do it right. They are too good to just throw in the stock. Tuck them under encapsulated in skin so they don't dry out. That is a treat for the chef ;-)

[gfretwell]

Like Storm says, maybe you need better shears. I was surprised how well real shears works, compared to things more like scissors