ROUSES_Holiday2018Magazine-FINAL.indd

THE FIRST THING TO BUY

The most important thing you need when you’re preparing a turkey dinner, according to Rouses Markets Corpo- rate Chef Marc Ardoin, is a meat thermometer. “When you are cook- ing a big piece of meat like that,” he says, “you’re going to want to have a meat thermometer handy to check the internal temperature.You don’t want to get anyone sick.”The thermometer should be inserted into the joint of the leg and thigh. Don’t push it in so far that it touches bone; the thermometer makes its reading within the first inch of the probe.And gone are the days of hard-to-read, easy-to-stain analog thermometers; you can find everything from inexpensive digital varieties to Blue- tooth ones that tell your phone when the turkey is ready. Ardoin does not recommend trusting the little plastic pop-up thermometers that feature in many frozen turkeys. “It was a great thing for back when nobody had a thermometer to go by, but I take those out,” he says. “Use an actual thermometer that has been calibrated properly. I’ve heard enough horror stories of people getting sick that I don’t trust them.” Moreover, on the subject of food safety, Ardoin strongly urges safe handling procedures when dealing with raw turkey. Wash your hands regularly, and wipe down counters and nearby items with soap and water or Clorox wipes. “I’m always concerned during the holidays that people are trying to do so much that they forget about the safe handling of their turkey. Clean as you go, and sanitize and sterilize everything.” He says to keep raw items cold and hot items hot. If you have to take something out of the oven to make room for some- thing else, maintain the temperatures of the items removed. “It’s very easy a lot of the time,” says Ardoin, “to work with raw turkey, and some of the juice from the turkey, or some of the blood, can splatter. You don’t realize it, but it gets on some- thing that you are going to cook with, like salt, or on other food nearby on the coun- ter. Be careful.”

The brine is absorbed into the meat of the turkey, which helps to keep it moist during the roasting process. A brined turkey can be roasted at a higher temperature for a slightly shorter length of time, which also helps the meat retain its moisture. (A non-brined turkey roasts lower and slower.) The Food and Drug Administra- tion and U.S. Department of Agri- culture both recommend roasting your bird to an internal temperature of 185 degrees. (This is true whether you grill it, smoke it or roast it.) For a brined turkey, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Do not use the convec- tion setting. Roast the turkey for 20 minutes, then lower the oven temper- ature to 325. Cooking times will vary based on the size of the bird. Plan for about 15 minutes per pound, regard- less of total weight. (Your biggest limitation will be the size of your oven.) To protect your turkey from

THE PERFECT ROAST

If you are going to roast a turkey, you will want to buy it at least four days before Thanksgiving, because it will take a while for the bird to thaw in the refrig- erator. You have the option of leaving it out to defrost in the sink, but it might not be the best course of action if the nearest hospital is too far from home. If you must do a sink defrost, you can buy your bird two days early and let it sit in the sink overnight with water running over it (the safest way to do a non-fridge defrosting); it should take about seven hours to thaw. That’s a lot of running water… Once your “birdsicle” is totally thawed, you have a few options for preparation. The most common and traditional way is a standard roast. First, brine your turkey. This is a process that involves fully submerging the bird overnight in a solu- tion of water, salt and other seasonings.

15 everyday NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018