Roasted Turkey

created by @big38

Ingredients

12 items

Scale recipe

17.7lb(8038g) turkey

—Onion

—Carrot

—Celery

—Garlic

—Flour

Equilibrium brine

8kgwater

280gsalt (1.75%)

320gbrown sugar (2%)

Duxelles butter

3sticks butter

2lbmushroom

—Preserved truffle

Directions

Day 1: Equilibrium brine

Brine turkey for 2 days. Measure out water plus turkey as total weight, then add salt and sugar percentages accordingly. If you don’t have time, you can be more aggressive on salt and cut the brine period.

Day 3: Stuff duxelles butter in turkey and dry overnight

Make duxelles butter

Take out butter and let it come up to room temperature.

Cook out all the water content of the mushroom until you see no moisture on the bottom of the pan. Let the mushroom chill to room temperature.

Mix butter and duxelles, then add some chopped truffle. Don’t bother using fresh truffles here, the long roast on turkey will destroy their quality.

Stuff turkey and dry overnight

Take out turkey from the brine and pat dry.

Stuff duxelles butter under the skin and all the crevasses.

Place onion or lemon in the cavity, truss the turkey and set it on the roasting pan.

Chill turkey in the fridge uncovered to dry the skin.

Day 4: Cook the turkey

Take out turkey 1-2 hours before roasting to let it come up to temperature. Place onion, carrot, and celery under the roasting pan.

Preheat oven at 275ºF.

Roast the turkey at 15min/lb and baste with butter/fat drippings every 30-45min. Turn roasting pan’s position 180º halfway through to ensure everything’s cooking evenly.

Rest for 2-3 hours covered in tin foil.

While turkey rests, make a gravy. Add flour to the fat roasting juices and cook to form a roux. Add in chicken stock, a garlic or two, stir and reduce to your desired taste.

Notes

My strategy for Thanks Giving is to do a little bit each day, so you’re not stressed on the day of cooking. If you do decide to procrastinate, it’s OK to combine some of the steps. You can put more salt on the brine and cut the brine duration. Duxelles butter can be made any day. Drying turkey overnight helps the skin crisp, but skip it if you don’t have time. Every oven is different, you’ll likely have to experiment over the years to find the proper temperature and timing for your turkey. For reference, I’ve cooked in 3 different homes and the timing and temperature are always different. Let my numbers be a reference. You can’t always have everything. I’m looking for the perfect breast that hints with the lightest pink hue. Sometimes the legs come out slightly under, but that’s OK. If the