best baste for turkey?

[Kevan Campbell]

Part of the fun is experimenting! What do you like? My favorite that I've done is a Memphis-style BBQ dry rub on the outside of the skin and a Texas-style homemade BBQ underneath the skin...on the same bird!

Williams Sonoma sells a very tasty herbal paste that you put between the skin and the meat. Yum.

I did something like that one year with drawn butter, minced bacon and bacon fat, fresh sage, fresh thyme and fresh basil all muddled into a paste and spread very generously underneath the skin. Topped the skin with bacon and apple slices...turned out pretty good but due to the under-skin stuffing carving the turkey was a little messier.

 

[RED J]

ANYTHING has to improve the flavor of that tastless bird.

Thank you I'm not the only one.
However I am more convinced as time passes that most foods are just that until they are brought alive with butter or olive oil and herbs and spices.

 

[RED J]

Mephisto and TheBear get to cook the turkeys.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Mephisto and TheBear get to cook the turkeys.

I get drafted to cook turkey every year ! and i get people begging for the leftovers (friend who have had mine in the past)
One thing that makes it STELLAR---- get a turkey from a local farm, fresh kill, and refrigerated WORLDS better than the frozen factory processed birds !
lately when it's just the 2 of us, we both like white meat best, so i have taken to buying a breast only, already cut bird.
still prefer the overall taste of a whole fresh bird, but too much hassle, but my band mates get the dark meat afterwards.
Maralee makes a killer scratch recipe stuffing.
may not cook a bird this year for TG as i may be outta town but then there is Xmas with my mom and cousins, that'll be one or 2 birds
Folk dig what i do on the BBQ too -- special marinades and techniques

Gotta get a bigger BBQ, i have a hankering to BBQ a Turkey one of these days.

 

[RED J]

WORLDS better than the frozen factory processed birds !

I have no doubt that is a big deal.

Edited because of misconceptions about chickens other than one tastes better to me than the other. I drank the koolaid I guess. Anyway...

 

[/\/\3phist0]

i have found that MANY of the store bought birds are pumped full of salt, and water to increase the shelf weight, (and as a preservative).

I love it when i get the fennel balance juuust right the diners make comments--- what is that aroma!? licorice ? the other herbs obviously are best fresh also if they can be found. Trader Joes and whole foods seem to have them available around this time of year. If Garlic is too strong you can substitute Shallots.

 

[RED J]

@Mephisto. My dad worked in meat processing much of his life and used to say they did just that and it was legal as long as they put water added on the label.

 

[Kevan Campbell]

Mephisto and TheBear get to cook the turkeys.

I used to cook the turkey for friends during thanksgiving in college and ran the kitchen for the other dishes. After one year of cooking two turkeys and a ham for 80+ people and coordinating other dishes I retired, though I have been known to come out of retirement if I have a bottle of whiskey to drink after the birds are done!

One thing that makes it STELLAR---- get a turkey from a local farm, fresh kill, and refrigerated WORLDS better than the frozen factory processed birds !

Amen! Fresh turkey tastes so much better than store-bought and processed, and it's a lot easier to get flavors into the blank slate of a fresh turkey than the salt-infused carcass of a processed one.