This year it was just myself, Tim and his son so I only cooked a turkey breast half. Now if you've been paying attention you'll remember that I cook low sodium. It's hard to leave salt out of a good turkey dinner. Especially when I find the best way to ensure a turkey is moist is to brine it. This is a crucial technique. You can baste until the cows come home but nothing will give you the moisture that brining does. There are 2 different ways to brine. One is to soak the bird in a water and salt solution for at least 24 hours. I find this difficult because I'm usually wrangling a pretty big bird. So I go for brining method number 2. I rub it in salt and let it sit over night. Then I rinse it off, pat it dry and we're good to go. This year I didn't do it... and the turkey was way too dry.
My nephew told me about an interesting cooking method he heard of, steaming. I've never steamed meat, let alone a whole turkey but it may be the low sodium solution I'm looking for. Like I mentioned, today I only did a half of a turkey breast (it really was enough meat for the three of us and I still have leftovers) and I was tempted to try it but I didn't. I do have some turkey thighs that I might try it with soon. Anyone ever steamed their turkey? I'd love to hear of some real life experiences with it.
The highlight of today's meal was the cornbread stuffing. I love cornbread stuffing so much that we never have bread stuffing anymore. I had some maple corn muffins I had made the week before last in the freezer. But often I just make one or two cornbread mixes up a couple of days before Thanksgiving to allow it to start to dry out. Then I just add some finely chopped onions, summer savory or sage and some melted butter. If I don't put it in the bird, I use some of the turkey drippings and mix it in during the cooking process to get a nicer flavor. It's a nice change from the ordinary.
Is it my imagination or do all my food pics lately look the same?!?!
No comments:
Post a Comment