On 11/24/2012 8:33 AM, George Leppla wrote:
>
> I agree with having water in the pan. When I roast a turkey, I put the
> neck and giblets in a sauce pan with coarsely chopped onions and a bit
> of celery and some peppe.... cover with water and simmer. That water
> gets added to the turkey pan as needed and if any is left, gets added to
> de-glaze the pan to make the gravy.

I didn't put any water into the pan with my dry brine ~13 lb turkey. I
read about doing that later, but by the time I read that, there were so
many drippings already that I don't think it needed water. At that
point I guess it would just add more humidity but there was plenty of
water that dripped out of the turkey during cooking. I could only tell
because I poured it all into a separating cup. So I guess my vote is
that water doesn't need to go into the pan at the start of roasting.
>
> I'm not sure about the liquid inside the turkey being absorbed back into
> the meat. If you look at the bottom of the turkey cavity, you have the
> spine and ribs, etc... very little meat to support any capillary action
> that would get moisture back into the breast. But I may try roasting
> the bird upside down for the first half of the roasting time and see
> what happens.
>
If upside down is breast down, that's how I did it. The way my mom
always did. I just flip it over for the last half hour.

> Becca sometimes injects the bird with a mixture of butter and
> herbs/spices and that may be more than enough to keep everything juicy.
>
> We'll try this at Christmas and report back.

Looking forward to it!