This is my first year preparing Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I wanted to go all out so I bought a Heritage Turkey. I bought it from Welcome to Sif Foods Inc - because they said their Heritage Turkey is also Organic and I'm hoping that makes it taste even better. I was just wondering if there is a certain way to prepare these kind of turkeys. We usually brine ours before cooking but I heard these kinds of turkeys do not require brining. Any tips?

On Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:29:48 -0500, Andy wrote:

> According to the website, those birds are selling out, lightning quick.

Apparently not quick enough if they need to spam the newsgroups VIA
FoodBanter

Foodbanter.com will steal all the credit card numbers that you ever
typed into your computer and anything else it can find of value or
interest. Do Not Use FoodBanter.com! Foodbanter is Evil!

-sw

In article >,
Maria A. > wrote:

> This is my first year preparing Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I
> wanted to go all out so I bought a Heritage Turkey. I bought it from
> 'Welcome to Sif Foods Inc -' (http://www.siffoods.com) because they
> said their Heritage Turkey is also Organic and I'm hoping that makes it
> taste even better. I was just wondering if there is a certain way to
> prepare these kind of turkeys. We usually brine ours before cooking but
> I heard these kinds of turkeys do not require brining. Any tips?

Yes. Brine it.

Plenty of references on line.

Isaac

In article >,
Christine Dabney > wrote:

> On Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:10:44 -0700, isw > wrote:
>
> >In article >,
> > Maria A. > wrote:
> . We usually brine ours before cooking but
> >> I heard these kinds of turkeys do not require brining. Any tips?
> >
> >Yes. Brine it.
> >
> >Plenty of references on line.
> >
> >Isaac
>
> The most brining I would do is to pre-salt it, also known as dry
> brining.

Have you ever tried a "standard" brine? Why do you prefer the dry
version?

Isaac

In article >,
Christine Dabney > wrote:

> On Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:44:43 -0700, isw > wrote:
>
> >Have you ever tried a "standard" brine? Why do you prefer the dry
> >version?
> >
> >Isaac
>
> A standard brine is adding water that was not there in the first
> place. Plus additional flavors, that are not inherent in the flesh to
> begin with.

All true -- and precisely why I use a brine-soak. Turkey, in particular,
can benefit from both moistness and flavor "enhancements", IMO.

And it sort of sounds like you do not add any "non-inherent" flavors at
any other time in the cooking process; is that correct?

Because if you do add them (i.e. season the meat), then what's wrong
with adding them via a liquid?

> A dry brine is strictly the juices of whatever you are
> dry-brining.

And that's why it works well on meats that already have enough (or too
much) moistness.

> Have you ever read up on dry brining vs regular brining? It makes for
> interesting reading... and is very informative. The texture is not
> always improved with regular brining for one thing..

True. It depends on what kind of meat you're working with.

One benefit which accrues from wet-brining which I don't *think* you get
with the dry version, is that freezing doesn't cause the meat to become
as dry and tough.

JL > wrote:

>Dry curing beef is intriguing but i have a kind of reflex aversion to it.

Isn't pastrami, or at least some pastrami, dry-cured?


Steve

isw wrote:
> In article >,
> Christine Dabney > wrote:
>
>
>>On Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:44:43 -0700, isw > wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Have you ever tried a "standard" brine? Why do you prefer the dry
>>>version?
>>>
>>>Isaac
>>
>>A standard brine is adding water that was not there in the first
>>place. Plus additional flavors, that are not inherent in the flesh to
>>begin with.
>
>
> All true -- and precisely why I use a brine-soak. Turkey, in particular,
> can benefit from both moistness and flavor "enhancements", IMO.
>
> And it sort of sounds like you do not add any "non-inherent" flavors at
> any other time in the cooking process; is that correct?
>
> Because if you do add them (i.e. season the meat), then what's wrong
> with adding them via a liquid?
>
>
>>A dry brine is strictly the juices of whatever you are
>>dry-brining.
>
>
> And that's why it works well on meats that already have enough (or too
> much) moistness.
>
>
>>Have you ever read up on dry brining vs regular brining? It makes for
>>interesting reading... and is very informative. The texture is not
>>always improved with regular brining for one thing..
>
>
> True. It depends on what kind of meat you're working with.
>
> One benefit which accrues from wet-brining which I don't *think* you get
> with the dry version, is that freezing doesn't cause the meat to become
> as dry and tough.

Dry curing beef is intriguing but i have a kind of reflex aversion to it.
--

Mr. Joseph Paul Littleshoes Esq.

Domine, dirige nos.

Let the games begin!
http://fredeeky.typepad.com/fredeeky.../sf_anthem.mp3

Steve Pope wrote:
> JL > wrote:
>
>
>>Dry curing beef is intriguing but i have a kind of reflex aversion to it.
>
>
> Isn't pastrami, or at least some pastrami, dry-cured?
>
>
> Steve

I think, iirc, a number of 'sausages' are dry cured.

But i once did a 5 pound boneless beef roast this way, in the
refrigerator, on a rack for about a week. It looked fine, smelled ok
and after cooking tasted great but just thinking about it makes me shudder.

I saw a t.v. show about it and it seemed to be an interesting way to get
very tender meat without long cooking (just wait a week. But i just
cant get comfortable with the idea. Common as 'hung meats' and dry
curing used to be i find it, even the idea of it, makes me uneasy,
disturbs my wa.

--

Mr. Joseph Paul Littleshoes Esq.

Domine, dirige nos.

Let the games begin!
http://fredeeky.typepad.com/fredeeky.../sf_anthem.mp3

In article >, JL > wrote:

> Steve Pope wrote:
> > JL > wrote:
> >
> >
> >>Dry curing beef is intriguing but i have a kind of reflex aversion to it.
> >
> >
> > Isn't pastrami, or at least some pastrami, dry-cured?
> >
> >
> > Steve
>
> I think, iirc, a number of 'sausages' are dry cured.
>
> But i once did a 5 pound boneless beef roast this way, in the
> refrigerator, on a rack for about a week. It looked fine, smelled ok
> and after cooking tasted great but just thinking about it makes me shudder.

I think that what you did, if done by a professional chef in a good
restaurant, would add a goodly percentage to the cost of a steak. IOW,
it's SOP.

Isaac