So, who’s ready for Thanksgiving? I am decidedly unenthused about it this year. I just don’t feel like hosting so I’m not. We still haven’t figured out quite what our plans will be. (If you are a new reader and missed the backstory, see this post.) However, I know many of you are definitely in the throes of planning and I do want to help you out. I considered doing a round-up post with a lot of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes, but I don’t know. Do you like those kinds of things? Are they helpful? Sometimes the “431 Perfect Recipes for Flag Day” things I see everywhere seem like overkill. I have lots of other recipes to share right now, but my guess is that most of you are interested in planning for the holiday. So with that in mind, what are some things you would like to see posted? I’ll try to make at least a few of them happen for you in the next week or two.
This year I did decide to experiment a bit with the best method for cooking the turkey. Over the several years that I have hosted so far, I have found that Alton Brown’s method involving a brine and steeped aromatics is an essential foundation for an excellent bird. There are tons of different brine recipes and many combinations of aromatics you could use. But whatever you do, be sure to use both! This time I decided to build on that foundation and take it to the next level by incorporating a herb compound butter.
Here the herb butter does double duty. Part of it is rubbed under the skin and over the meat of the bird for a major boost in flavor. The rest is melted and brushed over the skin to ensure that gorgeous golden brown exterior that signifies a perfectly done turkey. We were amazed at the difference this made in the final product and as far as we are concerned, this will now become part of our best method.