Turkey 2012

A few notes while I can recall. This year's Aklin turkey was the largest ever, clocking in at 5.5 kilos. That's 12 lbs for you American types. Aklin's birds are local, never frozen, and beautiful -- but you take what they can get from their local sources. In any event, when I took the bird out today it was lovely -- beautiful, plump legs and thighs (mmm...dark meat) and reasonable breast size, unlike the butterball's back home. They had done an excellent job of plucking the bird, so little was required of me other than slathering it up with butter, thyme, sage, and pepper. After perusing a number of recipes -- and doing a lot of metric conversion -- I finally basically followed Alton Brown's recipe minus the brining. The big difference is no basting. Instead, you put the turkey in at a high temperature to brown and then lower the temperature without opening the oven. The concept is to maintain an even open temperature without the ups and downs associated with opening the oven door. Given that Nan's oven is small and not quick to heat, I thought this method might prove appropriate and it was. I put the turkey in at 500 F for half an hour, then lowered the temp to 350 for two more hours. Took it out and it was very good -- dark meat perfect, white nice, too. This will definitely be my method of choice from now on! Here are some photos.