Hi all, I’ve been in Poland a little while now, and I can strongly recommend you check out some Polish recipes! Smacznego, Nate

I also use the good eats method, which apart from the brining, has you put an aluminum foil shield over the breast after cooking the whole bird at 500 for 30 minutes. You then roast as normal and the shield helps the white meat from getting over done while the dark meat cooks as it should.

Thanks for the great tip. Over here in sunny Malaysia, thanksgiving is celebrated on a much smaller scale. As I’m preparing my turkey, I’ve read several methods to keep the breast succulent. But I’ll try your icepack technique this round.

I do the turkey turning, but I also combine it with brine soaking for 24 hours.

Per my mother’s method, I cook the turkey breast down and cover it with an aluminum foil “tent.” Then, for the last hour, I flip it and remove the tent.

When it comes time to flipping the bird (no pun intended), I take it out of the oven, put plastic bags over my oven mits, and pick the bird up and rotate it in the rack.

Follow this recipe for a bird that retains its moisture. Even the leftovers are succulent!

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/cda/recipe_print/0,1946,FOOD_9936_8389_PRINT-RECIPE-FULL-PAGE,00.html

And if you can ever catch the Good Eats episode Romancing the Bird (A Good Eats Thanksgiving) give it a gander! It’s a hoot and will teach you all you need to know to make your Thanksgiving meal a hit!

Ed’s turning-the-bird method is the one endorsed by my trusted book The Best Recipe. It’s a compilation of recipes from the also excellent Cooks Illustrated magazine.

[…] Cooking a turkey is scary, but preventing a dry bird is easier than you think. Merlin suggests an Icepack on the breast. I’d add that sticking the whole thing in an oven bag along with one stick of butter will finish you up. […]

Good tip Merlin. Another solution to this problem is to cook the bird “upside-down”— that is, with the breast/leg side in the roasting pan and the thigh side facing up. This puts the dark meat closer to the open heating elements of the oven, so it cooks faster than the white meat. When you’ve got about 45 minutes left, turn the bird over to brown the “top” of the turkey for a nice looking presentation. (If you’re carving it in the kitchen, turning it is optional.)

Having brined several turkeys by the Alton Brown method I wholeheartedly recdommend his school of thought. (That it comes, in part, from Shirley Coherier’s school of thought, as well, is an added bonus)

Seeing the “Romancing the Bird” episode is helpful, but I did my first brining simply from the transcript of the episode at Mikemenn’s wonderful Good Eats Fan Page (http://www.goodeatsfanpage.com/)

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Not only is Mr. McGee’s name awesome but he’s also a phenomenal food writer. Thanks for sharing his site with everyone!

The current issue of Cook’s Illustrated suggests that it is harder to “place an ice pack” on the turkey breast than to lay the turkey breast-down on top of the ice pack. Too late for this year, but remember it for next time!

It’s expensive, potentially messy, and somewhate dangerous but we have found that there’s nothing that comes from the oven that beats a 24-hour-brined-deep-fried turkey. Every bit of the meat is tender and juicy and done.