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How do you cook it?

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It a full butterball that I got for free. I don't know if being a butterball means anything different than any other turkey, but that's what it is.

Get a 5-6 gallon bucket. You want to pour two gallons of boiling water into the bucket with the flavoring.

One cup of sugar for each half cup of salt. That's the magic ratio.

Stuff that flavors a bird that goes with the salt and sugar:

Lemon pepper, bay leaves, thyme or rosemary twigs, lemons juiced and cut in half, whole allspice, whole peppercorn, heck even high end tea bags.

Then after the flavor infuses into the boiling water, add ice to bring it down to room temperature. Leave enough room for the bird.

Cooking the bird a day or so later is a whole other process, but brine will make it more flavorful and forgiving with your cooking expertise.
 
Get a 5-6 gallon bucket. You want to pour two gallons of boiling water into the bucket with the flavoring.

One cup of sugar for each half cup of salt. That's the magic ratio.

Stuff that flavors a bird that goes with the salt and sugar:

Lemon pepper, bay leaves, thyme or rosemary twigs, lemons juiced and cut in half, whole allspice, whole peppercorn, heck even high end tea bags.

Then after the flavor infuses into the boiling water, add ice to bring it down to room temperature. Leave enough room for the bird.

Cooking the bird a day or so later is a whole other process, but brine will make it more flavorful and forgiving with your cooking expertise.
I will 2nd this brine, almost ingredient for ingredient on what we do. The fiance doesnt like lemon pepper though, so that's unfortunate.
 
Get a 5-6 gallon bucket. You want to pour two gallons of boiling water into the bucket with the flavoring.

One cup of sugar for each half cup of salt. That's the magic ratio.

Stuff that flavors a bird that goes with the salt and sugar:

Lemon pepper, bay leaves, thyme or rosemary twigs, lemons juiced and cut in half, whole allspice, whole peppercorn, heck even high end tea bags.

Then after the flavor infuses into the boiling water, add ice to bring it down to room temperature. Leave enough room for the bird.

Cooking the bird a day or so later is a whole other process, but brine will make it more flavorful and forgiving with your cooking expertise.
I'd just like to add, if we're giving out cooking advice, that this marinade/brine should only be used for 8 hours max. The salt loosens up muscle fibers, while the acid will break down proteins in a similar way cooking does.

Marinades/brines don't really penetrate deep into tissue no matter how long you go, so by adding time you're just overcooking your meat with the acid and letting the salt break it down more than what you really want.

If you want to try and get maximum flavor imparted into the meat, try scoring it to create more surface area. I've never done this with a turkey, but it works great with chicken.
 
I have found that brining will also reduce your cooking time. So don't go by the usual 15-20 minutes per pound. You'll need to check the internal temperature and you can do that when you baste it.

For the last 3 years I have been brining, then smoking and finishing in the oven (covered) for the last 45 minutes. That has been my go to.
 
For the last 3 years I have been brining, then smoking and finishing in the oven (covered) for the last 45 minutes. That has been my go to.

Smoking after brining is a sweet move. At the very least, it dries the excess brine off the surface so that the skin gets nice and crispy in the oven. A butter rubdown before the oven is also key.
 
I was at Harris Teeter yesterday and they had slabs of pork belly for 2.99 a pound so I went ahead and bought one.

Did a pretty simple braise. Rubbed the pork belly with salt then put it in a baking pan and poured in rice vinegar until it was about halfway up the pork. Covered with foil and cooked for three hours at 300.

Once you take it out and let it cool down, you can peel the thick layer of skin off the top (assuming it wasn't removed already) really easily.

The meat is cooked at this point, so it's up to you how you want to use it. I personally let it cool down in the fridge and then sliced it into rectangular chunks, brushed them with Korean BBQ sauce, and put them under the broiler, flipping every couple of minutes and applying more sauce until they got some blackened edges and were nice and caramelized.

I also made some jasmine rice and threw in some frozen carrots, corn, and peas once it was cooked. I also added butter, soy sauce, and Sriracha. Once the veggies were cooked I dished it up and topped with several of the chunks of pork belly.

It turned out great. The pork just melts when you take a bite. Definitely going to be using this cooking method again, as it was simple and not even remotely time consuming from a prep standpoint. Next time I might go for a more BBQ burnt ends dish and braise it in a more appropriate liquid (maybe soda or apple juice) for that application.

If I'm motivated enough to go to the store tomorrow, I think I'm going to grab some kimchi and tortillas and make some pork belly tacos for lunch since I've still got a bunch of leftover pork.

PXL-20201122-001416285.jpg
 
Growing up, we always basted our turkey with white wine. Of course that recipe died 6 years ago because I'm a giant jackass that didn't pay enough attention as a kid.

But I hate turkey in general, so not a big loss.
 
Growing up, we always basted our turkey with white wine. Of course that recipe died 6 years ago because I'm a giant jackass that didn't pay enough attention as a kid.

But I hate turkey in general, so not a big loss.

I'm making a duck this year instead of turkey.
 
I rather enjoy Goose rather than turkey for Christmas dinner.

I was actually thinking of doing that for Christmas. My parents are planning on coming down here then but are skipping this weekend, so I'm just doing a small thing with some friends in my apartment building. We decided on one turkey and one duck for Thanksgiving, and I'm on duck duty.

Never made a goose before, but I assume with the power of the internet all things are possible.
 

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