Side Orders: A roasting trick for a terrific turkey

Roasted Turkey
Roasted Turkey

One of the best recipes for roasting a rib-eye roast calls for starting it in a cold oven, setting the temperature to 500 degrees and letting it roast for 5 minutes per pound, then turning the oven off and letting it stay there for several hours. When the oven gets good and cold, the roast is cooked to perfection. It really does work, and even if it's a little on the rare side, that's OK.

But turkey is a different matter.

Eating medium-rare turkey is not only terrible, it's harmful to your health. So a couple of Thanksgivings ago, I was taken aback when I was eating a slice of some of the best turkey ever and was told by my cousin, Debbie Berg, that she'd cooked it for just an hour. What?

Yes, the active cooking takes place only for an hour, though the bird roasts in the oven for several more.

So I decided to give it a try myself. Since I'm never in charge of bringing the turkey, I always cook one to have on hand the week after Thanksgiving. Tradition mandates leftover turkey for sandwiches, turkey soup or some kind of turkey dishes the week following Turkey Day, so you've just got to have some, even if it means making it yourself. And this one-hour recipe was the simplest, most-delicious ever, as it turned out.

photo Anne Braly

"I cooked mine the night before Thanksgiving, and it was so tender and juicy, it fell right off the bone," Debbie says.

Season the turkey any way you like. For me, it's always salt, pepper, garlic powder and a little cayenne/paprika mix to give it a kick and make the skin brown beautifully. Also, I add an onion cut in half, apple or orange - either one, cut in half - and some celery sticks to the cavity. These additions help to make the stock extremely flavorful for gravy or soup.

After seasoning it to your liking, put the turkey in a pan with a tight-fitting lid. This is essential as you don't want any steam to escape. If you don't have such a roasting pan, go out and get one. I've found you can't get aluminum foil on tight enough. There's always some crack in the foil, maybe not visible to the eye, but steam finds its way through the smallest of cracks.

Add a couple cups of water to the pan, put the bird in, secure the lid on tightly, and you're ready to roast - for one hour only.

Debbie starts her turkey on Thanksgiving eve. When she wakes up on Thanksgiving morning, the turkey is ready, so she can go on to other things - making gravy, mashing potatoes, setting the table - all those usual cooking tasks that bring families together.

Wherever you are this Thanksgiving, I hope it's a happy one with family and friends gathered round.

Eight-Hour Roasted Turkey

1 turkey (size doesn't matter)

Spices of choice

Carrots, onions and celery (optional)

Season turkey to your liking under skin on breast and all around the outside. Stuff carrots, onions and celery in turkey cavity, if desired. Place turkey in roasting pan that has a tight-fitting lid. Add 2 cups water to the pan. Cover pan with lid and place in cold oven. Heat oven to 400 degrees. When the oven reaches 400 degrees, begin timing and let roast in covered pan for 1 hour. At 1 hour, turn the oven off, but do not open the oven. No peeking. Let the oven get cold - 8 hours or overnight. When oven is cold, turkey will be ready to carve and serve.

Thawing your turkey

I can't say I've tried this, but if you have waited too long to take your turkey from the freezer and there's simply no time to thaw it completely, kitchen-science expert and cookbook author Harold McGee says it's perfectly OK to roast a frozen bird. Just allow 50 percent more time in the oven - about 6 hours for a 15-pound bird.

Contact Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com.

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