This year we bought a fresh cage free turkey for American Thanksgiving. I chose to brine it and roast it wrapped in cheese cloth. It ended up being a ridiculously good bird - very moist and flavourful. It was so darn good, I thought I would write up the recipe I put together from several other recipes.

The Brine

The first step was to make a brine the morning before the day you plan on roasting the turkey. Brining a turkey is one of the best ways to produce and extraordinarily juicy and succulent meal.

2 cups of kosher salt 2 cups of sugar 1 1/2 gallons of water 1/2 gallon of orange juice 4 bay leaves 1 whole bulb of garlic various herbs and spices 2 teaspoons ground black pepper 1 whole lemon

Add the juice, water, salt, and sugar to a stock pot. Crush or chop the garlic. Pop it into the pot. Slice the lemon leaving the rind on. Pop the lemon slices into the pot. Put in your pepper, herbs, and spices.

Put the pot over medium heat and stir until the salt and sugar are dissolved into solution. Don't boil the brine. Put the brine into the fridge to cool down to at least 40 F / 4 C.

You want to brine your turkey at the rate of 1 hour per pound. Our turkey was 14 lbs so it needed to be brined for 14 hours. Don't over brine your bird - it will end up being overly salty.

Rinse your bird inside and out. Take the neck and giblets out and put them in a small ziplock in the fridge.

I used two giant ziplock style bags to brine in. I popped the turkey into the bag and then filled up the bag with as much brine as it could manage. I strained the remaining brine and put all the solids in the bag as well. I closed the bag and then put it into the second bag just in case of leaks. All of this got put into the stock pot to keep it from tipping over. Make sure as much air is out of the bag as possible.

The Next Morning

I got up early in the morning for the next step.

All the wine and butter needs to go into a pan. Melt the butter into the white wine. Soak the cheesecloth in the butter wine mixture.

Preheat your oven to 450 F / 230 C.

Get the turkey out of the brining bag. Dump the brine and rinse the turkey inside and out. Dry the turkey with paper towels. Put the turkey breast up in a roasting pan. I like ones with a grate in the bottom that keeps the meat from touching the bottom of the pan.

Wrap the top of the turkey with the cheesecloth. Cover the legs as well. Pop the turkey into the oven for a half hour. Lower the temperature to 350 F / 177 C and let it roast for about 2 hours. Baste the cheese cloth at this point. It will likely be starting to turn brown.

Pop back into the oven and check the internal temperature regularly. When the turkey reaches about 170 F / 77 C remove the cheese cloth and discard. Baste the turkey again with wine and butter and/or the drippings in the pan.

When the internal temperature reaches 180 F / 82 C pop it on a carving platter and let it rest for 30 minutes.

I generally saute onion, carrot, and celery and then add chicken broth. I boil the giblets and neck for about an hour. Then I remove the neck and put the rest of the concoction in the blender. Then I thicken with a little flour that I've mixed up with chicken broth.

The extra effort was completely worth it for this bird. I'll certainly do it again.