pantryslut

I figured something out about turkey yesterday.

There's been a lot of fussing over the proper way to roast a turkey in recent years. Brine it! Cook the breast and legs seperately and reassemble when you're done! And so on.

All of these are attempts to solve a problem I've never had -- how to keep the breast from drying out before the dark meat is done.

Now, contrary to some people's belief, I am not a magical cook. So why wasn't I having this problem? Well, I figured it out last night.

I still cook turkey with the stuffing in. The stuffing tastes better when it's filled with turkey juices, and the turkey tastes better when it's suffused with the stuffing's aromatics.

And if you stuff the front cavity of the turkey, the stuffing keeps the breast meat moist.

It is currently considered a better idea, because of food safety and tidiness concerns, to cook the stuffing (dressing) outside of the bird. But it is only then that you have to go through these convolutions to solve what turns out to be a side-effect of cooking an unstuffed bird.

A-ha!

Of course, this is only a theory, but since I don't have a fancy test kitchen it's the one I'm sticking with.

I've had brined turkey, btw, and I do consider it an excellent second choice.

And yes, I really do just sit around and think about food like this. And livestock. But that's another story.