Roast turkey

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Roast turkey—the preparation of the whole bird as a meal for a large group of people—has a long tradition in North America that dates back to the time when wild turkeys were shot to be roasted on the campfire and continues to modern times when a domesticated turkey is prepared in the oven to be served at a family gathering, typically on Thanksgiving and also on Christmas Day. Turkeys, which originated in the Americas, also have a long tradition of being prepared in European countries such as England and France for festive occasions. Because of the large size of the typical turkey, it is almost always roasted whole rather than being cut into separate pieces for other types of preparation, as for the literally thousands of recipes for chicken for instance.

Because of industrial breeding processes, a medium-sized turkey of today would have been considered a very large turkey 50 years ago. Recipes for roast turkey dating to the mid-20th century often call for turkeys weighing between six and eight pounds. Today a separate, boned turkey breast can be purchased that typically weighs the same amount, while whole turkeys weighing 20 to 30 pounds are easily found. Because of the industrialization of today's typical turkey, they have become increasingly difficult to roast satisfactorily: even the most talented home cooks find it difficult to roast a turkey so that the quick-cooking breast meat remains moist and tender while, at the same time, the thighs are thoroughly cooked.

Many techniques and methods have been developed and proposed for the apparently simple roasting of a single bird: there are high-temperature recipes; very low-temperature recipes; mixed-temperature recipes; recipes in which the bird is cooked until the breast meat reaches a certain temperature and is then removed and kept apart while the rest of the turkey continues to cook; recipes in which the breast is covered with slices of salt pork; recipes in which the breast is draped with buttered cheesecloth; recipes in which the bird is covered with aluminum foil throughout most of its cooking; recipes in which the bird is turned in various ways throughout its cooking; and recipes in which it is cooked in a covered turkey roaster rather than in just the oven alone.

Stuffings

There are also thousands of recipes for various kinds of stuffings that can be cooked inside the roasting turkey. Each country has its own traditions for typical stuffings; although most of them involve breadcrumbs in one form or another, ingredients as exotic as oysters and chestnuts can also be found. It is opera legend that Enrico Caruso was served a spaghetti-stuffed turkey for his first Thanksgiving in the United States.

Alternative cooking methods

The most popular innovation in recent years has been to submerse the entire bird in hot oil in a specially designed turkey deep-frier rather than to roast it. Since this requires a large pot and dedicated high-heat source, this is usually done outdoors for home cooking. Safety authorities report a number of burns and fires caused by inattentive or unskilled cooks.

Turkey Factoids

• King Henry VIII was the first British king to eat turkey.
• English turkeys were herded to market and wore booties to protect their feet. In the United States turkeys were walked to market too. It is unclear if the American turkeys wore booties.
• Wild turkeys spend their nights in trees while domestic turkeys can not fly.
• Since 1947 the United States president has received two turkeys from the National Turkey Federation. The turkeys are never eaten as they receive a presidential pardon.
• Israelis eat the most turkeys as they consume 28 pounds of turkey per person per year.
• Ben Franklin wrote the turkey should be the national USA bird.
• Thanksgiving is when most turkeys are eaten. The National Turkey Federation (NTF) estimates that approximately 45 million turkeys are gobbled up at Thanksgiving followed by 22 million at Christmas, and 19 million at Easter.
• June is National Turkey Lovers Month.
• Tom turkeys gobble while hen turkeys cluck. The tom is the male and the hen is the female.
• President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day forward one week.
• Food Network chef Alton Brown says stuffing is what goes inside the turkey while dressing is what's baked in a casserole dish. He also recommends preparing the dressing.