Sharing the knowledge of Turkey Preparation! A Collaboration of ideas with Chef Jonny Hunter, Chef Kevin McGuinnis and Chef Paul Short.

Recently myself and two other chefs, Kevin McGuinnis (culinary instructor Madison College) and Jonny Hunter (Underground food collective), were having a discussion about preparing turkey and some of the various methods being used by chefs in the industry. This discussion involved methods from Thomas Keller and David Arnold's from Cooking Issues website. Chef Kevin was a fan of the Turduckin method; the concept of stuffing a chicken into a duck and stuffing the two birds into a turkey.  The method of stuffing a bird into another bird actually dates back to the Romans and throughout history there have been many variations of this method.  Jonny Hunter was interested in the idea of sous vide turkey; sous vide is a new method of cooking utilizing what is called an immersion circulator. The ciruclator cooks and holds food to an exact temperature and usually the product is in a vacuum sealed bag.  The temperature of the product being cooked is based on the liquid ciruclating around the vacuum sealed bag. The method Jonny wanted to work on involved circulating duck fat through the turkey utilizing the circulator and a series of hoses through the deboned turkey. This is the method that actually spurned our discussion about the various methods chefs will use in preparing their turkey. My method for preparing the turkey fell into a more classical category but not entirely; I wanted to brine my bird, remove the leg and thigh and create a galantine from the leg and thigh; normally  the galantine is served cold and covered in aspic but in this case I planned on serving it warm. The later being more old school in the culinary world. Thomas Keller's brine can be found in his book Bouchon; this is the cook book from his restaurant Bouchon Bistro.
After having this discussion I thought it would be interesting to have the three of us prepare our turkey in the style in which we discussed! The methods we each choose and the recipes can be found here.
Chef Paul Short 
Roast Turkey, and Turkey Galantine
Brine
2 gallons water
2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup honey
4 whole lemons halved
1 1/2 ounces of fresh thyme sprigs
1 1/2 ounces of Italian parsley 
10 bay leaves
10 peppercorns
20 to 25 lb turkey
Method:

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the turkey and mix together in a container large enough to hold the turkey and brine. Add the turkey and place a weight on top to keep the turkey submerged completely under the brine. Place turkey soaking in the brine and refrigerate for 24 hours. At the end of the 24 hours, remove the turkey from the brine and wipe off any excess herbs. Place on a wire rack and air dry in the refrigerator for 24 hours. 
2. Remove the leg and thighs from the turkey and carefully cut the skin away from each. Remove the wings and take as much of the skin off of the wings as you can (use this in the galantine). 
3. De-bone the leg and thigh meat and cut out any tendons from the leg meat. Dice the leg and thigh meat and place in a freezer to chill completely. 
4. Roast the wing bones, thigh and leg bones, along with any tendons or meat removed in the deboning process. Prepare a turkey stock from the bones for use in cooking the galantine. 

22 lb turkey in brine for 24 hours

Turkey Galantine 

Forcemeat

24 ounces of pork butt cut into strips

5 ounces of pork fat (fat back)

16 ounces of turkey leg and thigh meat - remove the skin carefully and reserve for use

Aromats

1 medium onion diced

2 sprigs of chopped thyme

2 cups of Maderia Wine

Spice Slurry

1 ounce salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/2 cup of Grand Marnier

1/2 cup of Cream Sherry

Orange zest from two oranges

Binder
1 ounce Non fat dry milk solids
4 grams Dextrose

1/4 cup of turkey stock or chicken stock

1 packet of gelatin bloomed with cold stock - heat bloomed gelatin over low heat until the gelatin has completely dissolved.  

Garnish for the Galatine

1/2 cup Chopped dry fruit (such as cranberries, cherries etc.) 

Method:

1. Grind meats and fats with chilled aromatics through a 1/8 inch plate. Note; it is important to chill all of the grinder parts prior to grinding. 

1. Combine all of the ingredients in the spice slurry and mix with ground meat over ice.

1. Add the binder and mix thoroughly with the ground meat. 
2. Poach a small amount of the meat in water, keeping the water below 200 degrees. Taste the test piece to check for flavor and adjust accordingly. 
3. Take the reserved skin and carefully cut it so that it can be spread out into one sheet. Lay a piece of cheese cloth on a cutting board, the cheese cloth should be big enough to hold both skins from the two leg and thighs. Carefully spread the skin on to the cheese cloth, attempting to create a complete cover for the forcemeat.  Place this into the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes. 

1. Soak the dried fruit in a small amount of water, stock or liqueur. Once the dried cherries have been soaked fold them into the forcemeat. 
2. Spread the forcemeat across the fat; it should be about a half inch thick all the way across. 

1. Take hold of the cheese cloth closest to you and lift it away from you to roll the galantine up. Once you have it rolled up, place it on to a piece of parchment paper. Using a jelly roll method, fold the paper over the roll and place a straight edge up against the roll push against the roll tightly. take butcher twine and tie off the roll. Secure the ends with butcher twine as well. 
2. Poach the galantine in the turkey stock prepared earlier, keep the poaching liquid at about 180 degrees. When the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees it is finished. Leave in the poaching liquid and chill overnight. In this case I allowed it to reach room temperature, removed the cheese cloth, and browned it in a hot pan with canola oil and butter. 
3. For serving the galantine it is best to slice it when you are ready to slice the turkey breast. 
4.  While the galantine poaching in the stock, truss the breast by tying off the remaining wing bones with the top of the carcass. Place a cast iron pan large enough to hold the turkey breast on high heat and heat the pan. When the pan starts to smoke add the turkey breast (breast side up) into the hot pan and place in the oven. Roast the breast at 350 convection or 400 degrees in a non convection oven. 
5. When the turkey is removed add some chopped thyme to the fat in the cast iron pan, stir quickly and squeeze fresh lemon juice through a strainer into the fat and stir. Pour this over the finished turkey and allow it to rest.  

Turducken

Kevin McGuinnis

Culinary Arts Instructor, Madison College

1 whole turkey

1 whole duck

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

A/N  Activa RM, transglutaminase, aka meat glue

A/N   basic poultry brine

Procedure

1.       Prepare a turkey as for a galantine. See Jacques Pepin’s amazing video demonstration here.

2.       Remove the duck breasts and skin.  Set aside.

3.       Make duck confit out of the leg quarters. (Takes 2 days).  Pull off bone and keep in large pieces.

4.       De-bone chicken.  Set aside.

5.       Using a fine-mesh strainer, sprinkle Activa over turkey breasts in an even layer. Place duck breasts over        turkey breasts.

6.       Sprinkle Activa over duck confit. (0.5%-1.0% should be sufficient).  Stuff into leg cavities.

7.       Sprinkle Activa over duck meat.  Apply the chicken breasts to the duck.8.       Inject brine into the turkey          breasts.

8.       Sew up the back of the bird so that it now resembles a regular turkey.  Place in the refrigerator,                     uncovered, for three days.  The skin will get very dry, which will help it get a very crispy skin later.

9.   Cook on a rack in a low oven (I cooked mine in a Combi oven at 200°F) until the internal temperature          registers 145°F (mine took 3 ½ hours).  Chances are you do not have a Combi oven.  Place a pan half          full of water on the rack underneath the turkey. Remove from oven.  You can chill the bird now or just          let it rest while you heat the oven for crisping the skin.

10.   Heat oven to highest setting.  Place the bird in the oven and crisp the skin.  Depending on your oven, this       could take anywhere from 8-15 minutes.  Alternatively, the turkey could be deep fried to achieve the             crispness you want.

11.   Serve immediately to maximize the crispiness.  With the low heat cooking and re-thermalization, there        is no need for resting.

Note on Activa

Activa RM is the brand name for a natural enzyme, transglutaminase, that bonds proteins to each other.  Chefs commonly refer to it as “meat glue”.  You should use care when working with it.  Always wear latex or vinyl gloves when handling and do not ingest.

Basic Poultry Brine

500 g      water
25 g        salt

For Chef Jonny Hunter, from The Underground Food Collective, I will post the link for his preparation.  He is a busy guy! Jonny promises me he will send us his pictures of his finished bird but for now here is what he did today!
http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/11/25/turkey-time-part-3-how-to-cook-it/

We shot some video today as well and when we have it finished being edited I will post. In the mean time happy holidays and I hope you and your family have a Happy Turkey Day!