Brining a Turkey and Other Treats

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:44 am

Sweet potatoes are the finest of foods, for sure.

I need to bring something for the Christmas party on Dec 12. I'm thinking of a side-dish-dessert item. Specifically, baked sweet potatoes with a pecan-brown-sugar-streusel topping. I'm thinking of a cross between your traditional candied yams and good old Southern pecan pie.

Anybody have a recipe for this? Maybe with that pecan pie custard stuff around mashed sweet potatoes?

Not too sweet, but heavy on the pecans. I have several pounds in the fridge.

I may be thinking of sweet potato pie . . .

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:50 pm

Lambchop wrote:Sweet potatoes are the finest of foods, for sure.

I need to bring something for the Christmas party on Dec 12. I'm thinking of a side-dish-dessert item. Specifically, baked sweet potatoes with a pecan-brown-sugar-streusel topping. I'm thinking of a cross between your traditional candied yams and good old Southern pecan pie.

Anybody have a recipe for this? Maybe with that pecan pie custard stuff around mashed sweet potatoes?

Not too sweet, but heavy on the pecans. I have several pounds in the fridge.

I may be thinking of sweet potato pie . . .

You could do a traditional whipped sweet potatoes (the kind that are usually topped with marshmallows) and put a pecan pie topping on it instead...either browning it in the oven (probably better, with pecans) or maybe bruléeing it.

My mom used to make the best candied sweet potatoes by boiling them, slicing them, and then sautéeing them in a mixture of butter and brown sugar...yum!

Redwolf

rebl_rn · Post by **rebl_rn** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:07 pm

My dad makes a praline sweet potato recipe that you might like. I don't have the recipe, but it has sweet potatoes, brown sugar, pecans, and coconut. The recipe is on the back of the Princella brand canned sweet potatoes.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 1:35 pm

A simple sweet potato baked in its skin with some butter is all I want. I believe Walden and I are gustatory brothers in this regard.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:48 pm

Nanohedron wrote:A simple sweet potato baked in its skin with some butter is all I want. I believe Walden and I are gustatory brothers in this regard.

Yes, well, that's all I want, too, but my coworkers are another story. Last time I brought something like simply baked sweet potatoes, they very politely left it in the kitchen, explaining that anyone who liked that sort of thing would know where to find it. (?)

No, I'm afraid I have to bring a culinary production, Nano. It has to look like "normal American food" -- so as not to shock the taste buds, you see -- but imply that I somehow went above and beyond the call of duty in making it.

Candied sweet potatoes fit the bill. I can satisfy my need to provide a glorious dish redolent of good nutrition by using fresh potatoes instead of canned, loading it with pecans, and using real butter instead of hydrogenated trans-fat.

I'm just glad I wasn't elected to bring that green bean thing with the mucoid mushroom soup and canned onion doodles or those ghastly little sausages crock-potted in ketchup and Welches grape jelly. Brrrr!

gonzo914 · Post by **gonzo914** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 2:48 pm

Nanohedron wrote:A simple sweet potato baked in its skin with some butter is all I want. I believe Walden and I are gustatory brothers in this regard.

And a bit of black pepper (but no salt).

Lambchop wrote: I'm just glad I wasn't elected to bring that green bean thing with the mucoid mushroom soup and canned onion doodles

I love green bean/mushroom soup/crispy onion casserole, although not enough to actually make it myself, so I have to wait for a potluck or a Lutheran funeral. If you make it your self, you run the risk of having to eat it for three days, and the LD50 for that stuff is two servings. I have recessive Okie genes on my mother's side, which also accounts for a fondness for biscuits and gravy.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 3:43 pm

Speaking of green bean dishes, one of the best - and simplest - I've ever had was fresh young green beans braised in some tomato sauce with a hint of garlic. I think it was a Greek recipe. Yummy it was.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 6:00 pm

I'd like those green beans! Biscuits and gravy! Mmmmmmm!

Maybe I should just stay home that day, fix something I like, and enjoy it all by myself.

KateG · Post by **KateG** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:28 pm

Mashed my sweet potatoes with orange juice, a tiny smidge of butter and a few spices (ginger, coriander, cardamom) and sprinkled chopped pecans on top before reheating. Yummy and healthy both!

Also I bought a fresh, lean turkey with nothing injected into it. Stuffed it, and roasted it gently under foil until the last half hour, and let it rest when it was done while I did the last minute thing with the veggies. Result was moist, tender and tasty. No salt, brine or trans-fat/salt/MSG laden mystery injection for me.

We also had roast beets and beet greens in a garlic vinagrette, brussel sprouts with chestnuts and pearl onions baked with cranberries (cook 1 1/2 lbs in water till you can slip off skins, brown gently in 2 tsp butter/olive oil, add 1 c cranberries and 1/4 c sugar stir for a moment, add 1/2 c. good broth or stock, put in uncovered casserole dish and bake in 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes -- to die for).

I expect to be living off leftovers for the rest of the week!

Flyingcursor · Post by **Flyingcursor** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:44 pm

Brining must be one of those things that hasn't hit Michigan yet. We still eat them raw. With feathers.

beowulf573 · Post by **beowulf573** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:17 pm

And just because I know everyone cares, we followed up on Saturday with a big Indian meal cooked by my lovely wife for my side of the family. Some had never tried Indian food before. So now, I'm doubley stuffed.

And to my great delight, I've infected my wife with a new meme. She now refers to <a href="http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/recipes/s ... tml">Gulab Jaman's</a> as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gom_Jabbar">Gom Jabbar's</a>, mainly because I've spent a few years calling them that and now she can't help herself.

Ain't I a stinker.

Congratulations · Post by **Congratulations** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:23 pm

beowulf573 wrote:And to my great delight, I've infected my wife with a new meme. She now refers to <a href="http://www.theasiannews.co.uk/recipes/s ... tml">Gulab Jaman's</a> as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gom_Jabbar">Gom Jabbar's</a>, mainly because I've spent a few years calling them that and now she can't help herself.

Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing.

Only I will remain.

TheSpoonMan · Post by **TheSpoonMan** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:27 pm

beowulf573 wrote:And just because I know everyone cares, we followed up on Saturday with a big Indian meal cooked by my lovely wife for my side of the family. Some had never tried Indian food before. So now, I'm doubley stuffed.

(hm. I had to look at that a few times before I saw you hadn't said "my wife from my side of the family". Well then.)

*hi-five* Indian food is awesome. Every month or two my family goes out to this awesome Indian place on Devon, and my mom sends my brothers and I to get nan and such all the time.

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:54 pm

I first brined a turkey last year and did it again this year. I put NO salt in the water. Just carrots, onion, stuff like rosemary, parsley, sage, etc.
Since last year's juicy turkey, I am now the family turkey cooker.

I'd never put a bunch of salt in the brine, yuck.

Lambchop · Post by **Lambchop** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:04 am

Hmm, I'm thinking maybe we have a difference of definitions.

brine n. Water saturated with or containing large amounts of a salt, especially sodium chloride.
Salt water used for preserving and pickling foods.

tr.v. brined, brin·ing, brines
To immerse, preserve, or pickle in salt water.

You marinated your turkey in vegetable broth, but I'm not sure you "brined" it. However, I don't know what the "cooking" definition of brining is.

In order for the soaking solution to go into the tissues of the turkey, it has to contain more salt than the fluid already in the turkey. Hence, a brine is heavily salted. The solution will flow from the area of high concentration to low, i.e., into the turkey.

That's how brining causes a moist turkey. It overloads the turkey cells with fluid--at least the surface ones, which don't dry out as fast and thus the interior doesn't either.

Soaking a turkey in a solution that has LESS salt than the turkey should actually dehydrate it, causing it to be drier than it would had you not soaked it at all.

Meat that has been frozen loses moisture rapidly because the cellular integrity has been broken up by the freeze-thaw action. It becomes very dry as it roasts. It is able to take up brine faster for the same reason. Brining helps a frozen turkey appear to be juicy.

Turkeys that have never been frozen, or which have been frozen carefully, tend to remain moist longer.

The purpose to oiling the surface of the bird is to prevent moisture loss. Stuffing it can help prevent moisture loss if the stuffing itself is moist. However, if the stuffing is dry it sucks moisture out of the bird, making it even drier.