You've bought your Thanksgiving turkey, dutifully thawed it a few days in advance, brined it, dried it, rubbed it with butter, tucked some fresh herbs inside the cavity, and nestled it snug in its roasting pan. Into the preheated oven it goes!
About halfway through the cooking process, you start to smell the unmistakable aroma of Thanksgiving: buttery, herby turkey juices bubbling away in the oven. Time to find your trusty turkey baster, which inevitably hasn't been used since last Thanksgiving. (Hint: It's shoved all the way in the back of your cutlery drawer, wedged in between your unused garlic press and those fondue forks.)
After so much careful planning and cooking, this is where you go wrong.
I know, your mother always basted her turkey, and so did her mother, and her mother before that, all the way back to the very first Thanksgiving. Before they even served pumpkin pie. But I'm here to break the cycle.
At best, basting is an unnecessary waste of time and energy. At worst, it might slow down the cooking process, or burn your knuckles on the oven door. Read on to learn why it's a bad idea, and what you should be doing instead.
Why Basting Turkey Doesn't Work
A perfect Thanksgiving turkey has tender, juicy meat and crisp, golden skin. Here's how basting gets in the way of that platonic ideal:
- Basting, or pouring hot pan juices over the turkey, adds moisture to the skin, which prevents it from crisping up nicely.
- Basting doesn't add any flavor to the meat either. The juices usually run right off the bird back into the roasting pan.
- And every time you open the oven door – which, for obsessive basters is often – you let heat escape, which lowers the oven temperature and can prolong the overall cooking time. As any seasoned Thanksgiving host knows, timing is everything on this food-focused holiday. No one wants to sit down for a turkey dinner at 9 p.m. because the bird took too long to cook.
This year, resist the urge to baste. There are plenty of other cooking tasks to keep your hands busy. Chop some celery for cornbread dressing, whip some heavy cream for the apple pie, or force yourself to sit down with a glass of wine and enjoy that heavenly turkey aroma.
ANTONIS ACHILLEOS; PROP STYLING: AUDREY DAVIS; FOOD STYLING: EMILY NABORS HALL
Tips For Crispy Skin
Toss out the turkey baster and try these tricks for crispy skin instead.
Dry the skin before baking
You need to thoroughly pat your turkey dry before putting it in the oven. This is especially true if you wet brined it the day before, as any excess moisture will prevent the skin from crisping.
Go the extra mile and air-dry your turkey the day before Thanksgiving. To air-dry, you'll still pat the turkey dry with a paper towel, but transfer it to a baking sheet with a rack and let it sit uncovered overnight in the fridge. This little bit of forethought helps dry out the skin better than just patting it dry will.
Rub the skin with fat
Fat is going to help the skin get brown and crisp, and contrary to what most might think, butter isn't better. Butter does an okay job, but contains water, which as noted above, impedes crisping.
Oil, which doesn't contain water, is a better fat to rub on the skin to ensure it gets extra crispy, even if it is less flavorful. Plus, oil is liquid at room temperature, making it easy to distribute all over the turkey.
Even better? Try using mayo. It has the flavor you want from butter, but contains the oil needed to achieve ultra crispy skin.
Dane Tashima; Food Stylist: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Stylist: Christina Daley
Loosely cover the turkey with foil
It's pretty standard practice to cover your bird with foil while it rests, but that foil traps in steam making that perfectly crisp skin you worked so hard for go limp.
Instead, very loosely tent the turkey leaving plenty of space for steam to escape. You can even skip the foil altogether, the bird will still be plenty warm by the time you carve.
This article was written by Lisa Cericola from Southern Living and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.
