minutes per pound? [Cooking]

2012 Dec 14
Ok, I never ever cook by minutes per pound. I put meat in the oven, and cook it till it's done the way we like. I tend to use sense of smell more than anything when cooking. For example, "Mmm! Smells good, I think I need to baste that bird!"

And, because other than milking my cows twice per day, there are no crazy scheduling issues in our household so I never need to try and have a meal ready for a specific time.

So my problem? I've got an 18lb pasture raised turkey that I need to serve on Christmas Day by about 2:30pm. I'd like to cook the stuffing separate, so we get more gravy. Years and years ago, I tried to cook a turkey by minutes per pound and it took something ridiculous like 7 hours and it was a tiny turkey of about 13 pounds, and it still wasn't done. So, I'm hesitant to google the answer like I did last time.

Any suggestions? What temp, and how many minutes per pound? It will be fully thawed, and brined when it goes in the oven.

2012 Dec 14
OK here are my tips for turkey:
1. Ignore the minutes per pound rule and invest in a good meat thermometer, preferably one with a probe that lets you read the temperature without opening the oven door.
2. the more you open the oven door, the more the temperature drops and although the meat will eventually cook, temperature inconsistencies will affect your result.
3.Basting is not necessary if you put a good coating of oil, butter, or duck or goose fat on the bird before it goes in the oven.
4. If it's a bird with a huge breast, it sometimes helps to cook it breast side down to retain the juices, then invert it near the end of the cooking time.

2012 Dec 14
organicgirl My Joy of Cooking book is my bible but it is at home right now and I am not-;) FWIW I usually cook a turkey breast at 325 degrees, 20 minutes per pound. For larger birds I would cook them same temp but 15 minutes per pound. For a bird your size I would cook it for 4.5 hours.

2012 Dec 14
The rule I always use is 20/20/20 - 20 minutes to start the bird @ 425, 20 minutes per lb at 350, 20 minutes standing before I carve. I also don't baste, I put butter under the skin and a lot of bacon over the top. It doesn't give you crispy skin though, if that's what you're after.

While we're on the topic though, talk to me about brining. I've never done it - what does it do, and how should I do it?

2012 Dec 14
Excellent tips! Thanks! Now I have more questions though.

I'll see if I can find a meat thermometer. I'm sure Hendrix in Brockville will have what I need. What internal temp am I looking for?

I've thought about cooking breast side down, and other than presentation or skin, any reason I can't leave it breast sidedown? Am I right in thinking the back skin won't be as nice as the breast skin?

We generally only baste our chickens, because I often put them in the oven frozen and last minute so no way to add fat under the skin, and because my kids really like basting chicken, lol! Last time we did a turkey, (and it was without time constraints) we added bacon fat to the skin, so no basting.

Why would a larger turkey need less time per pound? Or did I read that wrong?

And as for brining, there are a few threads on here about it. The way we like best was this: We put our bird in a coleman cooler, added local organic cranberries, organic apricots, cardamon, and I think some allspice. Oh, and salt. I'll have to find the thread that gave me a guideline for how much salt to add. Left the cooler in our mudroom which is the temp of the average fridge this time of year!

We let it brine for about 36 hours or so, then stuffed it with this crazy stuffing my husband made that had homemade bread crumbs from a loaf he specifically made for stuffing, bacon fat, cashews, sunflower seeds, then we roasted it. When we ate it, it was,,, it was like a mouthgasm with every bite.


2012 Dec 14
Brining helps keep your bird most, and can add flavour depending what you put in your brine. To do it go get a food safe container - I got great one from diy wine making place for $3. Google turkey brines, pick your favorite. Its basically water, salt and it goes from there. Stick turkey in brine over night, make sure to wash off before cooking. The idea is the salt water gets into the meat before cooking.

OG - Pasta lovers numbers are about right, but I've made many turkeys and timing varies for each bird. One year it was done 2 hours early, sometime its an hour late. I have no idea why, but I'm guessing its dependent on the bird. The thermometer is a must for turkey.

2012 Dec 14
You can get a decent thermometer at Loblaws, it has a heat protected cable and is reasonably priced. 4.5 hours at 325 should do the trick. You're looking for 180 in the thigh and 170 in the breast.

2012 Dec 14
Minutes per pound is a good rough guide but I always go by temp.

The minutes per pound from Joy of Cooking have always put me in the right ballpark from the smallest chicken to the biggest turkey.

2012 Dec 14
My go-to for all things like this is Delia Smith, and her advice is:

For a 15-20 lb (6.75-9 kg) turkey:
Cook for 45 minutes then reduce the temperature to gas mark 3, 325°F (170°C) and cook for a further 4-5 hours. Then give it a final 30 minutes (uncovered) at gas mark 6, 400°F (200°C).

www.deliaonline.com

Question: why do we still use fahrenheit for cooking?

2012 Dec 14
I use fahrenheit for indoor temps but celcius for outdoor - figure that one out! And I don't really understand either of them in the opposite system in that context

2012 Dec 14
I have used the loblaws PC thermometer too, and it works well. I think you will need to go higher than 325 for at least part of the cooking to crisp the skin. I guess you could leave it breast side down, but I am a big fan of presenting a bird with lovely crisp brown skin.

2012 Dec 14
Just got a bunch of caul fat back from my pigs today. I'm sure going to try that on the turkey this year!

I also love the idea of presenting that big beautiful perfectly browned turkey, blubarry but meal time with our kids is sometimes like feeding a pack of coyotes. The presentation is lost on them, and if the bird gets to the table with the skin still on, it will be a Christmas miracle! ;-)

2012 Dec 15
I also go by temperature. For turkey, an in oven probe is gold. I do 30 minutes at 400, then run at 325 till the breast is 161. Let rest for 30 minutes. A 15 pound bird unstuffed takes about 3 hours. Plan for it to come out early and tent with foil. It will hold temp for at least an hour.

My instruction come from Alton browns good eats.

Also in my opinion brining adds very little if you cook it correctly, but goes a long way to cover mistakes.

I put apples, onions, and lemons in the cavity.

2012 Dec 24
I'm curious how you've brined before hungry hungry hippo - i.e. what method you've used. And do you add spices to anything you cook, or are they all just to cover up mistakes? To me brining makes an enormous difference, and I think everyone I've ever fed it to agrees. Even if you all you do is brine with salt - but even better add some other stuff in there too and let their flavours get drawn into the bird.

Here is a video I did a while back on how to do it. Use 1/4 cup pickling salt per 2 litres water for a light brine. 48 hours. I like a tablespoon or so of ground pepper in there, and whatever other green herbage you think goes with poultry.


2012 Dec 24
We put our 18 pounder in the coleman cooler this morning before milking. We added apricots, cranberries, cardamon, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and of course salt to our brine. I also added a scoop of honey for kicks, after reading a recipe that zym posted somewhere about turkey brine.

Got me one of those fancy pants oven thermometers too, where I can check the temp without opening our oven. Tomorrow we'll drape the caul fat over it before putting it in the oven. I'm hungry already!!!

2012 Dec 24
BTW what I'm getting at is that I believe if you think the brining is just for covering up mistakes, there is a good chance you are adding too much salt. Between my last post and this one I recorded another video that I'll post shortly. 1/4 cup salt per 2 litres of water and it is pretty much impossible to over-salt it. When done properly you should not really get a salt flavour. Sort of like anything else you add salt to - it should be subtle and just enough to bring out other flavours.

2012 Dec 24
I get a different meaning out of what hungy hungry hippo says about "covering mistakes" ...

I don't think it's about taste (salty or otherwise), I think it's about cooking time. From my personal experience cooking brined and unbrined chicken (I never have enough people to feed to cook turkey), while overcooking 15 minutes can make a big difference in an unbrined chicken, a brined one will probably be fine even if you overcook it an hour. It will fall apart a bit, but the meat won't be dry. And, to me, that's a good reason to brine poultry.

2012 Dec 26
Here is the bird that is going onto the Kamado today


2012 Dec 26
Here is a picture of our bird draped in caul fat:

2012 Dec 26
And here it is out of the oven, slightly eaten of course!

2012 Dec 26
Isabelle got it. Brining makes it easier to achieve a juicy bird, but I find a properly cooked bird equally juicy and tasty... Just harder to achieve.