How to make a Classic Pumpkin Roll & How to Brine a Turkey

Talk about entertaining. We got that. Whatever fits today, tomorrow, whatever fits there.

There is definitely time. And via Vittles, what were you going to ask about the gluten-free? I'm not sure if that's—

No, I think about the pies that came up earlier. What happened to the pies?

What time will you be arriving at my house to cook dinner? Actually, we're cooking today and tomorrow. Well, actually, we're not cooking today. I'm making the dessert today. But tomorrow we'll be finishing up. We're going to dry brine a turkey today. And I'll also go over wet brining. And wet brining is actually a little— I don't want to say it's easier to do. It's faster to do wet brining a turkey. Dry brining is the new way we're doing it. And it provides you with some options that you don't get with wet brining. And that is like taking up as much space because you've got to put it in something big enough for all the liquid to dry.

My turkey's ready. My turkey's ready. So I can't wait.

Oh, to dry brine?

I don't know. I, I maybe dry. Yeah, dry.

Really, you should dry brine for 2 to 3 days. Okay.

Oh, okay.

I mean, 1 day is going to get some flavor in it, but it, it's actually, it's just a little bit better of a way to brine now, they're finding. Or people, you know, it's, it's up for discussion, you know.

But is the point flavor or tender, tenderizing?

Flavor. And tenderizing, and actually you're, you're absorbing. The important thing to get it to cook is it's absorbing the salt and it's bringing the moisture out. It's kind of embedding itself in there with some other seasonings. Now there's some tricks to roasting that we're going to go over tomorrow that really makes your turkey come out a lot better, and the biggest one of them being you roast it upside down for an hour.

Oh yes.

And remember, when you're storing your turkey now, if you've got your turkey in the refrigerator, if you're going to dry brine it today, we're going to store it upside down for part of the time.

Okay.

And the actual— the other thing about dry brining is, is when you put your turkey in, and you'll see conflicting ways of doing this, and again, you know, this is my first time really dry brining, so you're learning with me. But what I've read is the fact that you dry brine and you leave it open in your refrigerator. Now, again, if you got other stinky stuff in your refrigerator, you know, you don't want to have them in there sharing the space like fish or something that's going to transfer flavors to your turkey. But the idea with leaving it open is the skin completely dries out.

Good to know, because first of all, I have two refrigerators. You know, many of us have a second one in the garage. I have a second small one in the basement. So that's my turkey refrigerator. I'm going to be the hit of the— my turkey is going to be the talk of the town.

Talk of the town. Well, before we get moving on with the dry brining the turkey, let's make our pumpkin roll because I do have one ready to go. So let's make our ingredients for that. Get this in the oven so I can show you actually how it comes out, because that's the only really tricky part to this. So for my pumpkin roll, it's very simple. I'm going to start with 3 eggs. And put them in here. And these are organic pasture-raised eggs, but you know, use whatever you want to use. But these have a nice color to them. All right, so I'm going to whip these up and I'm going to add in the sugar. And this is going to beat for a couple minutes, so if you want to start giving us some ideas, this would be a great time.

Oh, sure, absolutely. Let me move my trusty camera.

I'm going to turn my volume down while we're doing that because because you don't have to.

Okay.

It's going to be for a few minutes.

And that's fine. And let's see. Here we— I had this mastered, but give me one second. Okay. You know what? This is fine. And I will— Okay. Enough of that. So here, what do we have here? So we have a— you know what? When we're preparing the table, you know, it's really nice to go outside and get some things from the yard. In my case, in this house, I had a big rose garden. And November is really the end of the roses. So before I really started my food prep, I just went outside and I picked the last of the roses. And you know what? You'd be surprised if you walk in your garden, you'll see all these random, wonderful flowers or branches and all that kind of thing. So definitely something to look for, take a good look. So then I put them in my garage and now they're cold. So they're cold overnight. And then, you know, some of them are buds, some of them won't bloom, but then, you know, you put them in different, even small little arrangements are lovely. This I did the day before, did the whole table the day before. And here, this is a kind of a setup where I did multiple tables. I think I had 25 people over for this particular Thanksgiving. So I had a table with the serving dishes and then I had the other tables and it was, it was kind of like a restaurant feeling, but it was definitely nice. Okay, let me get, keep that straight a little bit, a little crooked, but there we go. That's pretty good. Okay, now, you know, ideas for dining and entertaining. Here, this is a sofa. What you could do, believe it or not, is you could prop up your sofa to dining height. You put little blocks underneath it and then it can serve, it can absolutely serve as dining. Here I have some actually tree limbs that I went out in the back and just for something decorative. I hadn't decorated the wall yet. So, you know, get some nature, get some, some sticks and some branches and, you know, think of a primary color, bring up a color, you know, and if you're doing a buffet, have different heights. Different heights is always wonderful. Useful and beautiful items together. Again, go out and get those branches and oversized. When you're doing something oversized, it's really exciting. Lights, you know what, drape some lights all around, very spectacular. And Chef, you know I love black dishes. And a black background is great. Here's another primary color. And I mean, look at those chairs. Even, you know what? If you have chairs that are on the older side now, why not paint them a color? If they're kind of tired looking, paint them. Paint them a rainbow of colors or any color. You know, collections on the table. I really like that. I like that look. You know, a little glam, a little gold. Again, here's another lovely setting with a sofa, a little gold again, kind of, you know, make things more glam. Flowers! You deserve flowers in the kitchen. Get yourself a bunch of orchids. The kitchen should be beautiful. And now here's a look that's both casual and dressed up. We have the beautiful china, we have the oversized centerpieces, and then we have the casual table and with different, you know, casual seating too. Here's another look. Don't be shy, don't be, you know, put your good stuff together with your casual stuff and you will have a really chic looking table, I can tell you that. Another old chairs with beautiful china, oversized, you know, Chef, why not do a little flourish on the plates of something, somehow, just a little bit, you know.

Little art on the plate.

Little art on the plate, yeah. Again, oversized greenery. Now look at how the, you have those runners face the opposite direction. So also little chairs like this, you know, use them for your dining. They don't have to be gorgeous, expensive chairs. Oversized lighting fixture. Look at that runner in the middle. It's made of burlap. It's beautiful. Beautiful. And look at the flowers in the mason jars. Doesn't have to be fabulous and expensive. Let's not forget the wine. We have, you know, lots of wine racks, even very, very small wine refrigerators. Art, bring your art into the kitchen. Make the kitchen a warm, welcoming living area. And also again, the fancy and the casual. Again, here the greens, they just do it up. So these are some ideas. And again, this is one of the last ones, you know, get your kids involved, get the kids involved, have them do paintings and pictures and put them on the chairs. They are so excited to participate. And there we go. Those are the tips.

Great ideas. You know, anything to make your holiday a little more personal, a little more joyful, you know, and getting the kids involved is always a great way to do it. So we've got my eggs whipped up and they're nice and fluffy. So now I'm going to add in my pumpkin to this. And I did put a link to the recipe early on in the beginning.

Okay, quick question. The eggs, What speed did you mix them on and for how long?

A medium-high, probably about 3 minutes on a mixer. Just enough to whip them up, get them nice and fluffy. And we're making a sponge, basically. So that is why I wanted to get some air into them. And then I'm just mixing the pumpkin in. I'm going to take this out. Just make sure I got the pumpkin mixed in a little bit. Just wanted to give it a head start. You could just mix it by hand. And then I'm going to add in, I have my flour and this is gluten-free, it's Chef Bob's blend. And I have some salt, some baking powder, some baking soda, and actually I'm using pumpkin pie spice again. Rather than mix them all up, because you know, that's kind of the flavor I want. If you've never had a pumpkin roll, a pumpkin roll was just amazing. And part of it's because you're using a cream cheese frosting in the center.

Oh yeah.

So I blended up my spices and my flour just so they get nice and combined. And then at this point, I'm just going to kind of mix them in. You know, I don't want to, I don't want to whip them hard. I don't want to get this flour— now, if this was gluten flour, we all know that overmixing regular flour is what makes it more like bread and tough. I would not have the same problem with a gluten-free flour, but you know, this is I don't want the eggs to break up by overmixing the flour into them. I want to try and keep them light.

Yeah, that's an important step. And we have a question. Is it better to use the whip attachment for the eggs or is the paddle okay too?

Paddle's okay. I— when I— that'll be about the only time I use a whip. Like if I was making a cake, I wouldn't use a whip. Most people tend to go that way, but you want to use the paddle. But when I'm whipping up eggs and sugar, I want to try and get as much air into them., and I want to get them to expand. So that is when I, I really go to the wire whip at that point. If I was doing them by hand, I would use the whip. I just figured this was faster today. So I have my sheet pan. Let's move this over, give you an idea. All right, now I've got a little butter, and I put a, a piece of, uh, parchment down because you really need to get this out of the pan quick and easy. And you really need the parchment for this. Even if you greased it and buttered it, it's not going to be enough. You really want to use a piece of parchment for this. And I'm buttering it rather than spraying it because it is Thanksgiving and we like butter. But you could spray it, you know, if you really are opposed to it and you want to keep it. You just want to make sure that this peels off nicely. And, you know, and you could even overlap this a little bit. It's not going to hurt. But I like to try and get the edges good on this, too. So now I've got it greased. My batter goes in. And if you see a couple spots with a little flour, that's okay. We're going to work it in. So it's not a lot of batter. It really isn't. And at first looks, you might think, you know, it's really not.

Yeah, that, that is my first impression.

But this is all you need because we're going to make a roll with it and we're going to stuff the center with some wonderful cream cheese.

Nice.

So once I have this, I have an offset spatula that makes life a whole lot easier.

I think that's the one tool I don't have. I bet you could use that for all kinds of things. Oh yeah.

It's great for icing a cake, for anything that you need to smooth out. And this will be a little bit forgiving when it comes out because you are going to roll it. And I did cut my other one sort of to shape, you know, I don't cut anything straight, so this one I just folded. So I'm going to even it out the best I can, get rid of all the rest of the batter, scoop that in there. Okay, so that's in there pretty good. Now I'm just— oh, I saw one spot that isn't going to go down.

Let me get that.

You don't want holes in it. Okay, all right, so now I'm just gonna flatten it out a little bit. Now this is going to go in the oven for— we're going to start at 13 minutes.

Oops.

All right, and while we're doing that, I'm going to rinse out my thing, my, uh, pan real quick and make the frosting for it, and then we're going to put it together. Easy, easy, easy.

And so will that end up about, say, a half inch thick.

Yes, it isn't going to rise a whole lot. And again, this one we're making with gluten-free flour, and I made the other one regular, so we'll see how it rises. Uh, Chef Bob's mix is pretty good. It's a 1-for-1, so it does— it did work pretty well on some other things I've done, so we'll see how it does on this. All right, so now We're gonna make our frosting, and I'm making a cream cheese frosting, and I'm also gonna put some mascarpone. And I'm making more than I need because I have 2 of these, so I am making a double batch. Hopefully that'll be more than enough, but if not, I can always whip up a little bit more.

Okay, let me ask you this. Is this by any chance a make-ahead dessert?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it'll hold up well in the refrigerator, uh, not a problem with that. In fact, the one we're taking today is Tuesday, so it's going to sit for 2 days, won't be a problem.

Oh good.

One last step, you know, you finish your decorating when you take it, which is just dusting it with some more powdered sugar, and that's really all. You know, you wouldn't do that ahead of time because, you know, it's going to sink in. You would actually take it to your destination if it isn't here, if it's traveling. Powder sugar it there and make it look pretty. And this is also the basis too, we'll be making a bûche noël later this, uh, before Christmas too. And this is basically the same kind of thing we're going to do when we make that. So where is my— oh, here it is right in front of me, couldn't find it. All right, so let's whip this up a little bit. I'm going to let this whip up a little bit because I want this to get a little bit fluffy on me. Now I'm using the blade, not the whip, because this would be— I don't want it to get— it'll get stuck in there, it'll get whipped a little too fine. I want the stuff, the frosting, to be a little bit fluffy, but I don't want it to break down.

Okay, so right now that is butter and the cheese.

Yeah, it's butter, it's Marscapone and cream cheese.

And are you putting sugar in it?

Yes, I am. I'm just letting it whip a little first before I add the sugar in, because once you want to get the air into the butter a little bit before you add anything else into it, and that's nice. Okay, so now I'm putting in— so that was about 8 ounces of Marscapone, 8 ounces of cream cheese, and if you were using all cream cheese, again, that's fine. And remember, this is a double batch, and about 6 tablespoons of butter. And now I'm putting in 2 cups of 10X or, uh, confectioner's sugar. And don't turn it on fast because that's what happens.

That's right.

You think I would know that? But everything changes when you're on camera.

Oh, that looks That's great. You know, that's what's the best about baking. You know, it's even before it's done. It's just the, you know, the experience and the textures and the little spoon, you know, little bites.

Oh, absolutely. I am definitely going to taste this. Just a couple other things I want to add to it. I want to add a drop of vanilla in. And I have some nice fresh oranges.

I like oranges.

Like, I'll put a lot of vanilla in because I don't want it to get dark, and that's really the reason. All right, we have a zester here. Let me just take this off for a second.

Now I'm also kind of wondering, is it because of the butter and the cheese Is that— do you think it would be best to serve at room temperature?

The cake?

Yeah.

No, not really. You can. I mean, like, you can refrigerate it, then take it out and put it on a— put it out for a couple hours. Isn't going to hurt it.

I didn't know if it would be too hard. No, the butter and the cream and the cheese.

Cream cheese frosting shouldn't get that, that hard if you make it. Right, but you can always let it sit a little bit. Usually when you slice it and you serve it, that's enough time for it to soften up. All right, so that should be it.

Wow.

Oh, I'm dying now because I use Mars Capone. It has a little softer flavor. Okay, it's not— you can taste that little hint of orange, it was perfect. But it doesn't have like a cream cheese frosting, a lot of times has that real cream cheesy flavor, which is wonderful, don't get me wrong. But this one with adding the mascarpone in just kind of changes it a little bit. But again, you know, if you wanna use all cream cheese, if you wanna use light cream cheese, you can do that too. All right. So that's that.

You wouldn't use yogurt and—

and no, not this, because it's not going to thicken the same way.

It's not.

You need this to, to be a frosting consistency, and yogurt is just too runny, and it really isn't going to do what you want it to do. It'll be more messy. It's a great idea if they— they do have Greek yogurt cream cheese bars.

Oh, really?

I have seen them. I haven't used them yet, but it's part Greek yogurt and it looks like cream cheese. So, all right. So now, boom, we got that. I got 7 minutes till that one comes out. All right. So let's, I'm gonna prep this because I'm afraid it'll come out before. So here's a towel. It's a brand new towel, but you know, if you use a clean one, Now I'm getting ready for my cake to come out, so I'm going to take powdered sugar and I am going to hit this entire towel with powdered sugar, and that's so the cake doesn't stick to it when it comes out. And it's not overly sweet from it. If you would think it is, it's not.

That's a great use of confectioner's sugar.

Absolutely. And, you know, I have one, I have two of these. I have one with cocoa and one with powdered sugar. Has a cover, sits in there whenever I need to garnish something, make it look pretty. They come out. If you want to use one with cinnamon, you could have a third with cinnamon. Okay, so I got a nice thick layer of powdered sugar. I'm just going to move this entire board And now we're going to come back to my cake. Now this is what's going to happen when it comes out of the oven. I'm going to take it off, I'm going to convert it, I'm going to turn it over, invert it right over— not convert it, invert it right over to the towel and roll it up. All right, so that's what's going to happen to it.

Wow.

Before I do that, I'm gonna get out another cutting board.

Okay, I just caught a look that you are the Barefoot Chef.

I'm barefoot. Yes, I'm in Florida.

Is that, is that typical? You, you, because I'm a barefoot, I am always barefoot in my house.

That is, that is, I'm sorry to say, typical.

Yeah, me too.

Agni uz weta does not have the, uh, the franchise on being barefoot. Barefoot in shorts, because after all, we are in Florida.

That's right.

And you know, the jacket— and there was a time, like when it was really hot, I was in one kitchen, and when my legs were really massive and really good-looking, I wore shorts all the time with my jacket. So now we're going to take this cream cheese frosting, and it looks like it's a good thing I doubled that recipe because I'm going to need it.

I mean, it spreads easily. Oh yeah, it's spreading easily. Uh-huh.

You know, again, if you want to try and put a thinner layer on, that's great.

Oh my gosh, that looks great. Wow.

All right, so you just want to spread this on nicely. And it's got that little hint of orange and you can't see it, but I can see the rind in it, a little zest. And this actually won't be ready to eat for a few hours anyway.

Oh, why? Why is that?

Well, you want to let it set up. We're going to roll it back up and you want it to hold its shape. Now this is definitely going to help it hold its shape because this is like glue.

Oh, true. Well, you wouldn't, you wouldn't go to all this trouble and then, and then, I mean, that would be too much pressure and then eat it right away anyway. That looks great. Wow.

So that's how that was. Now, now the only tricky part now is to take it. Yeah. Use the towel to turn it. Okay. Oh my gosh. And just— almost like making sushi.

Yeah. Oh, that looks like so much fun. Oh, beautiful. Wow.

Okay. Look at that.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

There's not a lot of cream cheese frosting in here. You could make it a little bit more if you wanted to. We could have used it all and put a real nice layer, but I think that's enough. I mean, again, it's cake. You don't want to kill yourself with frosting. And I need plastic wrap.

Okay, now the recipe— where did you put the recipe? Is it further up on the beginning of our show? That's at the beginning of the messages.

Yeah, and just remember that I did double the frosting and it looks like I really needed it. Keep that in mind. And I'm used to having a full-size plastic wrap, so I'm just gonna kind of go in and, you know, restaurant size, which is 18-inch, which would have covered this really well.

I'm trying to think how— how— now is— oh, you said you would only put the confectioner's sugar on when you're about to serve it.

Yeah, because what's going to happen is it's going to soak in, especially when it's cold. Once it's like right now, it's, it's great and it would hold up really well. It would look good on it. You can see the powder still hanging on it, but once it gets cold and the cake gets moist, which is what's going to happen, it's going to soak it all up. Okay, we'll be putting it on and putting it on and it'll just keep soaking it up. So that being said, you want to do it right before service. Okay, and that way it'll look pretty. Or, you know, if you want to serve it with some fresh whipped cream— tomorrow I'm going to candy some cranberries. You could serve it with fresh whipped cream and some candied cranberries. And that's it. Now, the only thing you need to do now is when you put it away, you want to have something— this is barely going to be big enough.

That looks— I, you know, I'm excited. That looks so much fun. And, you know, when you do Thanksgiving year after year after year after year, sometimes it's really nice to introduce something else that's fun to cook, fun to do, and that, especially if it's something you, you know, you don't do normally.

Well, this is, yeah, this is a little out of the— remember that your towel had powdered sugar on it too, so shake it out over the sink. So here's my second one. Let's see how the cake is. Cake looks good. It didn't rise quite as much as the other one did, but it's pretty close. It's not like you're going to get a big rise out of it anyway. My glasses just fogged up. Let's get them unfogged. All right, so what I'm going to do is I'm going to not set it there. I'm gonna— I'm just gonna run a knife through it, let it cool just a A few seconds while I run a knife around.

Okay, I had a thought.

Yes.

I mean, you know, I don't know if this is good, bad, or indifferent, but I don't know, I was thinking, could you put a very thin layer of, say, raspberry preserves?

Absolutely.

On top of the— I mean, on top, maybe on top of the cream cheese?

Absolutely.

So then you have some more color too.

Absolutely, yeah, you can put anything else in the center that you want. Alright, so right now I'm going to do is flip it. Wow.

Boom.

And I could have let it cool just a few minutes longer, so it was pretty hot. That's why I flipped it the way I did. This just comes right off. Alright, so now this is all powdered sugar. Remember that.

Okay, we have a question. How do you have to let the cake cool or warm, or you do it when it's warm?

Gotta do this while it's hot.

While it's hot. Okay.

If you let it sit, it's gonna get flat and it's gonna crack. All right, so this has gotta be a process that you do while it's hot.

Great question.

Okay, so see how I'm rolling this up very carefully, slowly. Nice. And now I made a mistake. I had it rolled— the other one rolled up, and I started to turn my back, and it was unrolling, and it was going right off the counter. It really sucked, so I caught it in time.

Wow.

So it's not going towards me now. Yeah, you roll it up, and now I have a wire rack And I'm going to carefully transfer it to wire rack, and I'm going to put it to cool. So it's going to cool like this. And the one that you saw me roll came out of the oven at about 10 o'clock, 10:15. So it cooled for a little over an hour before I put it in. So now this is just going to go over the counter. So that's, that's a pumpkin roll, plain and simple.

Well, that looks great and looks like a lot of fun, and it's certainly delicious.

Okay, so let's get this out of the way. We'll have to make up some more frosting, but that's all right. Frosting is a good problem to have for this cake, and we will be having a gluten-free one, so I'm excited about that for Kristen and for Chef Bob and for all the other people that come over. Nice. And that's just— it was a cup for cup. Chef Bob's mixture is a cup for cup flour that just works by interchanging it. And with things like this, like the pumpkin, and even my pumpkin crunch cake, there is not a lot of flour in them. So these are some of the easiest things to change over because of that. So, all right, so you saw I just put a little blue thing under here so it doesn't slide. Because it was fighting pretty much. All right, so now let me clear some space and we're going to bring out the turkey, the big guy. So I, I did go to Whole Foods and it was crazy expensive, but you know, proteins are probably one of the most serious items you need to buy that are good for you, like free-range. And free-range can be a tricky word sometimes. And I'm not, I'm not sponsoring Whole Foods or saying you need to get it there. There's a lot of great farmers. And somebody asked me where I got it and I said, well, I got it at Whole Foods because I was there. They had turkeys and life is just needs to be a little easier. And I didn't have time to run out.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I ordered a turkey from my CSA. Yeah.

So this is No, if you've got a place where you can get a nice free-range turkey, no, by all means. Even I think it's Costco's or Sam's is selling— wasn't BJ's because I was at BJ's— uh, is selling, uh, free-range turkeys too. And they were, I think they were $2.99 a pound. This one was, I think, $4.99 a pound. So, you know, big difference, especially, you know, when you get 15 pounds, that's 30— got $2, $30.

I know, I know.

So with this, I'm going to unbind the legs. You're free. You're free.

Take it.

I'm going to do this back in the sink because there's blood.

Well, that's the other thing. I mean, there's, there's a lot of pressure because when you buy these good turkeys, you know, they're expensive. I didn't even look to see how much mine was. It's a 17-pounder. And I also bought a breast. I bought a large boneless turkey breast. I think I'm going to sous vide that. And then, you know, do the traditional bigger turkey so I have enough, enough for sandwiches.

Yeah, well, this is getting cooked. Like I said, we're going out to dinner to a friend's house, so I'm making this. But you know, you gotta have leftovers even if you do go out.

Oh yeah, absolutely. I always buy so much more turkey than I need.

So I took the little gizzards where it's rump there. I took them out. I'm just rinsing it out. And make sure you clean up well. Oh, nice big heart there. You clean up well when you're done.

Now, I think when I take those things out, I use them for my stock.

Yeah, well, I'm going to use the gizzards for stuffing. I will use the heart and the neck for stock because I like putting them in, in my stuffing. But that's all a matter of taste. And if not, definitely put them in your stock. Let's bring this back here.

I think if my kids knew what I was putting into the stock, I think they would, you know, say forget it. But what they don't know can't hurt them.

No, what they don't know. And definitely, just like for years, you know, Lisa doesn't eat beans. And she doesn't always read my blog. So I was pureeing beans when I put them in soup. So it pureed, it makes them thick, it adds flavor, and people that don't say they don't like beans eat them unaware. It's not like she was allergic to them or anything.

Yeah, yeah.

And then she, one day she did read that post.

So no, that's fair game, fair game.

So I'm drying this baby off a little bit. I just want to get moisture off of him. But now, it wouldn't matter.

Okay, let me, let me ask you, you know, many people are getting their turkeys today or tomorrow. So, so then you would say unwrap it and sit it in the refrigerator so the skin gets dry.

If you're going to brine it, if you're going to dry brine.

Oh, if you're going to dry, right.

If you don't want to dry brine it, that's okay too. But I would take it out of the package at least just a day before. It doesn't have to be too long. It can be Wednesday night before you go to bed. Wash it off, pat it down, and what you want to do if you're not going to do anything else is you want to try and get into the skin here and get your fingers—

yep—

in here.

All right.

Yep. Let's open this up. Here a little bit.

Put some butter in there, right?

Absolutely. So I'm going to get my hand in here, just open it up. And you could put some of your dry brine in here too if you want. And actually, I guess the best thing to do would be if you want to really— you don't want to fool with the brining at all, doing this is going to be a big help. I am going to see— where is my rubber spatula? I don't know what's in there. I'm not going in my drawers with poultry all over my fingers. Okay, yeah, that's a good point. Let's bring that up. All right, I'm using my hands in here in poultry that can cause a good deal of contamination if I don't clean up properly. All right, so this is where a lot of people will just go into their drawers, get something else without thinking, and you're cross-contaminating quite a bit. So make sure everything you need is out before you go back in your drawers, or have someone else go get it. And by all means, wash your hands really well before you go back. Okay, I do have some butter cut laying back here, so I'm just going to take some butter at this point and I'm going to get it in here. I'm gonna butter up my breast here.

Yeah, you know, you are manhandling that turkey, and I've always been so gentle when I've gone under the skin. I said, oh no, I'm going to rip it.

Well, you can. This is, this is a tough bird of the skin anyway. Yeah, that's what meat is. Uh, and I have ripped it, but if I was doing this, I'd be a little more careful, but because we're filming this, I want to get it done. All right, all right, so we got that in there nice and buttered. Got about maybe 2 tablespoons on each side. All right, wash off.

Nice.

And all these towels and everything will go right into the wash. I do keep bleach around just for this occasion. I don't use a lot of bleach, and this is— poultry is one reason too. All right, so that's done. All right, now I'm going to make up a little bit of my—

so did you, um, put the butter into the legs? Also?

I did not. Dark meat doesn't always need it. If you want to, by all means you can. Legs tend to, you know, turkey legs are kind of like, you got to eat them when it comes out. The turkey legs are not something you save for the next day because they get all stringy. But I did not. And part of the reason is that if you're going to definitely, unless you got really little hands and can get over there, tear the skin. But dark meat usually doesn't need this. But again, if you do it, that's great. It's, you know, no harm, no foul. You can do it. It's a good thing. So for my brine, I've got a couple tablespoons of kosher salt. Now, as crazy as it sounds, it is important what kind of salt you use. Uh, regular table salt's too fine. It's not going to do what you want it to do. So, you know, I see people that grind grind everything up. You really don't want to do that. You want to use the kosher. I've got a nice amount of black pepper, and then I've got some sage, some thyme, and I'm just going to mix this up. Now, you can be as creative with this as you like, right? And I'm actually going to go inside and do a little in, under the skin. Get some in here. I'm just throwing it in, kind of working it back. Now, that being said, if you want to make a compound butter and mix your butter up with all these spices in, then you can get away with—

oh, that's a great idea. Yep.

So one-stop shopping on that. All right, so let's get that all in. Now we're just gonna rub this down. Inside, out. Now again, a dry brine should sit for at least 2 days. This is only going to be a 1-day dry brine for me. Because we're going to cook it tomorrow. But you guys have time to dry brine it. You're not going to cook your turkey until Thursday, more than likely. So that's enough time for us to sit. 2 days isn't bad. 1 day is the bare minimum. 2 days is good. 3 days is better. But all things being equal, it's fine. Now, you don't want to dry brine. If you want to wet brine, that's fine too. And we're going to wet brine, and we would use considerably more salt, use the same kind of spices in here. And again, you can be as creative as you want with the seasonings that you're going to brine it with, and about a gallon of water. Okay, so the difference here comes with the wet brine is that you're putting in— into— you're going to submerge this and you can either get a bucket, like go to the grocery store and find a bucket your turkey will fit in. That's kind of the easiest way. Or get one of those roasting bags that are good for brining. You know, I don't always advocate using them, but, you know, if you've roasted in a bag, that's fine too. I did for years. But put it in one of those roasting bags, put the liquid in there, then tie it up.

Now, what would you say is the concept of brining? Is it, is it salt? Is it herbs? Is it, is it sweet or is it combination?

You could put sugar in this as well. I didn't. You know, when I used to roast ducks, we used to rub the inside of them with brown sugar. And they said that was whether it was an old wives' tale or not, that drew some of the fat out. But you can combine the brine, the dry brine or the wet brine. Can be anything you want it to be, and it can be sugar. You know, sugar is not a bad item to add into it. It can be salt. Now, the main ingredient is salt. Now, if you buy a kosher turkey, do not brine it because it's already soaked in salt.

Okay. But I'm nervous about too much salt. How much is too much?

Well, if you're going to wet brine, I think we use about 6 tablespoons to a gallon.

Okay.

Okay, I use 2 tablespoons on this. If you're nervous about it, just do the skin. Don't go inside the cavity. Okay, and take your other herb concentration up a little heavier. It's not gonna hurt.

There you go. Okay.

Salt does break down the protein a little bit. No, we don't really rinse the bird after brining. It's going to be cooked. You can rinse it off a little bit, but you really wouldn't rinse it off too much. Actually, you pat it dry. If you're going to wet brine the last 12 hours, you want to take it out of the brine, pat it dry, and sit it inside the refrigerator so it'll dry out a little bit. But, you know, you can rinse it. It's not a big deal if you want to rinse it off because actually it's not on the outside, it's going on the inside. So that's fine too. All right, so when this is done, now we're going to set it to sit and store for a while. Okay, and this is going to be actually how I roast it too, but while I'm letting it rest, that's where it's going, upside down. Okay, so this is how it's going to sit in my refrigerator. It's not going to have any protective covering on it. It's just going to sit like this so it'll dry out a little bit more. Now, about— see, tomorrow we're going to cook at 12. So maybe about 8:00 I'll flip it over and I'll let the top dry out a little bit because like this it isn't going to dry out as much and it'll give it a few hours to dry. And then when I roast it though, I'm going to roast it upside down for the first hour. And what that does is that's pushing all the juices down all the fat that's coming off of it. That's pushing it down into the breast. It's going to get your dark meat done more evenly because the dark meat generally takes a little bit longer than the white meat, and the breast will dry out while we're waiting for the dark meat to cook. So having it like this is also going to expose it to a little more heat right away, so it's going to get that jump start to help it cook a little quicker. Okay.

So are you up to the point where you want to talk about temperature, time and temperature?

For cooking?

Yeah.

Well, we're going to do that tomorrow when we cook it.

Okay.

But, you know, it's— there's, you know, ratio of per pounds and we can get into that for temperature. And there's all kinds of theories on cooking, on, you know, giving it a quick hot blast with all meats. And then turn it down and let it slow roast. I don't think that matters as much anymore as we used to think it did, but a lot of people still advocate doing that. But I think the big, the big changing point in roasting your turkey is the fact that you're going to roast it upside down for an hour, right? Generally going to take, you know, or an hour and a half. I would say split the time. If your turkey is going to take 3.5 hours, 4 hours to roast, I would leave it down for an hour and a half then and let it, let it just soak. And letting it sit like this will help a lot more than you think it will because the thing's going to start to— everything's going to go down below. It's going to drain below, you know. And every time we get a turkey, it's always face up. So it's been all that time with all the blood going down to the bottom.

I have never done that before, and I'm going to do it Thursday, right?

You will absolutely love it. Now, when we roast this tomorrow, we're going to stuff the turkey with some vegetables, fruit, and herbs. So that's going to change it. I'm not going to put stuffing in it because, you know, again, I love stuffing that way. But the other thing that it does besides, you know, you know how the stuffing's always so tasty and juicy coming out of that turkey? Well, it's sucking some of the juice out of the turkey. Okay, because bread absorbs.

Wow, that makes sense.

It's pulling some of the juice out of there, so you're like forcing it. And you know, even if you take a sponge and just lay it in water, eventually it's gonna soak up all the water that's around it. So it's the same thing with this. You're sticking it in an oven with bread inside. Well, it's whether the turkey wants to give you the juice or not, it's gonna give it to you. So I'm gonna stuff it with some fruit, and like I said, some herbs and some vegetables. We'll see what I feel like I come up with. So again, this is a matter of what you want to put in there yourself, and that's going to add some aromatics to it. As it cooks, the aromatics will come through it. It'll make the house smell wonderful on top of it, but it's also going to flavor the bird a little bit from the inside. So that's a good thing. But the big thing is this, and then after it cooks— now this is where you're going to really need to be careful.— and this is where you may, if you have some of those heatproof gloves, it's a good thing. If you have good rubber gloves, you could try putting 3 on each hand or as many as you can get on while they still hold up. Because when we used to do, we'd throw hot plates in the oven and they'd get like really, really hot. And we would see how many gloves we could fit on our hand to numb them up a bit. So when we're handling these really hot plates, because we got nothing besides, you know, that we can't use towels. We're just handling hot plates. So you want to try that or, you know, use— don't be afraid to get 2 kitchen towels. And when you take it, be very careful not to turn juice and use 2 kitchen towels to turn it over. And then when you turn it over to cook, you know, then we're going to get nice and toasty on top. So, you know, be— have a plan.

Yes, have a plan. Yep.

Have a plan. Don't take it out of the oven and go, Well, now what? And while you're busy and crazy, you don't have a plan and you're going to burn yourself. You're going to ruin the bird. You're going to tear it out, ruin it, but you're going to tear it. It's going to fall. It's going to get, you know, it's not going to be beautiful. So have a plan. And I said, best case, worst case scenario, 2 kitchen towels. Okay. And just wash them, you know, put them aside, throw them in the laundry so you can wash them later. You don't want to have them hanging around anymore after that.

I have these, these these turkey lifters, these turkey lifters, and they're metal. I have 2 of them and they have like 3, you know, you kind of go like that too, but it doesn't feel so steady. Sometimes I think just a, you know, potholder or towels. I feel that might be more secure.

I think your hands are the best way. And the reason I don't use potholders is because you're not going to want to throw them in the washer. You're going to want to keep them because you've got more stuff coming in and out of the oven. So you're just by nature gonna say, well, I'll wash them after we're done. All right, but with towels, you can take them, make sure you have enough of them on hand, and, and, uh, then just take them and throw them on the floor. You know, I do that a lot of times because then I know they're dirty. Okay, I throw— because I'm going to wash the floor when we're done cooking anyway, so I throw them on the floor if I if I'm not going to get to the laundry room, I'll throw them on the floor. And I tell you, when I'm— when I go to Sam's Club, those white towels you saw, I bought a pack of them. That's what I used to use at work all the time. There's 24 of them for like $12. So those are my kitchen towels for production. So, you know, I can use as many of them as I want and then throw them in the wash alone if I want to. If I'm doing— and I was the king of towels. I mean, I always had pack of towels because I don't— I use a towel once or twice, it goes, I get another towel. You know, it was just something I did. Yeah. Have you ever used a muslin bag? I have not. Let me tell you what else I saw though that sounded like a very interesting idea, Michael, was I think it was on this Today Show yesterday. Today Show yesterday, that's kind of an oxymoron, but the Today Show yesterday, and they had taken a cheesecloth and they had soaked it in butter and they had put that cheesecloth on top of the turkey and let that butter soak in. So I thought that was kind of interesting, although now, you know, I would put it under. If you put it under it, I don't think it's going to soak in. It's got to be turned over the other way then. So I thought that was— oh, and they baked it that way. That's right. They roasted it that way. So that might be something if you're feeling adventurous and want to try. Have you ever done an injected breast bird? I have not. I usually don't inject them, but I know some people do. And Susan, have you sous vide a turkey yet, or—

my first, uh, that's why I got two. I got a regular turkey to roast and I got a breast, the turkey breast, boneless turkey breast, which I will sous vide on Thursday.

All right, if anybody wants to join us, we have some time. You can come on in and ask your questions live. Just be respectful of the space is all I ever ask.

But it's great. I mean, I got some great tips for, you know, the bird I'm roasting.

Oh, Sebastian, come on in. Well, hello, how you doing? We're talking turkey, my friend. I know, I love it. I love it.

Are you cooking a turkey tomorrow? I mean, Thursday? You're eating. Oh, I wanted to do that. Have you had that before? Have you had it before? That's— wow.

Now, you know, yes, well, there's a new fryer though. I was asked about doing one for Char-Broil because I did some work for them, and I said, please don't send me a deep fryer because I'm never going to use it, or I'll use it just for the post I have to write. But actually, you don't— it's almost an oilless fryer. —there's a new technology for air frying and they actually have, and I've seen it in a smaller city, but Char-Broil has one, I guess, for turkeys. And I didn't know that when they were telling me this because I probably, probably would have only used it once anyway too. But you put a very small amount of oil in it and something— it's like the way the air— it's like a convection fryer or something. It uses almost no— Big Green Egg is wonderful. That's a whole other thing.

And you can roast— I've heard the of that.

Yeah, that's a whole other— that's a whole other show. But sounds good. All right, I'll see you later, my friend.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Gobble gobble. Yeah, I have never had a deep fried turkey, but I hear they are just phenomenal. But you know, you always see on the news that someone burned down their garage. Yes. Yeah.

Well, I have grilled mine several times and it was fantastic. It was really, really great.

Do you split them or you just— I did.

I had, I had the butcher butterfly it.

Okay. What's that called? Splat cock?

Yes. Yeah. And it was wonderful. You know, it's an indirect heating. So you put the coals on each side and it's turkey in the middle and it was really great.

I've heard people say that about me times. You put the turkey in the middle. So I don't know if they were talking about me though.

Maybe.

Never mind. All right. But don't— boom. Yeah. So that's it for today. I mean, we dry brined it. And again, you can put like if you want to put— if you think you don't have enough herbs on it, I would— I wouldn't overdo the salt like Susan had mentioned, but you can rub some more herbs in it. You can put some aromatics inside of it tonight. You can throw some fresh herbs in there, throw some onions or an orange or whatever you want to put in there, carrots, you know, something in there to give it some more flavor. But the, you know, turkey's not gonna be hard. The biggest trick, remember, is we want to open up, get under the skin, and put some butter or some seasoning under the skin and. And I have both under here. Okay, then we're going to brine it, we're going to season it. Even if you don't consider it dry brining, get some— a good amount of seasoning on it. And pepper is usually something we never use enough of. Pepper with poultry is really important, and make sure you use enough pepper in there. And again, that was the Colonel's secret, was all that pepper in his flour for fried chicken. And then when we, when we do roast it— and now before I roast it though, I'm going to put some peelings. I'm going to put some onion, carrots, celery. I'm going to lay them in the pan before I roast it. And so this is going to sit on top of that. As the juices come out, they're going to go through my vegetables. And generally, if I'm making soup or something else, they're like my throwaways. They're the skins, they're the ends, they're the peels, all that stuff. So you're getting use out of all the produce that you're buying. You're not wasting it. And then as it drips down, all these flavors are going to run through, all the juice is going to run through over it. Now, after about an hour, an hour and a half in, I am going to get some kitchen towels and I'm going to turn my turkey over. All right. Very carefully turn my turkey over and then I'm going to let it roast for the remainder of the time up. I'm going to brush it with a little butter or oil if you want to, every half hour, 45 minutes.

Okay. But let me ask you, are you Do you want to roast on a rack, or I don't see it right there.

I'm gonna roast it right on top. If you have a rack, you know, in fact, I think I do. I do have a big roasting pan that has a rack. So yes, I will roast on a rack. Okay, you don't have to as long as you're putting the vegetables on there, but I forgot. I use it so rarely because I don't cook anything that big that it's packed away full of all kinds of other things. So I do have a rack, so I will roast it on the rack. And, you know, you want to be careful when you turn the breast over too, because you'll have the rack marks on it. So that's about it. I think I just lost Susan there, but that's it. Remember the takeaways: cook it upside down, get some butter or some compound butter underneath the skin, help it stay moist, and you'll have a great flavorful turkey. And we'll be back tomorrow at 12:00., and we will roast a turkey and I'll show you how to finish it up and put it in the oven and all that. And then I'll also be making some candied cranberries, and they're great just to put out for people to eat. If you're making any desserts, they're a wonderful garnish for the dessert. They'd be great just on the side with some whipped cream with the roll we made. So let me show you that too. If you missed the beginning part of the show, I did make a pumpkin roll. All right, and here it is all set up, and it's got a cream cheese mascarpone frosting inside, and it's all rolled up. Was very simple to do, very easy, a lot easier than you would think it was. And this is going to go in the refrigerator, and I'm going to let it sit up for about 4 hours, and then I will taste it and pass it around to the neighbors later tonight. And I've got a gluten-free one to take to my Thanksgiving on Thursday. What do you garnish the slices with? What slices? I'm not sure what kind of slices you're talking about. When I'm talking about garnishing— oh, the pumpkin roll. I'm sorry. Okay, I would garnish the pumpkin roll slices with some of those candied cranberries I'm gonna make, or whipped cream. Or you can make a little— if you want to, if you want to get inventive, you can make a little bit of crème anglaise to go with it. That's always nice, and that's not hard to make. That's just like a little custard sauce. Blueberries, but you know, I like the cranberries because they're seasonal. So like I said, I'm going to make some candied cranberries tomorrow, so we'll use those. I actually just saw— oh, that doesn't sound What's— yeah, you're good. I can hear you.

Oh, okay, because it sounds funny to me. I actually just saw a recipe with some cranberries in it, so I may throw a few in there and see if we like it this year.

Okay, sounds good. All right, well, that's it for today. So, uh, I'll see you tomorrow. And again, tomorrow we're doing— we're cooking at 12. At 5 o'clock, I'm going to come back and I'm going to show you how to break the turkey down so you can serve it if you're doing a buffet. Okay, how to cut it down, and then I'm gonna have a little Q&A later on in the night too.