Our Thanksgiving recap continues with the main event.
Roasted Dry-Brined Turkey
Martha Stewart Living (November 2008)
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Needless to say, the star of the show here is the turkey. We opted for a pretty straightforward recipe that included dry-brining. We've mentioned this technique before. (You just rub salt and herbs all over the raw bird. The salt draws moisture out of the turkey, and then the now-salty water gets re-absorbed into the meat before you cook it.) It is a great way to get delicious, moist meat. And if you've been dunking your bird in a vat of water and spices, you'll think dry-brining is a time-saving Godsend.
We made one major diversion from this recipe. Martha Stewart recommends stuffing the bird with a Leek-Celery stuffing. We opted out of this step for two reasons. Mostly, we had our own stuffing/dressing recipe we wanted to use. But also, neither of us ever grew up having stuffing that was actually cooked inside the turkey. Maybe for you that's a must-have, but it strikes us as messy and a little gross.
There were, however, a few moments of insanity in which we contemplated having two stuffings -- one cooked in the bird, one out -- but then we came to our senses.
But you do need to stuff the bird with something to keep it from drying out. We stuffed ours with some random fruits and vegetables we had on hand that we need to get rid of -- apples, onions, celery, lemons, rosemary sprigs.
Buttermilk Cornbread Sage Dressing
As for the dressing, well, this was really the only must-have recipe for our Thanksgiving table this year. It's the recipe Zach's mom has always used -- a delicious, rich, sage-scented cornbread dressing that's got almost a cakey, brownie-like consistency. We've tried many others, but this one still ranks at the top of our list.
The dressing recipe calls for four cups of buttermilk cornbread. (We, uh, well, doubled the recipe, so we needed eight.) We made our cornbread a couple days in advance, which cut down on the cooking time. It was just as delicious as we had remembered.
(Keep reading for our gravy and cranberry sauce!)
