Can-Am Thanksgiving Part 2: Brining and butterflying the turkey

Turkey all brined and ready for the fridge. I used a hair elastic to tied the bag up - otherwise it was too big for the turkey and not everything would have been covered. Use a strong cookie sheet -it's heavy!

I had never brined a turkey before, but I keep hearing good things and it seemed worth it to me. Once again I stole the basic recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.com I decreased the salt slightly because I had one of those turkeys that said "injected with a 3% solution..." You really want to avoid this, but it seems to be pretty hard to do. Frozen turkeys especially have this added- go for a fresh turkey if possible.

Here's the directions for brining - note that while she tells you to cool it to room temperature she does not point out that that might take say, 2 hours. You'll want to do this the afternoon before.

1. Make the brine following the direction above. Key point- your largest pot might not hold 2 gallons + 3 cups of liquid - mine doesn't. I put in less water to cook it and then split it into 2 pots to cool adding the extra water to help it cool.

2. While your brine solution is cooling you'll want to prep the turkey. This is the intimidating butterfly step . Aside from being freeky it's not that hard.
a. First, rinse the turkey and take the neck and giblets out. I used the neck for stock but threw out the innards. I hear they improve the flavor of stock but I think they are gross.
b. Figure out which side of the turkey is up- that would be the breast. Got it? Ok, now flip the turkey over. Find the backbone (hint, it's the bump down the middle) Take those kitchen scissors that came with your knife set that are super sharp because you never use them and cut up either side of the bone. It does take some force, but it shouldn't be impossible. If it gets too hard try moving away from the backbone a tiny bit or going from the other end. Put the backbone in the pot with the neck to make stock.

If you don't like my directions you can get the real ones by signing up for a 14 day free trial at http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/login.asp?docid=26397 just remember to cancel within 14 days or they'll charge you. The account it tied to email addresses so you should be able to repeat the trick for as many email addresses as you can find - I'm running out. :(

3. You'll now have a floppy turkey ready for brining. Grab the brining bag you bought at the last second while the brine was cooling. (Yes, it's an overpriced ziplock, but it did allow the turkey to fit in my fridge and it didn't leak which is worth $4 to me)

4. Have your assistant help hold the bag open while you put the turkey in and then pour in the brine. Place the whole thing on a cookie sheet in your fridge. It is super important it is in the fridge so you don't get salmonella so make sure it fits before you get too far into this mess. :)

5. Pour your self some wine and relax while the turkey brines overnight