Big Island Buyer\’s Brokers

For those of you now living on the mainland, or in Singapore, Japan or Europe, you may find it odd to discover that the Big Island is covered with turkeys. It is true; we have flocks and flocks and flocks of wild turkeys roaming in the forests and pastures as well as gobbling and strutting through golf courses and back yards! These are not the fluffy white commercial birds you see on the many TV broadcasts as Thanksgiving week looms. These are the good old American wild turkeys that fascinated the settlers at Plymouth Rock!

In Waimea, the birth place of the American cowboy, we have turkeys galore, and enough of them are caught during bird season to warrant serious thoughts about how to cook them up. If you think about it, you might want to try a wild turkey recipe on that plump store-bought bird this Thanksgiving Day. You will not be disappointed, because the magic that works wonders on a wild bird will save even the most unenthusiastic cook from ruining the holiday turkey this year.

Most folks will tell you that the biggest disappointment they have in cooking their turkey is that it came out too dry. We did join friends one year who forgot to thaw the bird before popping it in the oven, but I don’t think that is a common problem. Usually it is the “turkey-from-the-pyramids” that gets your goat, right? This is caused not only from leaving the turkey in too long but also from not having a juicy bird to begin with!

Here is how to use your own favorite recipe and have your turkey come out the way you want it too:

First thaw the turkey in the refrigerator a few days in advance. Don’t leave it on the counter or sitting in a sink full of water. That is actually dangerous. Once it is soft, take out the treats they pack in the cavities, and don’t forget the ones under the neck skin. Wash your turkey out with fresh water to make sure it is nice and clean.

Next, make a brine of a gallon of vegetable stock a gallon of water and a cup of salt. You need lots of liquid to float a big turkey but may be able to get away with less if you are very clever with large plastic bags. The brine will slowly pump moisture and flavor into your bird, so think of other wonderful things you might want to put in the brine to flavor the meat. How about oranges, or cranberries? Want to go oriental? How about a cup of soy sauce, crushed ginger and lots of garlic? I favor herbs and like to add lemon rinds, thyme and rosemary as well as slices of Maui onion to my brine, but you may have other flavors you would like. No problem!

For a real Hawaiian-style flavor think about adding guava, lilikoi or pineapple juice to your brine … that could be really good!

Soak the bird for a day in a large pot in a cooler full of melting ice. Change the ice as needed, but make sure the turkey stays cold! If you don’t have a great big pot, just use one of those plastic laundry buckets or whatever you can. In a worst case scenario you can just dump the whole thing in the cooler with the ice. It is OK, you are just trying to get those brine flavors into the turkey one way or another.

When you are ready to cook the bird, take it out of the brine, wash it off and throw away the brine. Don’t stuff the bird. Your stuffing will be much better if you cook it in a casserole dish, and you will be thankful to be able to cook as much as you want. Turkeys don’t hold very much stuffing, and if you make a good one you will want lots to meet demand. As for cooking methods, you have all ready won the battle by brining, so it really doesn’t matter if you cook slowly or not. Just cook it anyway you like. Alton Brown, they guy who moderates the American Iron Chef program, has a good recipe for brining and cooking your turkey, but there are lots of others. Anyway you do it you will be a winner!

Filed under: Updates