Cook a Turkey

You know what time it is? That’s right! Time to start working on your Thanksgiving turkey! Cook it per pound, and you won’t serve your guests raw meat. Ew.

You should select your bird with your guest list in mind. Estimate that each person will eat about one pound of meat, and it’s important to account for a couple of pounds of leftovers and bones. That means that 8 guests requires a 12-pound bird, 10 guests require a 15-pounder, and 12 guests, an 18-pound turkey.

If you can make chicken soup, you can learn to cook a turkey. The per pound rule is a good thing to keep in mind, though – 15 minutes per pound.

If this is your first time doing the whole turkey cooking game, you should probably pop that bird into a good old-fashioned turkey brine. Recipes can be found online. (You probably need to get your turkey into his bath tonight!)

My family’s turkey brine recipe:

- One gallon of vegetable or chicken broth (homemade ones taste better, but you’re probably out of time to make one).
- One gallon of tap water.
- One cup of sugar for the sweetening.
- One cup of salt.
- Four to five tablespoons of spices: (I like thyme a little pepper and cinnamon, and rosemary, personally).

Bring all these ingredients to a boil, and pop that bird into your turkey brine. You need to let him soak overnight in your refrigerator.

That turkey brine recipe will make your bird moist and delicious, but if for some reason you’re interested in a traditional roasting, you may want to just thaw it in water. Estimate that a frozen turkey needs to soak for about 30 minutes per pound.

When you’re ready to cook your bird, check out the great turkey recipes on the Food Network’s site: they have detailed instructions for smoking turkeys, stuffed turkeys, and even those delicious beer-battered turkeys! Yum!


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