McKinnon's Turkeys

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

So is anyone buying their Thanksgiving turkey from McKinnon's? Are they better turkeys than what I might get at Star? More expensive? Do you need to order in advance?

Thanks!

Comments

McKinnons fresh turkeys are great

[davelew.livejournal.com]

I've gotten fresh turkeys from McKinnons two or three times in the past,
and they've always come out excellent. I like the taste of fresh turkeys
better than the frozen ones, and I think its worth the extra few bucks
given the time I put into a turkey.

I also second the suggestion for brining. I like to make a tea of
cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves and allspice in boiling water (the
water needs to be hot to extract the flavor, just like tea or
coffee), then once that cools I add it to the brine to give a little
more flavor to the meat.

If you brine, you don't have to worry as much about flipping the bird
or basting it.

Re: McKinnons fresh turkeys are great

[enochs-fable.livejournal.com]

How much spices per amount of water? This sounds great.

Brining is God's work. mmmm. :)

Re: McKinnons fresh turkeys are great

[davelew.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure the amount of water, I just added water and ice cubes to cover the bird in the stockpot I used for brining. Here are the spices I used (adapted from a recipe on www.weber.com):

1 cup salt
1 cup honey
20 whole allspice, crushed
8 whole cloves
4 bay leaves
2 cinnamon sticks
8 garlic cloves, bruised with side of knife

I combined everything but the garlic with 2 cups of boiling water, then let that sit in a covered pot in the fridge until it felt cold.

Then I put the turkey in the only pot I own that would fit it, dumped some ice over the bird, added tapwater to cover the bird, and finally added the garlic and the spice/honey tea.

I ran into two minor problems. First, the honey that had been in the fridge had all setlled to the bottom of the pot and was hard to get out. Second, the cloves and allspice were sort of frozen ice-glued to the side of the turkey when I took it out of the brine the next morning. The addition of a little hot water solved both these problems.