Diary of a Christmas Dinner: Part 3

The Bird

8:00 a.m.

Today is the day we pick up the turkey. I think I’ve already mentioned, haven’t I, that this is a free range, fresh, organic turkey? John ordered it at a local market (Lakeview Market, for those interested).

This morning, I’ll be clearing off the kitchen table so we’ll have room to work with the bird. Yesterday, John proposed that, in addition to everything else we’ll be doing to this turkey, we brine it for 24 hours. I’m not sure it will need it considering the fact that it is a free range turkey but I will leave that up to him. The one thing that concerns me is whether or not we have a container large enough to hold a turkey in brine. I doubt that the usual stock pot we use for brining a 3-4 lb. chicken will hold a 16+ lb. turkey. There is the canning pot, though.

9:00 a.m.

It’s time to head over to the market to pick up the bird. When we got to the meat department, there was a bit of confusion; they couldn’t find John’s name in the order book. Eventually, they did find his phone number on the order sheet and discovered that whoever had taken the order had misheard John’s last name and spelled it as Fkae rather than Skae; our turkey was brought out from the cooler.

Now that we have it home, John’s chosen not to brine the turkey. It now comes down to planning the timing. We’ll be aiming to have the bird in the oven by noon on Tuesday. I’ll keep you informed.

(I must add a thank you to Brad at Lakeview Market for allowing me to take the pictures, after a brief explanation that we would be blogging about the process of cooking our turkey in a manner that was somewhat out of the normal method. Most markets don’t allow customers to take pictures in their shops so, Brad, thank you!)