Turkey and Brine

For several years, I have been getting queries about brining turkey before roasting. Theoretically, it seasons the bird and keeps it moist. All rather amusing if you consider the amount of gourmet print that has been expended excoriating market-sold turkeys that have brine injected into them.

Moreover, as a Jew, if not an observant one, It seems to me ironic for people to go to all that work when they can buy a turkey that has already been brined to kosher it. It's even odder, when you realize that the koshering is done to remove any blood. Now, as a cook, I point out that the blood gives the meat flavor and moistness. The fat under the skin--except in the case of wild turkey-- bastes the bird as it melts due to my method of high-heat roasting. Basting adds only fat and ups the risk of burns on the human arms.

Still contrary, I say nay to stuffing in the bird. The bones are so thick that there is a minimal transfer of flavor. It is also a good way to breed salmonella. Each year, I make turkey stock with the innards, wing tips and carcass. I use that to flavor the "stuffing." If seems obligatory to put something inside the bird, use your choice of onion, apple, orange, garlic, fresh sage and celery leaves.

Even less traditional, I do not truss the bird. It seems perfectly ridiculous to push the darkest and heaviest pieces of meat together insuring uneven cooking and dried out white meat.

What is left? Simpliciity. Let the bird come to room temperature. Heat the oven to 500 F.
Put the bird in a roasting pan--not a foil one that can cause spilling and is not reusable. Also do not use that famioly favorite the blue and white spotted pan. The enamel chips easily and creates a fine breeding place for salmonella.

Just put the rack in the middle of the oven. Put the turkey on it--legs to the rear. Squiggle it around after fifteen minutes so it doesn't stick. Follow the timings in my book Roasting, A Simple Art. The bird will be perfect.

OLIVES

Raw olives waiting for processing

Come the hot days, I think fondly of the shores of Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey and France where I have spent so many wonderful times. The memories also reinforce my love of olive oil in all of its diversity and complexity.
Olive oil can be made from black or green olives and there are many different kinds that make as much difference to the finall taste as grape varieties do to wines. Unfortunately, the variety is almost never given and the rules about place names are almost non-existant. As far as I know, only Italy's Puglia has a rule about the use of their location name. About seventy-five percent of Greek olive oil is exported to Italy; you never see an olive oil in or from Italy that has any mention of Greece.
I tend to like the clearer, aromatic oils with a minimum of acidity and bitterness particularly on the back of the tongue. I tend not to like the dark green, intense Tuscans which seem to me to overwhelm tender salad greens and cooked food.
The only answer is tasting and a wardrobe of oils in the cupboard to be chosen according to use.
Don't be snobs. Try the Greek kalamata oil--superb--as well as some of the Spanish oils. French oils tend to be lighter. My favorite used to come from the Cotes-du-Rhone. Sadly, the age gentleman who made it had to retire and his children refused to carry on. the olives were small and ripe and gave very little juice, oil--a labor of tradition and love.