Go to the Article: 2022 Thanksgiving Hotline Q&A
How do you create gravy when you smoke a turkey?
I would use the giblets, and a stock.
In your Turkey Gravy recipe, you call for 1.8kg of turkey bones. But you don't stipulate if they must be raw bones or already cooked bones? (Or is either kind OK?)
Love all the science going on here! I’m cooking at the in-laws this year and they’re more traditional than technical. I will be roasting a 22lb Turkey in the oven and I’m between cooking it at 350 the entire time or cooking it at 425 for the first 45 minutes then turning it down to 325 to finish. Any thoughts on what method would yield a better bird? Planning on pulling when the breast hits 157 and letting it rest for an hour. Thanksgiving is upon us and thank you to the great chefs at chefsteps for what you have been sharing lately!
Cooked a Turkey a few days ago with your sous vide method. The legs and thighs were fantastic. I cold the breasts down in an ice bath and they are still sealed stored in the fridge.
How long will they keep in the fridge?
What is the preferred method of reheating them? I am worried about food safety.
Hi there, I’m going to Sous vide my turkey this year using the recipe posted here. The thing is, I have a butterball fresh turkey that already has been brined. Should I still continue with further brining according to the recipe? Skip this step? Or alter the brine so the turkey doesn’t come out too salty. Thanks so much for your help in advance!
Planning to make 2 dark meat turkey roulades from leg quarters. Game plan is to prep season and vacuum seal 1-2 days before. I am thinking of a long sous vide 24 hours or so then finishing in a pellet smoker. Any thoughts on temperature for somewhere between toothsome and fork tender? I was thinking of 60 C...
To pre-sear turkey pieces as Grant Crilly showed in his Turkey Sous Vide video, can I use any pan other than a non-stick? I have Hestan NanoBond Titanium cookware. And if so, what is the best searing technique to use with the pans? Moving the turkey around in the pan will rip the skin, as I have done before with chicken breasts.
I find that with a stainless pan if you make sure the skin is very dry, well salted and the pan and oil are heated well to a medium high heat you should not stick. I would how ever not move the breast around. let it sear and build the crust for a few minutes before you try to release it from the pan. Then you should be able to gently move it around.
I would recommend 65-70c. take a peek at the confit turkey legs guide in the joule app to see the textures
If it is pre-brined, skip that step and just do a finish seasoning after you sear.
1 week in the fridge. Reheat in the bag it was cooked in, in a bath at the same temp you cooked it.
either will work.
I would personally if I had two choose between just these two options, pick the 350°f for the entire time.
Thank you!
I want to thicken my gravy with either Xantham or Perfected Guar Gum instead of Flour/butter roux. Which would be better, i read that Perfected Guar Gum is better? Also what percentages of weight on which ever you recommend.
I would choose the guar gum over Xanthan and at 0.5-1%. Start out low then add if need be. Xanthan, if using at 0.1-0.3%. Ultra-Tex 3 is also great to for gravy thickening and makes for a very silky one.
Thanks!
One more question on pre-searing before sous vide, what is the though process on deciding when to pre-sear a protein before sous vide or afterward? Is there an advantage in flavor to pre-searing my roulades before sous vide? Thanks!
Can you please give me a rules of thumb for liquid into a stuffing mix? I an going to cook my celery, onions , glaric and mushrooms then mix into the dry bread. I was thinking of reducing a quart of apple juice overnight and using that liquid to moisten them with a little apple cider vinegar.
Hi, @john! Ok, here is how I think about it. Searing always adds flavor and texture. But when you pre-sear, you can have a couple other benefits as well. 1) Searing before hand does add even more flavor since maillard reactions continue to develop even faster once started in an environment like sous vide, 2) pre-searing can either eliminate the need to sear afterwards (saves time while serving) or aid in accelerating a post sear by saving time and adding even more flavor and crust. So if you want to go for ultimate results I tend to go with a pre-sear and a post-sear but if you want to save time (either on the front or back end of a cook) go with pre-sear only. Additionally, I would usually only do this with durable cuts of red meat.
This one is tricky, really depends on the type of bread and what texture you like. But I generally err on the side of a little too much liquid since you can dry it out later. No knowing your bread and mix I'd say you don't want more liquid than the bread soaks up when mixing (plus a scant more).
If you look at the stuffing that Nick Gavin just developed, that uses about equal parts liquid to fresh bread by weight, but then dries out the bread beforehand with additional liquid in there from some garnish.
Can you use the Control Freak as a sous-vide stand-in - I'm thinking fill a pot with water, set the temperature and put the probe in the water to maintain the water temperature. I know there's no circulator, but will this work for turkey-overflow from my usual set-up? Thanks!
Thanks for the explanation, Grant! Would the deboned turkey thigh be durable enough for pre-searing if trussed into a roulade?
This is a great use for the Control Freak. It will maintain a very constant temp with the probe.
Great. Thanks!
Absolutely and I would say preferred for roulade.
I have two 14 pound heritage turkeys to cook. I was planning to brine them and then cook on a Traeger. Do you have a recommendation for how long to brine and temp/time for the Traeger (note: I have to keep them whole for aesthetic presentation reasons so I can't split them up)?
Will this be live through Thanksgiving, it might be fun to see pictures of dishes by members from this Q&A!
Typically and overnight brine is all you will need. I would use a probe inserted into the meat inside the smoker and cook to desired temperature. Low and slow temperature in Traeger like around 325°F is my recommendation.
Our son in law requested a prime rib instead of turkey. Have watched your video several times about sou vide large prime rib cuts of meat. We have done sou vide many times. Our son in law purchased a 4 bone roast that weighs 11 lbs! Would 12 hours be sufficient at 138 degrees? His choice of how well cooked. Thanks.
Hey guys,
I was planning on doing 2 roulades, a white and a dark sous-vide and am looking for direction on the white meat portion.
Now, I would rather instead do a combined white/dark meat roulade. Do you have any ideas on time/temping a sous-vide combo roulade?
ePop
Hi,
I wanted to make one of your mashed potato recipes but I do not have a food mill. What is the next best food appliance to substitute it?
Thank you,
Danny
How would you modify Kyl’s Chicken-Fried Turkey recipe if you were using Batter Bind S? I’m planning on using both it and Trisol.
P.S. Thank you all so much for the wonderful recipes you’ve all created and shared on Chefsteps. Collectively you guys have changed the way I cook
One follow up question for bonus points - @Kyl Haselbauer you recommend 10-30% of the dry weight of the flour mixture; given that’s a wide range, how would you decide what % to start with? Start low and increase if needed?
Would it be correct to assume that the idea would be to replace some of the flour with the Trisol (i.e. rather than supplementing it)
I want to follow the recipe for the Turkey leg quarter and the breast. In the video you suggest leg quarter first then lower temperature for the breast along with the legs. If I do that, what is recommended time for each? If I do 24 for legs, then MORE time in the water for the legs while with the breasts, is that too much?
Thank you
The legs will just be holding warm at that point. You won't notice to big of a difference at that temp on them going longer
I would go 50-50 with the batter bind and the trisol. I found that a 20% mark was the sweet spot. but that range is what modernist pantry recommends. Just choose your weight of flour, and do 10% of that weight of each the batter bind and the trisol.
A potato ricer would be the next best thing. But if you don't have that really there is not an easy way to replicate the results. I would say you would just go for the basic mashing technique.
I would aim for about 140 right in the middle of what is perfect for both the breast and the leg.
I would only add 1 hour to the cook time. We use a 3 bone, and you should only need an extra 30-60 minutes to get to the core temperature. You don't want to cook for too Long or you will start to break the texture down and start to get more pot roasty.
Thanks Matthew. Do you have a favorite internal temperature to target? I have four probes so I can get two in each bird.
Thanks! That helps a lot! Happy T-day
Oh man, this is the issue with whole birds. You have to choose to optimize for better dark meat at 170°F or for better white meat at 150°F. The dark meat can take longer cooking and becomes better the longer it cooks, to a point. The breast cannot take the longer, higher temps. Always err on the side of pulling the bird a touch before it reaches internal temperature as the carry over will still transfer than heat from the outside to the internal.
You could optimize for breast, rest, carve out the breast and continue smoking the rest but this adds time to your project.
My butcher separated the leg and thigh … can I still follow the sous vide instructions for the turkey the same way? I just bagged the legs in one bag and the thighs in another.
What are the pros and cons of pre cooking a pie dough when making pumpkin pie?
I'm making two chickens instead of a turkey on the day of. Does it make sense to place them spatchcocked, breast against breast with legs facing outwards in the roasting pan?
As long as they are laying flat and not stacked this is great.
Pros are better texture, texture, texture. Cons, it's a process and you have to shield crust rim on second bake with the filling. Also a con is it could be raw or underbaked.
The separating will not change getting to the core temperature. Remember with sous vide it is all about thickness and not weight or volume. Follow instructions as usual.
Hey there
If I’m doing a wet brine for my bird, do I still need to salt it before I roast it?
I usually still lightly season with salt and pepper before cooking. The outer seasoning is for the surface area and the brine is for the internal.
Hi there! We are cooking at a highish altitude (7400ft) this year and are wondering what sorts of adjustments we might want to make for spun sugar, parker house rolls, and the Pâte Brisée recipe?
I am also making the squash wellington but ended up with delicata squash. Any tips on how I could form that into a cannon and how many lbs to use?
Need to bring a veggie side dish that needs to be gf /df / keto (low carb) that I can cook ahead of time and bring that will still be good both in flavor and texture. Thoughts?
Our plant based caesar dressing paired with endives and radicchio is great. A sous vide carrot salad is always good with a toasted coriander vinaigrette. Brussels slaw. Green bean casserole with plant based cream of mushroom.
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/cream-of-mushroom-base-gluten-free-and-plant-based
https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/plant-based-caesar-dressing
Increase the baking temp by 10-15% and decrease the baking time a touch although always bake until it is done. You can also add a touch more flour to recipes. Spun sugar I would just do a test on a chilled tray to monitor progress.
You can split the delicate in half longways and nestle the pieces inside of each other. I have used 3 halves put together to form the cannon.
I put the turkey legs and thighs in a sous vide water bath this morning around 8am. How long can I leave them in the water bath for without effecting the texture if I drop the temperature to 131 degrees? I'm following the sous vide Turkey directions but my family doesn't eat until around 4pm, just realized I might have wanted to start those a bit later.
I'm blind baking a pie crust for a pumpkin pie. I'm using the technique on this page (https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/a-guide-to-pie-dough-the-process): "If you are baking blind for a cream pie or any other pie that requires no additional baking, you will want to fully cook the pie shell to a nice golden brown, ensuring that each layer of dough and fat is fully baked and crisply layered.
"If you are blind-baking for a pie with a wet filling that you will continue baking, blind bake the pie shell fully. Cool it. Fill it with the wet filling. Then, make a lip of aluminum foil to cover the baked edges, so they do not grow any more brown. You want that final pie to be fully baked." ... if I'm reading this right, then you're saying to in BOTH cases, where you ARE and where you ARE NOT baking the filling, you bake that pie crust FULLY (60 minutes)... The only difference being that for a baked-in filling you're giving the crust time to cool before putting the filling in, and then you're protecting the outer edges. If my pumpkin pie cooks for 55 minutes, that means that pie crust will have spent a total of nearly 2 hours in the oven?
Ack! The blind pie crust bake calls for 20 minutes at 400 F. I accidently had it set to 425 F. It still has two cycles at 350 F. What's the best way to compensate for the slightly too hot start?
I am making the jus au gras with stock made from the carcass an 8lb turkey I broke down for the 24 hour sous vide. Can I just reduce all of the stock to 500ml and then use the xantham gun / gelatin ratios for 500ml? Or should I be more careful about stock concentration and not reduce the entire stock I made from the 8lb carcass to 500ml?
If I am "reheating" an already smoked turkey in my sous vide, what would be the best time and temperature. It weighs about 12 pounds and is fully thawed. I intended to use a searzall to crisp the skin once hot and ready to serve.
Thanks, I'm excited.
Any suggestion on min to max times?
To make gluten free gravy I have been using Ultra-Tex 3 and it works out great and is easier and at times I think is just better than using roux.
Did you try this with the smoker?
