Extra Bites: Talking Turkey

Ever wondered how to deep fry your turkey without the fiery drama? Janet Loughran of Chef Life Hacks shares her essential advice on mastering oil displacement, ensuring that your turkey gets the crispy finish you crave without an overflowing disaster. 

We also explore a novel approach to Thanksgiving turkey with Steven Bright. His fascinating technique of preparing a boneless turkey reveals how deboning simplifies brining and allows for more of his mother’s cornbread stuffing to get inside of the bird. Plus a quick lesson on salt. 

Get ready to be inspired by these expert insights that aim to elevate your holiday.

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Episode Transcript

Doug (00:01):
Hey everybody, it's Doug.
It's the week of Thanksgivingand I didn't think we'd have an
episode this week, but we dohave a couple of extra bites to
serve up to you both aroundturkey.
First up, a tip from JanetLoughran of Chef Life Hacks.
If you're going the route ofdeep frying your turkey, Janet,
I know you and I had aconversation once about deep

(00:22):
frying turkey and you were likewhoa, there are a lot of
problems that can happen.
What's the deal with theoverflowing of the oil and what
to stay away from?

Janet (00:30):
Okay, so it's called displacement and it works with
water as well.
So if you were to fill thereceptacle that you're going to
use the turkey fryer there yougo the big pot with water and
dip the actual turkey in all theway.
Okay.
You don't have it heated.
Nothing, it's just water in thepot, then you can see where

(00:52):
that water line is going to hitonce that turkey is in there.
And you've noticed in the past,if you've worked with deep
frying anything, even on yourstove, it's going to bubble up.
So, you need quite a bit of roomof space to make sure that it's
not going to overflow, cause assoon as it does, you're likely
going to have a grease fire withthat.
You know flame underneath itimmediately, and then you know
you've got a story for the nextday.

Doug (01:10):
but no turkey.
So if you're doing if you'redoing turkey frying measure
ahead for displacement, you needsome space for the bubbling up
of the oil.
You're never going to fill thatfryer vessel the whole way full
with oil.
Heck, no.

Janet (01:24):
And I think at this point they've had so many instances
of that.
They actually have lines onthere, but just don't trust it,
because what if you're using afive-pound turkey as opposed to
a 12-pound?

Doug (01:34):
turkey 22-pound turkey yeah, so the larger the more
displacement Super important.
Thank you, you're welcome Up.
Next, another approach to doingturkey from our friend Stephen
Bright.
So everybody, we're back withmy friend Chef Steven Bright,
and we talked a few weeks agowith you just about your
overarching culinary career.
So interesting.

(01:55):
We're coming up on theThanksgiving and holiday season
and, Steven, I was wondering ifyou have a method for doing the
turkey that you could share withus.

Steven (02:06):
Yes, I'm from the school of, of course, Bob Sendall and
All in Good Taste Famouscatering in Pittsburgh.
Yes, he does, a boneless turkey.

Doug (02:18):
Boneless turkey, like just the turkey breast or the whole
thing.
The whole thing is boneless.

Steven (02:24):
With the exception of the leg bone.
Okay, so the thigh bones areremoved, the breast bones are
removed.
All that whole, the wholecavity is removed.
Interesting and then re stuffedto back to its original shape
so you would never know that itdidn't have bones in it.
It's just.

(02:44):
It looks just like that.
It's filled with stuffing withthe dressing yes.
It's filled with with Bob'scornbread stuffing and I use my
mom's cornbread recipe, my mom,my grandmother's recipe, but I
do I still bone my, my turkey.
It actually makes it easier tobrine overnight because once you

(03:05):
take the bones out it's just a,it's compactable.
You can put it into a largercontainer and with enough water
and salt in there to sort ofbrine it overnight.

Doug (03:17):
You mean for the lay person here.
We might be able to get it inour fridge, yeah, where some of
those big turkeys, you cannot.

Steven (03:23):
Yeah, there were years when you would check the weather
to see if you could leave it inthe garage overnight.
That's right.
Some years it's cold enough todo that.
But yeah, you do.
You make room in a refrigeratorand you sort of just commit to
putting that brine turkey inovernight so that it can retain
all the moisture that it can.

Doug (03:43):
All right, so let's break that down a little bit.
So you like to brine for 24hours?

Steven (03:48):
Yeah, just because it's just a step that you can put in
the refrigerator and forgetabout it and then work on other
stuff.

Doug (03:57):
And what is your typical brine?

Steven (03:59):
Brine is for me especially going that long you
don't want it to be too rich,too salty.
I would say for every gallon ofwater you're going to want to
use maybe a quarter cup of saltand then maybe half of that
sugar, and then other componentscan go into brine.

(04:22):
But I don't really feel likethey make a big difference.
Yeah With the turkey, you couldput bay leaves and peppercorns
and things in.

Doug (04:30):
Sometimes people do citrus slices or something.

Steven (04:34):
But that's all specific to what you like.
I just like it really simpleLittle sugar, little salt and
and water overnight, not toomuch I do have a little chef
question what kind of salt doyou use?

Doug (04:47):
kosher salt?
What brand of kosher salt doyou tend to buy?

Steven (04:51):
used the diamond, uh, one, but I, but I, at the store,
if I see, uh, what's the bluebox, it's morton, morton's.
Yeah, I'll just go that, but doyou know?

Doug (05:01):
there's a difference.
No, I can't believe I'm tellingyou this.
Yeah, but this is good.
If you look at those two boxes,morton and Diamond Crystal, the
Diamond Crystal box is doublethe size.

Steven (05:13):
Yes, I've noticed that, and it's because of the crystals
and how they compact.

Doug (05:16):
So if you are using a quarter cup of diamond crystal
salt, like you said, you shouldonly use half of the amount of
Morton's because it's morecompact and I found this out the
hard way on some dishes because.
I've changed brands and nowI've read about it Samin Nosrat
and America's Test Kitchen havedone some articles.

Steven (05:36):
Oh, that's good to know.

Doug (05:36):
Yeah.
So to recap, you would use aquarter cup of probably diamond
crystal salt yes, and then thesugar and water yes, and if
you're going with Morton's, usehalf the amount of salt.
Thank you.

Steven (05:50):
Yeah, because you don't want to over salt.
I mean, that's something youcan't reverse Right and you
don't want to ruin yourThanksgiving.
That would be disastrous.

Doug (05:59):
I can't believe I'm telling you something that you
didn't know.
I love it.

Steven (06:03):
No, yeah, you should be able to believe it.
I don't know.
You know I've had a wild career, but I don't know everything.
Well, that's all right.
You're still learning, that'sright, and I never want to stop.
That's wonderful.

Doug (06:16):
It's the best thing about food.

Steven (06:17):
Yeah, I think I'm just going to start buying diamond
crystal salt.

Doug (06:20):
There you go, Chef Steven Bright.
Thank you so much for being onThe Pittsburgh Dish and happy
holidays, Thank you.
Finally, I just want to say I'mthankful for all of you out
there who are listening to ourshow and extremely grateful for
everyone that's come on to theshow to share their stories,
their recommendations, theirideas.
I am truly thankful for all ofyou.

(06:43):
Happy Thanksgiving.