Turkey techniques

From a Big Green Egg and a deep-fryer in Santa Rosa to a wood-fired oven in Healdsburg, the traditional Thanksgiving turkey is getting a breath of fresh air.

Here in Wine Country, where Indian summer often lingers into late November, savvy cooks are freeing up their ovens and opting to deep-fry, smoke, grill or wood-fire roast the bird in the great outdoors.

And because these techniques often yield spectacular results — moist, succulent meat that hasn’t had time to dry out into turkey jerky — they’ve never looked back.

“Cooking in a wood fire keeps the turkey moist,” said Andrea Mugnaini, founder and president of Mugnaini Imports wood-fire ovens. “The timing is 30 percent faster because of the high heat ... and the moist, circulating air.”

Every fall, Mugnaini teaches people from all over the country how to cook holiday meals in the wood-fire ovens at her Alexander Valley ranch and cooking school.

In a wood-fire oven, a 20-pound turkey — tented with foil and rotated to provide equal exposure to the flames — takes only about two hours and 15 minutes, Mugnaini said. Stuffed, it takes an extra 30 minutes.

“You want to make sure it’s cooked enough,” she said. “I prefer the turkey unstuffed, with just herbs in the cavity.”

Like most chefs, Mugnaini also makes her turkey stock ahead of time, from turkey wings and necks that she’s roasted in the oven. That way, she’s ready to whip up a rich, dark gravy while the turkey cooks on Thanksgiving Day.

On a recent afternoon, a class of about a dozen students helped prepare and roast a Thanksgiving meal in Mugnaini’s wood-fire ovens, from roasted fingerling potatoes and Delicata squash to a roasted bread stuffing with wild mushrooms and roasted cranberry relish.

In addition to stuffed and unstuffed turkeys, the class also pounded turkey breasts and filled them with a savory blend of prosciutto, fennel, onion, garlic and rosemary, then tied them up into a tasty turkey roulades that were also roasted in the ovens.

If you can’t afford a wood-fire oven, there’s no need to despair. Kay Baumhefner of Petaluma cooks her turkey every year in a humble Weber barbecue in her backyard.

“We started doing it because we had a tiny kitchen stove, and we just had to put the turkey somewhere else,” she said. “We often put grapevine cuttings, soaked in water, on the coals, and some rosemary, which gives it a woodsy, infused smell.”

Here’s Baumhefner’s basic procedure: Let the turkey sit out for for an hour, then rinse out the cavity, pat it dry, and rinse it again with some fresh orange juice.

In a saucepan, make a marinade from a blend of fresh orange juice, butter, Hungarian sweet paprika, port, a sprig of thyme and some salt and pepper.

“I paint that all over the outside of the bird, and I put some aromatics in the cavity,” she said. “As the turkey cooks, we continue to baste it.”

Meanwhile, build a cool fire in the barbecue, using a lot of coals, and bring it up to a low, slow cooking heat of about 325 degrees. Every half hour of so, feed the fire with new coals.

Baumhefner puts the marinated turkey on a rack in a pan, lined inside and out with foil, then tents the turkey with foil as well.

“You cover the bird from the start, and only uncover it when you want it to brown,” she said. “You want the barbecue covered as well.”

A 20-pound bird will take about 2½ hours on a charcoal Weber grill — much quicker than the same bird in the oven.

While the turkey is grilling, Baumhefner and her husband, Don, like to sip on vintage bubbly, with a splash of creme de cassis and orange juice.

And to go with the refreshing aperitif, they serve a simple appetizer of toasted nuts and seasonal fruit, such as pomegranates, figs, grapes, apples and pears.

“It’s all about the harvest and the garden and the forest and the orchard,” she said. “It’s a big connect to nature time.”

In 2002, Lindsey Halpern had moved into a a small house in Santa Rosa with her youngest daughter, Hilary, when she decided she wanted to shake up their Thanksgiving holiday.

“Being a small family, it was always very quiet, and I decided to change things around,” she said. “I said, ‘We’re going to fry our turkey this year.’”

The first thing she did was to google turkey fryers and get in touch with a family-owned business in Louisiana, which sold her the fryer, the Cajun spices and a few gallons of peanut oil to do the job.

Then she asked her next-door neighbors, Frank and Ann Pugh, if they wanted to fry their turkey as well. Much to her surprise, they jumped on the idea.

The first year, each family fried their own turkey, then went to their respective homes to eat. But the following year, the two families decided to join forces for the feast, setting up big tables in Halpern’s backyard.

“The first Thanksgiving was actually outside, so it feels more authentic,” Halpern said of her alfresco dining room. “There’s room for everybody, and you can have a big fire in the firepit.”

When it’s time to eat — around 4 or 4:30 p.m. — each family sets out their side dishes in their respective kitchens, and guests go from house to house, filling their plates.

From the beginning, Frank Pugh has presided over the frying of the turkeys. Pugh figures it takes about 3.5 minutes per pound to fry a turkey. So for a 12-pound bird, that works out to between 30 and 45 minutes.

Over the years, a good-natured rivalry has grown between Pugh and his brother-in-law, Dr. James DeVore, who smokes a large turkey in his Big Green Egg ceramic cooker for the feast. Guests vote on which turkey they like best, and it usually involves some political maneuvering.

DeVore, who believes his smoked turkey tastes best, brines his turkey overnight, then uses a dry poultry rub mixed with butter over the bird. He puts foil down to catch the drippings, and cooks the bird on a rack.

“The key is the really low temperature — it cooks at 250 degrees for about six hours,” DeVore said. “The ceramic cooker is thick and heavy, and it keeps the moisture in.”

When it’s cold outside, Halpern serves up pumpkin soup shooters for everyone to sip around the deep fryer. And if the weather looks doubtful, she rents a tent.

“Last year, it was cloudy, so we put all the twinkle lights under the tent,” she said. “There’s something really special about eating in candlelight, outside, with your family.”

These recipes are from Andrea Mugnaini for wood-fired Mugnaini ovens. A Roasting Oven environment is an oven that has been prepped to reach pizza oven temperatures (650 degrees floor temp) then allowed to drop in temperature to 550 degrees at the floor.

Roast Turkey with Herb Butter

Makes 16 servings

1 whole turkey (about 20 pounds)

2 tablespoons compound butter (see recipe below)

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 bunch fresh thyme sprigs, left whole

2 garlic cloves, halved

1 unpeeled orange, cut into four sections

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

1 white onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup water

— White wine

Prepare oven according to Mugnaini’s Roasting Oven Environment.

Wash turkey with cold water and pat dry with paper towels on inside and outside. Slide your hand under the skin on the turkey breasts and loosen skin from meat. Rub half of the herb butter on each side. Season inside of turkey with 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper and stuff with fresh thyme, garlic and orange sections. Tie the turkey legs together. Rub olive oil over outside of turkey and sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt.

Place chopped celery, onion and water on bottom of roasting pan. Set turkey on its side on a “V” roasting rack set in a roasting pan. Place a heavy duty foil tent over turkey and set into oven with the back side (spine side) facing toward the fire. Leave in this position for 45 minutes. Remove turkey from oven and turn breast side up in roasting pan and insert internal thermometer into both hip joints and begin to record temperatures. Add wine to pan if necessary. Replace foil tent over turkey and set back into oven with the less cooked side positioned toward the fire. Repeat internal temperature checks every half-hour and rotate pan, positioning lesser cooked side of turkey toward the fire. Baste turkey during temperature checks if needed. Continue to roast until internal temperature at each hip joint registers 165 degrees.

Remove turkey from oven and cover with foil. Let rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.

Compound Butter

Makes 8 tablespoons

1 stick softned, unsalted butter

1 small clove garlic, minced

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon chopped parsley

½ teaspoon orange zest

Combine all of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Left over butter can be rolled into a log, wrapped and frozen for up to 3 months.

Dark Rich Turkey Gravy

2 pounds turkey wings

2 pounds turkey necks

2 tabelspoons olive oil

3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

2 white onions, coarsely chopped

2 carrots, coarsely chopped

½ bunch fresh sage

4 sprigs freshly parsley with stem

1 small sprig fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

6 whole black peppercorns

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

½ cup all-purpose flour

— Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare oven according to Mugnaini’s Roasting Oven Environment.

Place turkey necks and wings in roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. Place in oven and roast for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally until they are a dark brown color. Remove from pan and set aside. Add coarsely chopped onions, celery and carrots to roasting pan and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove and add 1 to 2 cups water to scrape up all the browned bits on the pan’s bottom. Place roasting pan contents along with browned neck and wings into a large stock pot. Add sage, rosemary, parsley, bay leaf and peppercorns, cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 2-3 hours. Strain through a colander, discard solids and reserve liquid for gravy. (May be made in advance up to this stage and placed in refrigerator for 3 days.)

Melt butter in a clean pan and add flour. Cook roux, stirring frequently until it is a golden brown with a toasted aroma. Slowly whisk in the hot, strained turkey stock and cook for 15-20 minutes until thickened.

Wood-Roasted Turkey Breast Roulade

Makes 12 to 15 servings

1 turkey breast, 12½ pounds, bone in, skin on

6 to 8 slices prosciutto crudo

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided

1½ cups onion, small dice

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ cup chopped fennel fronds

2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary

— Butcher’s twine

For roasting pan:

3 bulbs fresh fennel, cut into 1-inch wedges

1 onion, in 1-inch dice

½ cup white wine

Place 4 tablespoons olive oil and diced onions in a medium saute pan. Put into oven and cook for about 7-8 minutes, add the garlic, fennel seeds, salt, pepper and continue to cook 2 to 3 minutes more, or until the onion is soft. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Remove the rib cage from the breast by carefully slicing the meat from the bone. Keep a flat side of the knife against the bone as you work the meat off the rib cage.

Put a large sheet of plastic wrap on your work surface. Lay out the breast skin side down on the plastic. Pull the filet (or tenders) toward the middle where the two sides of the breast meets, so it lays flat. Slice open the thick end of the turkey breast while still keeping it attached (butterflied) to the rest of the breast into the neck area, where there is skin but meat. The breast meat should be rectangular in shape. Cover with plastic wrap and pound slightly with a mallet until the meat is of equal thickness, remove plastic.

Cover cut side with sliced prosciutto and place filling lengthwise, two-inches up from the bottom long edges and 1-inch from the sides.

Roll up like a jelly roll, using the bottom plastic to aid in the rolling. Remove the plastic wrap and tie horizontally at 1-inch increments.

Place roasting pan into oven and heat for 5 minutes. Add the remaining two tablespoons of oil and turkey roll and sear each side until browned, about 12 to 15 minutes. Tent with foil and cook for 1 hour, rotating the pan occasionally.

Remove the pan from the oven and distribute the fennel and onion around the turkey. Replace the foil and continue cooking for 45 to 60 minutes more, or until the internal temperature reaches 155 degrees. Continue to rotate the pan while the turkey cooks and stir the fennel and onion to prevent them from burning.

When done, remove the pan from the oven, add the white wine and allow to rest for 15 minutes.

Slice into 1-inch pieces and serve with roasted vegetables and pan juices.

You can reach Staff Writer Diane Peterson at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.