Note - I am at my best as far away from the kitchen as possible.
But I do enjoy to read.
See NYT of 3 days ago on cooking the Turkeyā¦
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/dining/best-thanksgiving-turkey-recipe.html
It seems THE BEST is to DRY BRINING the bird 3 days prior.
Excerpt:
- Dry-brine the bird, then relax.
In 2006, Russ Parsons of The Los Angeles Times wrote that the best way to roast a turkey whole was to first dry-brine it, which is just a fancy way of saying it should be salted in advance ā ideally two or three days before cooking.
This gives the salt time to draw out the birdās moisture, which then dissolves the salt on the skinās surface and gets pulled back into the meat through a process called [diffusion
When such a bird is roasted, its muscle fibers are better able to hold onto moisture, meaning the cooked turkey will be beyond juicy and well seasoned, with an aged, concentrated flavor and a tempered gaminess.
After all my tests, I am beyond confident that the longer you salt your bird (up to three days maximum), the juicier the meat, the crisper the skin, the more perfect the turkey. I noticed a huge difference between a three-day dry-brined turkey and a two-day dry-brined turkey. But similarly, thereās a notable contrast between a turkey thatās been salted, then immediately roasted, and one salted just a day in advance. (The longer-brined bird tastes way better.)