Roasting Your Heritage Turkey

I decided to offer some suggestions for roasting your heritage, Bourbon Red turkey from Sojourn Farms.  I first purchased a heritage turkey for Thanksgiving 2007, my first Thanksgiving as a married woman.  I had heard somewhere that "heritage birds are better brined", so I went about looking that up and followed Martha Stewart's Turkey Brine recipe, which very conveniently happened to arrive in my mailbox in the November issue of "Living".  For those of you who did purchase turkeys from us, I hope the supplied brining kit was informative and easy to use.  You're on your way to a flavorful, holiday turkey!

Now, to go about roasting your Bourbon Red turkey, I'll tell you how I do it.

First, make sure you give yourself enough time!  Cooking a turkey requires a lot of preparation and planning.  Know what time you plan to serve your Thanksgiving meal and work backwards from there:  The turkey needs to sit 30 minutes (tented with foil) after being removed from the oven; add another 15 minutes if you carve it before placing it on the table; it needs so many minutes per pound in the oven, etc.

Let's get started.  Remember, when roasting a brined turkey, to be conservative with applying any more salt to both the turkey and your basting sauce and gravy.

1. Remove turkey from brine. Discard brine. Pat turkey dry inside and out with paper towels. Place, breast side up, either on a rack set in a roasting pan. Let the turkey come to room temperature for up to 1 1/2 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 475 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Tuck wings under turkey. Gently separate skin from breast, and rub unsalted butter under the skin on each side.  
3. If you like, fill cavity with stuffing of your choice.  You may also place herb sprigs, bay leaves, apple cores, onions and other flavor-imparting veggies in the cavity.
4. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine.  You may also scatter apples,  celery, carrots, mushrooms -- any combination of roasting veggies that sounds good to you -- around the rack. If you brined the neck and giblets, place them in pan. Add about 2 1/2 cups water (or 1 1/2 cups water and 1 cup dry, white wine) to pan.
5. Roast turkey for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees. Baste with pan juices, and tent with foil (make sure it doesn't touch the turkey; it will stick and pull off the skin). Roast, rotating pan, adding more water if pan is dry, and basting halfway through, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reaches 150 degrees, about 2 1/2 hours, but longer if your turkey is stuffed. Let turkey stand for 30 minutes before transferring to a platter and carving.  Reserve pan with contents for making gravy.

There you have the basics.  I don't usually stuff my turkey because it extends roasting time and the brining serves the purpose of keeping the meat moist.  Feel free to get creative and try out your own combinations of herb butters, herbs/veggies inside the bird, etc.  Just keep in mind that your brined turkey probably doesn't need additional salting.

Here are some tips and another great heritage turkey recipe from Local Harvest.  The New York Times even published a recipe for "Simple Heritage Roast Turkey".  Mary's Turkeys is another great resource.  Check out their Heritage Turkey Recipe and suggested roasting times by weight.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!