If Jacques Pepin does it, that’s good enough for me.
Steam your turkey like Jacques Pepin
I’ve tested recipes for many great chefs, but my most outstanding assignment was when I was asked by the New York Times to test Jacques Pepin’s recipe for Thanksgiving turkey. When we conferred on the phone he was enormously kind and easy to talk to, and he did not mind my repeated calls and questions. He allowed one of our staff to visit him at his home, who wrote about that memorable afternoon.
Though this all happened nine years ago, I use Jacques Pepin’s method to this day. I wrote about how to steam your turkey like Jacques Pepin – and you can find his recipe – in a New York Times Diner’s Journal blog here. And because it makes Thanksgiving dinner so much easier than brining or long cooking with constant basting, it’s a recipe I highly recommend.
The Why and the How
Steamed turkey doesn’t sound appealing, but the turkey is actually roasted after the steaming. There are two excellent reasons to cook your turkey this way. One is that it lets you do most of the work the day before you serve it, and provides a nice amount of broth for gravy that you can also prepare ahead. The other, even better, reason is that it ensures a moist bird, breast to drumstick.
The main drawback to this method is that the bird must be steamed in a pot with a secure lid – no foil lids or jerry-rigged parchment. That confines the size to about 16 pounds. I have solved that problem by cooking two birds, and I admit to cramming a somewhat larger bird into a pot to make it fit.
I always steam my turkey the day before I serve it, then refrigerate it overnight and roast it the next day. I make my stuffing the day before as well, spread it in a casserole dish to cool it quickly, and refrigerate overnight. Cranberry sauce is, of course, is made ahead of time.
Making it even easier
I cheat a little on this recipe. Chef Pepin calls for cutting off the ends of the drumsticks, which I did diligently for years though I don’t like the look of the denuded ends. Removing the ends of the drumsticks allows you to pull out the sinews later, a chef’s nicety. One day I left them and decided the sacrifice was worth it.
The recipe describes taking the turkey from steaming to the oven. I steam mine the day before I roast it because that’s what the Chef told me he does. If Jacques Pepin does it, that’s good enough for me.
I brush the roasting bird with the glaze provided by the recipe, but I don’t make the white wine sauce. I like lots of gravy, and I always make a large quantity, doubling Mark Bittmans’ recipe for Make-Ahead Gravy.
Turkey any time
I really like to cook a turkey. The fragrance of a cooking turkey is the essence of comfort, up there with baking bread. I love chestnut stuffing with fresh sage, and I cook some in the roasting bird as well as separately in a casserole.
My secret for an easy way to “roast” chestnuts is to buy peeled packaged chestnuts (the cheap ones are fine) and toss them whole in a hot dry skillet until they are blackened on the edges. Then I let them cool and crumble them coarsely into my cornbread-based stuffing.
I associate turkey with festive times and large gatherings, but when my kids were growing up we would always pick a chilly weekend in early spring to have a turkey dinner for just the few of us. We did it all, hors d’ouevres to dessert, a fire in the fireplace, wind in the trees, and the first daffodils poking their heads out of the wet earth in the rain.
The kids are grown and the family is scattered now, but everyone still loves turkey – cooked the Jacques Pepin way.
Recipe for Jacques Pepin’s Steamed and Roasted Turkey
This recipe for Jacques Pepin’s steamed and roasted turkey is the one I prefer over countless other recipes I’ve tried over the years. It can be steamed, cooled, covered and refrigerated, then roasted the next day. The point of steaming before roasting is that the meat is stays moist and flavorful – and it yields lots of broth for Mark Bittman’s Make-Ahead Gravy. It also makes the roasting time short.
I must note that this is a simplified version of the original recipe, cutting out a few steps and eliminating a sauce to be added to the roasting pan juices.
For this recipe you’ll need a large deep pot with a tightly-fitting lid, like a canning pot or large lobster pot. Don’t try to cover the pot with parchment or foil; the lid must fit snugly to hold in the steam.
Ingredients
To steam and roast the turkey:
- •7-8 Kg (16-18 pound) turkey, neck and giblets removed
- •355 ml (1 1/2 cups) diced carrots
- •2 onions, peeled and diced
For the glaze:
- •118 ml (1/2 cup) apple cider
- •2 tablespoons cider vinegar
- •1 teaspoon Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce
- •½ teaspoon salt
Preparation
To steam the turkey: Make a cut about 2.5 cm (1-inch) deep and 3.8 cm (1½ inches) long at the joint connecting the drumstick and thigh of each leg and at the joint connecting each of the wings and the breast. Place a small wire rack (or crumpled foil) in the bottom of a large stockpot (or other large pot like a canning or lobster pot) and add 1.4 liters (6 cups) of water. Place the turkey (minus the neck, gizzard, heart and liver) in the pot, and bring the water to a boil. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and steam the turkey for about 30 minutes. At this point you may remove the turkey (or allow it to cool in the pot), then cover and refrigerate overnight to roast the next day. The liquid in the pot may be reduced and seasoned to make a broth for gravy.
For the glaze: In a small bowl, mix together the cider, vinegar, Tabasco and salt. Set aside.
To roast the turkey: Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Place the turkey breast side up in a roasting pan. Put the pan in the heated oven, and cook the turkey for 30 minutes. Sprinkle the carrots and onions around it, and stir to coat them with any fat in the pan. Brush the turkey with the glaze, and continue to cook it in the oven for 1½ hours longer, brushing it with the glaze occasionally. If the top of the bird begins to brown too much, cover it loosely with aluminum foil. Remove the turkey from the oven when the breast and the leg register an internal temperature of about 71°C (160°F).
