Please Be Kind, and Brine!

Last year was my very first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner, or at least the turkey! I have to admit that it was honestly the best turkey I've ever tasted! The best thing about my turkey is that it was moist. No one wants a dried out piece of turkey on their plate. The key to keeping the turkey moist is brining, which is basically a salt solution that you soak the turkey in before cooking.
I cannot find the exact recipe that we used last year, but the one below is very close, with the exception that our recipe had sugar in it as well. Instead of a pot we used a 10 gallon bucket (aka: The Turkey Bucket) for our turkey - he needs room to swim around a little! It is usually cold enough here in Tennessee that you can actually leave the brining turkey outside with the lid on the bucket to "refrigerate" it. Give brining a try - you won't regret it!



INGREDIENTS
1 cup salt
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 orange, cut into wedges
1 medium onion, cut into wedges
3 cloves garlic
4 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 1/2 gallons cold water



DIRECTIONS
Rub salt onto your turkey, and place remaining salt, lemons, oranges, onion, garlic, bay leaves, thyme and pepper into a large pot. Place the turkey in the pot, and fill with water. Refrigerate overnight. Discard brine after removing turkey.



P.S. Do not discard the lemons, oranges and onions after brining or buy more to stuff inside the turkey!
Also, I basted my turkey the ole Martha Stewart way:

1 stick unsalted butter
1 stick of melted butter
1 1/2 cups of dry white wine (I used a white cooking wine that had a touch of lemon in it)
Cheesecloth (big enough to cover turkey)

Directions:

Rub butter on turkey. Soak cheesecloth in melted butter and white wine mixture. Ring out excess into the bowl and cover turkey with cheesecloth. Save remaining mixture for basting. Bast every 30 minutes. If turkey is browning too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil.
Always cook turkey to temperature. The timing on the turkey package is a good reference as to how long it might take to cook completely, but it has to be cooked to the proper temperature, so get a meat thermometer!