A while back I went on and on about turkey. Having recently roasted another big bird, I have a few observations on the process, along with another food bonus for those willing to wander back in to the kitchen with me.
The primary thing I want to emphasize is the importance of the bird being of uniform temperature. I was in a bit of a hurry with this last turkey, and while it was completely thawed, I didn’t let it come to room temperature throughout before beginning the roasting. The result? It roasted very unevenly: the uppermost breast meat was bordering on stringy, while the interior was barely done. Interestingly, too, the outer meat was close to dry, but the interior was very juicy still—so mind the turkey closely when it’s approaching completion and you’ll be much more likely to end up on the right side of that line.
To be clear, I don’t think it matters so much whether you do as I do, and have the bird at room temperature before roasting—although that will cut down on cooking time significantly—or if it’s been refrigerated and is completely thawed, but cold. The uniformity of temperature is most important here, not what temperature the whole bird is.
This time I also made a point of sampling the roasted veggies, so that I could answer lewlew’s question about that. The celery was a little too soft for my liking, and I believe I forgot to add an onion to the pot because I don’t recall seeing any in the pan, but the carrots were excellent. Next time I might just add a bunch more veggies in order to be able to serve them as a side dish—and what could be an easier side dish? Chop ’em up, drop ’em in the pan, and fish ’em out of the gravy when it’s done ...
Okay, bonus time, before I drool enough to short out my keyboard: on the making of mashed potatoes. We’ve done a round on this subject once here already, but I didn’t provide any corroborating evidence to support my claim that from-scratch mashed potatoes are very easy. So here ’tis. I’ve tried almost every method I’ve read for making mashed potatoes, and this procedure has become my standard. Yes, I know it sounds fussy; but once you get the proportions of dairy down and have run through the prep a time or two, it is actually very easy and quick, and will pretty much ensure fluffy potatoes rather than dense, gluey ones. They keys are heat; dryness of the potatoes; and adding the dairy components in the proper order.
Fresh potatoes taste best, and the older (softer) they are the less flavorful they’ll be. And that reminds me: the variety of potato is important too. I used to have a card on which I’d printed a method for telling if a potato is better for baking/mashing, or for boiling, but I haven’t been able to find it; fortunately, a much more exhaustive resource of loads of spud information is easily available.
Peel the potatoes (if desired) and cut into a small-medium dice. Too large and it takes a long time to cook, which means a lot of the flavor ends up in the water; but too small and they’ll fall apart. Have a pot with a small amount of cold water standing by to put the freshly-cut potatoes in, to prevent discoloration. Once all the potatoes are processed, add more water to the pot if necessary, to just cover the potatoes. (Again, too much water dilutes their flavor.) Add a good dollop of salt, cover, and cook until the potatoes fairly easily come apart under a fork.
While the potatoes are cooking, place a colander in the bowl you’ll be using for mashing the potatoes. (Having that bowl hot helps ensure fluffy mashed potatoes, and using the cooking water is an easy way of achieving that.) Melt some butter and, if necessary, put it somewhere to keep it warm; do the same with some milk, half and half, or cream (milk works the best, in my opinion; half & half makes for creamier potatoes but they’re close to too dense for my taste; and of course that means that full cream is right out). How much of each you’ll need depends on the amount of potatoes you’re making, and how creamy you prefer them. Experiment and make note of your preferences once you attain mashed potato nirvana.
When the potatoes are done cooking, drain them quickly, then return to the hot pot and set back on the warm burner. Shake the pot now and again—this step drives off more moisture and will help keep the potatoes from sticking. While the potatoes are drying, pour the water out of the now-hot mixing bowl and prepare it for mashing. (I use my wonderful Kitchen Aid mixer with the regular mixing paddle.)
Put the potatoes into the bowl and set the mixer to mashing the potatoes, at the highest speed that keeps them in the bowl. Scrape down the bowl as necessary to ensure no “vitamins”, as my mother called the lumps. Once there are no lumpy bits in the potatoes, turn the speed down (if necessary) and pour in the hot butter while continuing to mix. Then add the milk or cream—just enough to get the consistency you like. (If the potatoes will be held for a bit, add a bit more as they stiffen up as they sit.) It is very important to always add the butter first, then the milk/cream. Taste and adjust salt and butter, if necessary. Serve immediately.
To reheat leftover mashed potatoes, warm them a bit first, then add more melted butter and milk to get the desired texture.
Notes: I don’t add pepper to the mashed potatoes because it isn’t a vital flavor component, and I often do things with leftover mashed potatoes that require no pepper. If this isn’t a concern for you, feel free to pepper away, and/or add other flavorings to the potatoes.
Learnings from a Recent Turkey Adventure
I like to mash yukon potatoes best
I like to have some "vitamins" in my potatoes, so I usually use a handheld masher, rather than the mixer. Like Gospazha, I do the mashing in the warm pot after draining the spuds.
To mix up the flavors, I will add garlic cloves to the pot of spuds 4 or 5 minutes prior to their "done" time and mash them all together after draining the liquid. I'll have to try adding sour cream instead of milk. That sounds really tasty.
Thank you, Sunni, for the report on the veggies' flavor. They sound delicious, minus the too soft celery. I'm not a huge cooked celery fan, anyway. Hard root vegetables, like carrots and potatoes would be terrific served on the side, after simmering all morning with the bird. I'll have to try it.
We had ham on Christmas day, Tee's special request. I used the recipe the kids' grammie favors, per Rosie's request. It was an interesting experiment.
Potatoes, Yum!
Your mashed potato methodology pretty much matches the way my mom taught me to make them, even drying them quickly on the burner after you drain them. My only deviations are that I mix them in the pot in which they were cooked, with an electric mixer, rather than a heated mixing bowl ...
Then I must be on the right path! Have you tried cooking them whole, skin-on, then peeling and mashing? It’s supposed to leave the most potato flavor, but my one attempt was pretty much disastrous. The potatoes were too hot to hold, and peeling was much more difficult—and not just because my hands were burning the whole time. If I had a handheld mixer I’d use the pot, too, but I don’t ...
Yukon Golds are good mashers, I agree, lewlew; and the very best potatoes are as fresh from the field as one can get. Where Lobo lives, there are a few potato stores that sell to the public, even though they are primarily distribution centers. He can get all sorts of delicious varieties, and inexpensively as well. And before anyone objects that potatoes aren’t nutritious, the wonderful World’s Healthiest Foods site disagrees.
If I have leftovers, I generally cook with them, rather than reheat them for eating as is; that’s why I don’t gussy up my mashed potatoes with other flavors. But you two have me rethinking that, as your suggestions would probably work well for anything I make except lefse. And, sadly, I don’t make that very often.
Thank you, Sunni, for the report on the veggies' flavor. They sound delicious, minus the too soft celery. I'm not a huge cooked celery fan, anyway. Hard root vegetables, like carrots and potatoes would be terrific served on the side, after simmering all morning with the bird. I'll have to try it.
I roasted my largest turkey ever yesterday, and learned some more: when the roasting times start to approach 3.5 hours, the veggies are likely to burn, even in the pan drippings. All of the onions in the pan yesterday carbonized, as did much of the celery. Fortunately, it didn’t ruin the gravy, but it wasn’t nearly the most flavorful gravy I’ve made (the color was deep and gorgeous, though). Next time I have a really large bird, I’ll hold off on adding the veggies until an hour or so in to roasting; I think that would cover it.
We had ham on Christmas day, Tee's special request. I used the recipe the kids' grammie favors, per Rosie's request. It was an interesting experiment.
I love good ham, but it’s practically impossible to find good ham here. Will you be sharing the experiment? I’d love to see it.
Irish Ham
The kids' grammie bakes ham using a recipe called "Irish Baked Ham." You make a "bread" dough from flour and water (I'm sure there's many gluten free flours you could use). The recipe calls for 8 cups of flour to ~2.5 cups water for a 4 # center cut ham. My ham was almost 9# so I increased the flour by 2 cups, and the water incrementally, until I had a sticky, bread dough consistency. The recipe also calls for soaking the ham overnight before baking, which I did not do. I forgot.
You plaster the outside of the ham with the dough (consistency is important; if it's too wet, it'll slide off the ham)and I guess seal it to the bottom of the roasting pan. At least that's what I did, as the directions were vague on this part. You bake it at 350 degree until done-- the recipe called for 2 hours (or until crust is nicely browned) for the 4 pound ham. The instructions on the outside of the spiral cut ham I bought said 1 hour 30 minutes for the bone in ham, so I followed the package baking time instead because the crust was browned and hard. When finished baking, let the ham cool for approximately 30 minutes, and then crack the crust off the ham.
I like a ham flavored with cloves, dijon mustard and honey, so I made a glaze of sorts with about an 1/8 of a cup of honey, 3-4 squirts of dijon and whole cloves, which I smoothed over the ham's surface before applying the dough. I also stuck cloves through out the spiral slices and on the face of the ham.
The ham was very moist and flavorful. It was a fun experiment! It was messy, however, and if you try it, remove all rings before dealing with the dough. It'll dry like glue in your settings.
Why toss potato water?
Here I go again! :) Forgive an old Scotswoman, but why throw the potato water away? The left over water can be saved to add to soup or stew.
I just cook cubed potatoes (peeled, since the skins of commercial potatoes are probably full of chemicals), then mash with an old fashioned heavy wire thing. All I add is some of the potato water, butter and salt. I don't care about the occasional lump either.
When I've grown my own potatoes, nothing could make me throw out the skins, but store bought potatoes are usually so full of dents, dings and even small rot spots that I don't even try to save them. I got a nice bag of red potatoes the other day and have them in the cellar, but I suspect they will not have skins worth eating either.
Space, mostly.
Here I go again! :) Forgive an old Scotswoman, but why throw the potato water away? The left over water can be saved to add to soup or stew.
I don’t have room to store it, unfortunately. The next crop I really want to try growing is potatoes; having had very fresh ones while in the PNW, I now know what I’ve been missing.
Mmm...Taters.
I certainly cannot find anything wrong with your tater methodology. It's tried and true. As for skin on cooking, that's pretty much all we do here at my place. We nuke the potatoes (I have a great microwave with a cooking sensor) and then cut them into skin on chunks. Squeeze them through a ricer then mix with the usual ingredients (plus a spoonful of mayo for an added punch). No burned fingers and you get smooth mashed potatoes every time. As for types. I've used pretty much all of them, even purples. I usually stick to a nice russet, tho. They're forgiving and non waxy.
Pretty much matches...
Your mashed potato methodology pretty much matches the way my mom taught me to make them, even drying them quickly on the burner after you drain them. My only deviations are that I mix them in the pot in which they were cooked, with an electric mixer, rather than a heated mixing bowl, and that I also prefer sour cream instead of regular milk or cream.
And sometimes I'll leave the skins on half the potatoes, just to change things up.
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