I don't know what others do but I don't rinse. In fact, if you presalt in advance and then remove the plastic and let the turkey air dry in the fridge over night, you shouldn't even see any salt on the surface.

Ann

So, I think my plan is going to be, today I will salt with pepper and ground thyme, rub all over the turkey inside and outside, on the outside of the skin, wrap in plastic and let sit in fridge until tomorrow night.

Wednesday night I will unwrap, but no rinse, and let sit in fridge.

Thursday morning I will pull out of fridge a while before roasting, to allow the chill to leave meat.

I was planning on using my normal roasting technique. Before roasting I was going to push softened butter between the skin and meat and roast at 400 with convection. (This last part is how I always do chicken and turkey lately but with no brining)

Do you see any problems with this? I have always wet brined the T-day turkey before, but I like how this dry brining and air dry method is supposed to give a very crispy skin, which I often do not have with wet brining.

The problem is that every recipe for dry brining is different. Some say rinse, so say do not rinse, some have the turkey brine for 48 hours, or just overnight. Some have you air dry the turkey in fridge, others say just pat dry.

This will be the first time I cook T day for my parents. Normally I am a great cook and confident in my techniques, but this whole brining issue has me paralyzed with indecision.

Wow, I just saw the Judy Roger's recipe says you let it sit with salt for three days! There is so much variation in how long the recipes have the bird sit in the salt for.

I am so confused, not to mention apparently way to late for the Judy Roger's version. maybe I will just wet brine a day and let air out overnight in the fridge. I am so worried about screwing this up.

I roast on high heat (500ð) and don't bother with putting anything under the skin. But if that is what you normally do, I don't see any problem with it.

Your timing seems perfect.

Ann

I tried Ann's presalting advice for the first time last week. (Or maybe the week before, I don't know, I've slept since then.) I understand the insecurity of trying something for the first time, but the recipe is almost foolproof. I didn't actually use quite as much salt as recommended (about half), and found the seasoning was very good. To begin, I rinsed, patted the birds dry, salted and left them overnight in the fridge before roasting. (DON'T ROAST ON CONVECTION. I should have known this, but I typically use convection when roasting so went into default mode. Instead, I got to clean my oven, which is now sparkling, but not something I really wanted to add to my list.) Like Ann said, by the next morning, there was no evidence of the salt any longer. The birds looked moist/dry. I didn't rinse again (but I used half the recommended amount of salt) and buttered them before they went into the oven. (Neither did I wrap the birds in plastic, but there wasn't anything else in the fridge that would have crossed over, odor-wise.) Personally, I think it's helpful to let the fridge help air-dry the skin.

After trying this method, I can see why it's recommended. It's so much less messy than brining, and the skin was beautiful. Don't worry about the outcome; I'll bet your family will love it and you'll end up lookin' like a rock star.

Three days for presalting seems completely unnecessary to me. (Since I haven't done that, there may be an advantage I'm unaware of, but I thought my birds turned out pretty well.) Since I prefer to keep an abundance of salt out of my diet, I only did this technique for an overnight period. I could certainly taste the salt in the bird, and longer seems a bit overkill to me. I don't think you need to worry about it, really.

OK. I am glad to hear you all have success with a variety of brining times.

I normally am a "just use recipes to get the general idea then wing it" type, but I was getting worried with so many techniques out there (many of whom include instructions that the process must occur EXACTLY as described)

I will stop worrying. :)

Salty taste question...

When you brine a turkey, are the turkey drippings salty? Can drippings be used to make gravy that's not salty? Thanks for any advice.

Mary

When I have time I do the three day presalt on not only turkey and chicken but also on pork and beef. But even if you only have 12 or 24 hours, presalting does make a difference.

Mary, the drippings are not salty using the presalt method. But then again, I never found the drippings salty when I use to brine either.

Ann

I'm moving this back to page one, for people who are starting to look for turkey details.

Well it turned out great.

Tuesday night I took a 11 pound turkey, and combined two two tablespoons of salt, with some ground pepper and thyme, and rubbed all over the inside and out of the turkey with the mixture, put in a two gallon ziplock bag, squeezed as much air out as possible, then into the fridge breast side up. Wednesday morning I turned it breast side down, there was about a quarter cup of liquid in the bag.

Wednesday night right before bed I took the turkey out of the bag and let it sit in the pan in the fridge uncovered. There was about a half cup or more of juice, I was really worried I just sucked all the juice out and made turkey jerkey.

Thursday, I took it out about an hour before cooking, and cut the backbone out (which I commonly do to poultry, because it cooks so much more evenly and faster). I put some butter under the skin, I used salted butter because that was all I had and I was worried it would be too salty.

I cooked it at 400 on convection roast on the very bottomost of the oven. I did consider the caution about fithifying my oven, but, the oven was very dirty to begin with. After 45 minutes I was suprised to find the breast meat was already 122 degrees, so I knocked it down to 375 and let it finish that way. I guess it was a small bird.

I pulled it out when done and let it rest for 15 minutes before carving. The skin was brown and crispy.

There was very very little drippings in the pan, but they were concentrated, (and oddly, very little fat) and while the drippings were way salty, the gravy was perfect (I use homemade unsalted broth).

The turkey turned out great. Neither the meat nor the skin was salty, but nicely flavored, and the meat was firm but juicy.