Bourbon Turkey

[SSBourbon1]

Well, last year I tried a very simple marinating of my turkey with bourbon soaked cheese cloth inside and out, cooking on a rotisserie with the cloths in the cavity and it came out great but did not really notice any bourbon influence.

This year I am going to attempt another bourbon turkey but I plan to inject the turkey with a combination of AAA 10 year and broth to see how the influence of bourbon is on the turkey. Last year I think that I used Old Crow as that was a cheap mixing one for me. But the AAA has my eye for good possibilities.

Any thoughts on this let me know. I will surely post how it comes out.

[bobbyc]

I can be of no help but it sounds like a good plan.My thoughts on cooking with bourbon are simple, If it's good enough to cook with , surely it's good enough to drink. Some go for the cheap-o bourbon for the cooking, while I don't get too high I use a better grade. I did have some Stagg bourbon balls last year and a whiskey cake with VanWinkle10-107. Just my thoughts. You can go Barton and get good and inexpensive in 1 fell swoop.
Awaiting results, it should be very good.


<font color="brown"> Good God Give Patrick Moraz Some </font>

[jeff]

I agree with Bobby, use the best bourbon you feel comfortable with when cooking. I would recommend something like Weller 7 or 12. I think the sweetness of these bourbons helps to caramelize whatever you are cooking and I think they would go great on a bird.

BTW, I also made Stagg bourbon balls last year and I think they were the best I have ever had. I really enjoy mine with a stong bourbon flavor. Those were some happy pecans

[SSBourbon1]

I was thinking about the sweetness issue as well, I have a little Weller Centenial left and Some others, I gues I am going to have to sample alllll of the collection tonight to decide which one would be best. Hopefully I'll leave some for the bird! Thanks for your input on this.

[Paradox]

Recently they had a Martha Stewart episode on Food TV where they soaked the turkey in a brine solution with 2 cups of Wild Turkey 101. Try Food tv for the recipe.

[doubleblank]

I've brined many a turkey and duck over the years and they taste great. I've used both bourbon and beer in the brining solution. My Brines are basically 1/4 cup salt +/-, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup molassas, minced garlic, black pepper, one dark beer or 1 cup bourbon and 2 cups water (or more to cover the bird in question). You can scale this up for a large turkey. Let it soak at least three hours and keep it cold while brining by putting some ice cubes in the solution. Makes me want to brine a duck for tomorrow.

DoubleBlank

[pepcycle]

Try concentrating the bourbon by carefully (repeat carefully) heating and reducing down to 25% volume. This will concentrate the flavors and reduce the water and alcohol content. Use the reduced bourbon to add to your marinade. I've done this will several bourbons and it works good on poultry.

[jbutler]

You can minimize the risk factor for such an operation by placing your container of bourbon inside a container of water. Heat the water.

[Gillman]

I once tried this for a different reason. Since aging is partly the result of evaporation and "concentration", I thought if I reduce the volume of the whiskey by half I could add another ten years or so of aging. True, the oak factor wasn't the same, but I thought adding oak chips would handle this aspect.

To say the experiment didn't work would be an understatement.

[SSBourbon1]

Many a time I have reduced a bottle of wine to a cup's worth through boiling for a sauce on Fillet Mignions. And that tasted quite good. I think that I may use some of these brining ideas and reduce but still inject it into the turkey. I will surely be cooking some good brew tonight. Probably AAA 10yr molassas, broth. These are at least my initial thoughts.