Carving The Bird

I've written before about the dry brining technique we have used for the past two years for our Thanksgiving turkey, which results in the best turkey you have ever tasted. I've also made some mention of the technique we use for carving the bird, which works wonders with the moist and flavorful dry brined turkey. Well, the Los Angeles Times website still has its carving technique on-line, illustrated step-by-step instructions for your ease of learning.

What I love about this carving technique is that it expertly handles each piece of the big bird and results in the most wonderful distribution of the golden brown skin. This is particularly the case with regards to the breast. You cleave each breast in whole from the bone, removing one gigantic piece of moist meat, wrapped in golden skin. Then you cut the breast crosswise, creating these luscious skin-wrapped medallions of white meat. When you cut a breast the normal way, along the side of the bird, you get one slice with a lot of skin and little meat and then a lot of slices with lots of meat and little skin; the cross-cut method distributes the skin evenly slice to slice.

My wife and I were talking about this this morning, it's almost time to buy our bird, and we both mentioned how we look so forward to cooking the Thanksgiving meal now because 1) the recipe is easy and foolproof, and 2) the carving method makes it even better.

If you are a sandwich kind of person, you might not like this carving method as it does not create those thin, dry tasteless slices you are used to eating the day after Thanksgiving. On the other hand, you may find that you can live without that just fine.