The Turkey that Came in from the Cold
Another Thanksgiving has come and gone, along with the usual assortment of mini-triumphs and mini-disasters that always seem to accompany this most food-centric of holidays. I have been brining my turkey the last few years, which in and of itself causes many problems in a NYC apartment. We have a small fridge, so finding a cool place to brine the turkey in overnight is always an issue. This year I decided to brine it on a friend's penthouse terrace in our building.
I placed the turkey along with ten gallons of water and two cups of salt in a plastic storage bin I bought at my local hardware store, and deposited it on the aforementioned terrace at 6 p.m. the night before Thanksgiving. At midnight I logged on to get my email and also checked on the weather. Winds of more than 20 mph were forecast for NYC and vicinity that night, and those winds began to prey upon my usual pre-Thanksgiving anxiety. We went to bed around 12:15, and I found myself thinking about the turkey flying off the roof and killing or maiming some innocent bystander in for the Thanksgiving Day parade (our apartment is just a few blocks from where the parade begins). So after tossing and turning and considering this possibility for about an hour I decided to take the turkey in for the night. I took the elevator up to the penthouse and brought the turkey in from the cold and wind. I was relieved not to find anyone sleeping in the apartment (my friends were in Rome, and I hadn't told them I was going to brine my turkey at their place, so I was more than a little concerned that I was going to walk in to find friends of theirs staying there). I had already rehearsed what I was going to say: "Don't be scared. I'm just a friend and neighbor taking my turkey in from the cold."
I brought the turkey in and put it and some of the brining liquid in a big pasta pot in my friend's fridge. I took the plastic container with the rest of the now-bloody brining liquid back down to our house, and put it in our bathtub. Armed with the knowledge that my turkey was not going to wreak havoc in anyone else's life that night, I slept like a baby.
Oh, yeah, the brined turkey was magnificent. Even the white meat was tender and moist.
And even though there was an incident at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which slightly injured two people, I knew that my turkey wasn't responsible.
