The smell of freshly baked cinnamon buns heralds Christmas morning at our house - it just wouldn't be Christmas without them! Except my girls have never been partial to cinnamon, so I make one batch with a rich chocolate filling - they disappear so fast, you wouldn't believe it!
Later in the day we have more traditional fare - which for us, means turkey. Except I can't be bothered with a whole turkey, so just cook a whole breast on the bone. This year I stumbled across advice from Stephanie Alexander, a renowned Australian chef and author, on how to cook the perfect turkey. You wet some cheesecloth and soak it in a herbed butter mixture, then wrap the turkey. Bake for 30 mins per kg and rest for half an hour before removing the cloth. Here is what it looks like straight out of the oven. Thos wrinkles are the cloth.
When you peel it off, you have a beautifully cooked turkey - no basting!! I did keep adding a cup of water to the pan (the turkey was sitting on a rack), to stop the juices burning, and I ended up with a beautiful thick rich turkey flavoured jelly, after I had drained off the fat. That went into the gravy. So, very successful, and it kept the oven clean as there was no spattering like you get when you baste.
I washed the cloth to see it if would keep the gorgeous mahogany coloured marks, and it did, but the cloth disintegrated. Shame - I thought I might have discovered turkey dyeing to complement my rust dyeing!
2 comments:
That's funny Hilary because when I saw the cloth on the turkey I thought to myself "I wonder if the stain remained in the cloth.
I use the same pudding cloth each year and it has some very nice stains on it after about 4 years.
turkey dyeing - what an idea! those cinnamon rolls look great - I love cinnamon...
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