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4.5
~ Over the past 33 years I've experimented with baking broth and fruit halves inside the turkey for moisture, coating it with rubs, a $100 self-basting roaster pan, baking it upside-down for the first hour, deep-frying it, and various brining recipes for 36 hours. Every method produced good and very moist results but brining infused a very unhealthy amount of salt/sodium into my meals and deep-frying was dangerous, expensive and infused tons of unhealthy grease, fat and cholesterol. And worst of all is that those methods usually burdened me with so many hassles, extra costs, time, work, distractions and monitoring - that I almost always felt very disappointed afterwards because I was left with almost NO time to visit with anyone! But my 1st infusion-roasted turkey turned out THE VERY BEST EVER, with almost no prep work, AND BAKED IN 1/2 THE TIME... so I now serve unique and outstanding poultry, I enjoy quality time with my guests and the whole holiday is better for everyone.~ So I'll just say ''Ditto'' to the other high reviews and I'll share some tips and flavor ideas that I adapted from many years of brining because they've been working EVEN BETTER as my infusion liquids. You'll never make 'boring' or bland chicken or turkey ever again if you're not afraid to try new things because infusion merely does a superb job of enhancing the natural meat flavors just like any other effective seasoning method does and your bird won't bake long enough for the infused flavors to become overpowering! First, you'll only need to make 1 C.up of infusion liquid, AND if you want an outdoor grilled flavor from an oven-baked bird just add a little bit of 'Liquid Smoke' to your infusion liquid (sold at most grocery stores) or just add in 1/8 C. of molasses into your liquid for a very similar affect (adapted from a BBQ pro) or a bit of Worcestershire sauce!! A simple, traditional infusion mix, (especially for stronger-flavored fowl like duck or pheasant) is to merely mix some onion bits, celery leaves, a bit of garlic and your favorite poultry seasoning and herbs into plain water or else chicken stock/bouillon is better for chicken or turkey. And adding 1/3 C. of honey to ANY of your infusion liquids is ALWAYS Outstanding - like a good Mead compared to only beer, but mead is very expensive and very hard to get! I like mixing 1/2 C. apricot/pineapple preserves and my herbs and seasonings to 1/2 C. water, stock or bouillon for the liquid. Apple juice/cider (or plain apple cut into bits), white cranberry juice (or several cranberries), lemonade, orange juice or orange marmalade are all commonly used infusion liquids and they're all very good, but I especially like using the small can's of different exotic fruit nectars that are usually sold in the Mexican Foods section of almost all grocery stores (the Guava nectar was excellent but you may want to try them on a chicken first if you're unfamiliar with the flavor). I also liked using some of the herbal teas by Celestial Seasonings and I think that just plain Coconut milk will be awesome for my next turkey (I'll season inside the bird). The point is to NOT be afraid to open your mind to new things, have fun expiramenting and JUST GET CREATIVE; or check out the The Flavor Bible: The Essential Guide to Culinary Creativity, Based on the Wisdom of America's Most Imaginative Chefs from your library for more inspiration!!~ AND a few more infusion-poultry roasting tips and other secrets and nuggets: Take the infusion rod to a hardware store to buy a cork (REAL cork, not rubber) to put in the end of it, otherwise a majority of the flavored steam will never get forced into the bird cavity for the very, very best results. Regardless of which brand infuser that you buy, take the time to watch the YouTube.com video instructions for prepping the turkey, inserting it onto the Sante infusion roaster and baking it; just search for ''How to Cook the Perfect Turkey''. AND TRUST ME HERE: YOU -N-E-E-D- -T-O- put a cup or two of water or broth into the roasting pan or cookie sheet that you set the infuser onto, otherwise the drippings from the bird can start to burn and smoke up your house and even keep setting-off your fire alarms! Microwave your liquid for a minute right before pouring it into the infuser tube and putting it into the oven so it will turn to steam much faster. I FINALLY successfully cooked a duck using this infuser because it cooks from the inside too, BUT also cut a lot of slits through the insulating layer of fat on the bottom so it will melt away faster to let the oven heat get to the meat. Using Chicken Bouillon cubes is far cheaper than buying stock for your liquid and it's very small and long-lasting so it's easy to always keep on hand, AND although you can get low-sodium bouillon, using standard bouillon cubes in your liquid reduces your prep time because they're salty enough that you won't need to add ANY additional salt to your liquid OR rub salt anywhere else on the bird. Always pat the skin dry all over and thoroughly grease the skin with butter or olive oil to keep it from drying out too quickly, but only salt the inside of the bird if you didn't add salt or bouillon cubes into your liquid. Don't waste your time adding any seasonings or herbs on top the skin unless you really like seasoning-flavored skin because flavoring DOES NOT effectively penetrate through the skin into the meat. Also don't waste your time with the awkward hassle of trying to rub seasonings UNDER the skin; if you just add all of your seasonings into your liquid then the steam will do a much, much, much better job of cooking your flavors into the meat. I learned from Emeril to cook turkeys at 425 degrees for the first 1/2 hour then reduce the heat to 350-375 degrees because it not only reduces the cooking time but it jump-starts the skin to browning which helps to hold the moisture into the meat better. AND THE VERY BEST SECRET THAT I EVER FIGURED OUT is for getting the thick legs more thoroughly cooked at 'almost' the same time as the thinner body meat reaches 165 degrees, AND it works for EVERY roasting method and for EVERY bird: Before cooking the bird insert 2 or 3 potato nails (NEVER EVER use ANY regular nails unless you want food poisoning) or else insert your shish-kabob skewers well into the thick section of each leg (I put them lengthwise), and especially on the body side of the legs where the heat permeates last and takes longer to heat thoroughly; even though it looks unusual, the food-safe metal acts like a heat sink and transfers the heat directly into the thicker meat to help it cook faster and get it done before the thinner meat gets overly-done or starts to dry out. This trick obviously reduces your overall cooking time by at least 10% but it all depends on your roasting method; just avoid touching the metal with your meat thermometer. Always allow ALL cooked meat to just 'rest' for a while after cooking and before cutting into it to allow the juices to redistribute, and for turkeys I just set the turkey on the serving platter and COVER IT with my deep roasting pan (for cost-saving and environmental reasons compared to tin foil) for 1/2 hour while my side dishes bake. Last few things: Just use clean pot holders over your hands to pull the bird off this roaster but I always need a helper to hold the infuser down for me. As soon as the infuser is cool enough to handle safely I always rinse it out and fill it with hot soapy water to soak. And I'm determined to figure out a way to use this gadget for infusion-baking roasts and especially for my infamous honey & cherry hams, so I'll try to remember to update this review or add a comment when I succeed!~ And to make this review even more helpful for everyone, if you've learned any successful ideas, recipe's or tips for infusion cooking, please take a moment to write them out and leave them in the comments below so that everyone can learn and enjoy your creativity.
