How scientists do Thanksgiving

To the objective compulsive, Thanksgiving offers great opportunities for exercising our analytical skills. I get to plan out pot and pan usage while selecting a suite of recipes that complement each other in terms of when they all have to be started to finish at the same time but not require more than four range burners and one oven with two racks, fit in the oven at the same time as a turkey and roasting pan, be compatible with the temperatures required of other oven-cooked dishes, etc.

The biggest concern for the anal-retentive is making sure all of the dishes are finished at the same time, and at the time that dinner is intended to be served! Sure, I can make use of a bevy of other techniques like keep food warm in the oven warming drawer (but I never do), and I do boil water in my tea kettle to fill the serving dishes in advance to heat them before adding the food (remember to dump the water first!) But, it is so much more satisfying to have the dishes all finish at the same time, as planned!

The master of ceremonies for Thanksgiving dishes is the turkey, of course. The turkey dictates the cooking schedule and presents the biggest challenge: knowing how long it will take your turkey to cook. If you can accurately estimate this, then it is relatively simple to work backward from the finish time to know when to start the rest of the dishes. Buy yourself a probe thermometer, and this dilemma is solved.

I take my turkey tips from Alton Brown and have been using his roast turkey recipe for over a decade, well before I met him at a book-signing ca. 2005:

Alton's recipe involves starting the brined, patted-dry, oiled turkey on a rack in a roasting pan in a hot oven (he says 500°F, I do 450°C) for a half-hour before dropping the oven temperature to 350°C until finished. The only other (slight) deviation from his plan is that I keep the bottom of the roasting pan covered in a thin layer of water to keep the drippings from burning during roasting. Burnt drippings = horrible tasting gravy later, among other problems. Other benefits: no cooked-on turkey goodness to scrub off of the pan during clean-up, and you produce some turkey stock during the roasting.

A critical component of the process is inserting a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the turkey breast when you introduce Tom to the oven. This is the best way to monitor the cooking of the centerpiece of your meal. Record the temperature at regular intervals, and you can produce the following data set (this year from a 15.4 lb. bird):

Yesterday (as with last Christmas), I was able to fit the increase in turkey temp very nicely (check out that r-square value!) to a 3rd-degree polynomial! It is useful to note that internal temperature has a predictable increase. By two hours into cooking (120 minutes), I had a really good idea that I would be pulling the turkey from the oven (always at 161°F internal temperature) two more hours hence. Let the turkey rest after it comes out of the oven - I plan on 45 minutes between removing from the oven and slicing, and my probe thermometer has revealed that the turkey breast continues to increase in temperature beyond 165°F (the target temp. for properly cooked turkey) in that period of time. I always buy one of the aluminum foil roasting pans for this resting phase. It is a great way to collect any juices that make their way out of the bird and collect them for gravy, and the high walls and lips of the pan make it easy to cover with a sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil (to keep the heat in).

Now that I can predict turkey finish time up to two hours before oven removal, I have 2.5+ hours of lead time before serving to get the rest of the dishes prepped and cooked. This Thanksgiving, this meant:
T-70 m.: two 9x13 glass baking dishes preheat in oven with 2 Tbsp. crisco each
T-65 m.: par-boiled baking potatoes, cut into chunks, go into baking dishes for roast potatoes
T-60 m.: start boiling water and butter for stuffing (used the Trader Joe's cornbread stuffing mix)
T-45 m.: turkey out of the oven at 161°C internal breast temperature
T-35 m.: water for carrots on to boil; stuffing goes in the oven; roasting potatoes stirred
T-30 m.: defat turkey drippings and add to saucepan with 2 bay leaves to reduce to 2 c.
T-20 m.: put carrots on to gently braise; prep roux for gravy
T-10 m.: whisk reduced drippings into roux and bring to gentle boil (gravy!)
T-0 m.: everything is ready to pull, serve, and devour!

After dinner, there are two chores left: cleaning (which I don't mind) and disassembling the turkey. Last night, we only ate one breast, so we have plenty of leftovers this year (as intended). The other breast gets removed whole and refrigerated for later slicing for sandwiches. I pick over the rest of the turkey and chunk/shred for leftover dishes (typically Pampered Chef's turkey wreath recipe, my MIL's turkey curry, and turkey noodle soup). The giblets, neck, and turkey bones go in my largest stock pot, full to the brim with water, and cook overnight at the gentlest simmer (small bubbles lazily, but regularly, breaking the surface) to produce some fabulous turkey stock for the curry and the soup. This always makes extra stock that I freeze to use throughout the year in risottos and other dishes that require really excellent stock.