Saturday, November 15, 2014

The Laudable Turkey Roulade

Without the need of a calendar and the plethora of Turkeys lining the shelves one can only think of Thanksgiving. This is unless, of course you live under a rock. All that being said I just love Thanksgiving. For one thing I have a lot to be thankful for and I love food and family. I give all glory to G-D and I am very thankful to HaShem. 

Putting Religion and History aside for the moment this feast should be commemorated by every American!! 

Albeit, Thanksgiving is not all about Pilgrims, Puritans, Indians and religious freedom. Here is an interesting read on Thanksgiving. For me it's all about food and family. The other stuff I will leave to you!!! Ok off my soap box and on to the food!!!


I just can't get enough Turkey!! I have already blogged about this twice which are posted here Turkey Roulade ( first documented version) and Gobble Gobble Roulade my second version. You can call me a stalker of Turkeys the pursuer of Gobblicious. The reason for the third installment of Turkey Roulade is my desire to create something near perfect. I just want to get it right and you can only do this by trial and error. Although there were no errors made in the first two Turkey I wanted to enhance on what was already pretty darn good.

NOTE: Breasts were Dry-Brined with salt for 36 hours. 



In my third version believe I transcended the all my previous versions. This is not to say my previous versions were bad, Au contraire but there is always room for improvement. 





This post will be very short. I just want to recap quickly the changes I've made. I placed sage, Thyme and garlic inside the plastic while rolling up the Turkey Breast. I made sure the herbs did not make any contact with the breast but was on very first outer layer of the plastic. It's my hope that while breast cooks the herbs and garlic will release a perfume of aromas that will surround and enhance the taste of the breast. I didn't want the fresh herbs or garlic to have any direct contact with the breast. Take my word on this because I have ran some experiments with these techniques. What I have concluded is this, Roasted garlic (roasting or frying to avoid botulism) and herbs put in direct contact with the food will overpower the meat and will not flavor the whole thing. All the flavors of the garlic and herbs will be concentrated where they lie. By placing them in the plastic wrap the aromas will seep into the whole breast slowly. The trick is to pierce the plastic wrap with a sausage pricker or toothpick in several places along the cylinder. 



All sealed up and ready for Sous-Vide.
NOTE: IT WAS COOKED AT 145 F FOR 5 HOURS



Here is my review which should be my last post on Turkey Roulade. What an improvement over the last two. 


I correctly hypothesized that the perfume of the herbs and garlic would encapsulate the breast. What have I learned? Next time I will cut up the herbs smaller and disperse them more evenly in the plastic. 

I will experiment with onions and peppercorns. Overall outstanding results. 



This is truly The Laudable Turkey Roulade.


Here are some pictures that shows all the steps including my Turkey stock. 








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