Turkey day postmortem

My favorite line from a Slate article by Regina Schrambling, a New York writer who travels to eat and writes about it for gastropoda.com, the Los Angeles Times and other publications:

Every fall, writers and editors have to knock themselves out to come up with a gimmick—fast turkey, slow turkey, brined turkey, unbrined turkey—when the meal essentially has to stay the same. It's like redrawing the Kama Sutra when readers really only care about the missionary position.

I so loved cooking the turkeys this year, and I am thankful they all came out so well. Even the no-salt turkey came out tasting fine. Which just goes to show: Don't overcook it. Turn off the oven when the thermometer hits 170 in the breast, 180 in the thighs. Brining overnight gives the turkey a nice taste but doesn't give it the texture of canned ham. We fed 60 people on the night before Thanksgiving and probably could have fed 40 more with the four big fowl and extra breast.