Breast-down?


 
A

Andy B in FL

New member
I'm smoking a brined bird tomorrow. Was talking to my best friend last night and he told me his dad bakes a brined bird, but he puts the bird in a rack breast-down and the flow of drippage keeps the breast skin moist. Any thoughts to this? Either way, I'm thinking about trying it and will report the results back if it's unknown territory.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
 
I've heard that before. My thinking is that it would make the skin soggier. It might protect the breast from the heat in some way.
 
Andy B in FL said:
I'm smoking a brined bird tomorrow. Was talking to my best friend last night and he told me his dad bakes a brined bird, but he puts the bird in a rack breast-down and the flow of drippage keeps the breast skin moist. Any thoughts to this? Either way, I'm thinking about trying it and will report the results back if it's unknown territory.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!
Click to expand...

My smoking cookbook recommends breast down.
 
For a while it was a trend to roast turkeys breast down, then flip them at some point to finish. The thinking was that you protect the breast from overcooking by starting it face-down, then at some point flip it over to finish the breast to the perfect internal temp. Cook's Illustrated did it a lot in their recipes, but they've backed away from the practice in recent years.

It's just a pain in the butt to flip the bird, so to speak, so I don't do it.
 
I roast turkey breast side down.
And I don't turn it.
Seems to work for me.
Only problem is that you get grid marks on the breast (like small indentations)
 
Went breast down in a poultry rack. About 4 hours at 350 deg, it turned out well. This is my third bird and I had a problem with the skin shrinking and splitting before. Wasn't the case this time - it split on the back. Breast meat and skin was juicy; skin didn't turn out soggy. I never turned the bird over either. Thanks for the input!
 
Did this one an hour down and then flipped it. Had to foil the breast for the last half hour to keep it from getting blackened. Next year, 1-1/2 hours down. A great deal of wine and whiskey made it a super meal. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.
Turkey day 2018 by Jeff Hasselberger, on Flickr
 
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