How to carve a turkey

[thumbs]

I need to carve a turkey. What should i use?

[Ripsaw]

http://www.epicurious.com/b_ba/b02_howto/carve.html

[CanuckAlert]

Originally posted by Ripsaw
http://www.epicurious.com/b_ba/b02_howto/carve.html

Great advice.

[wondash]

If you're not good with a carving knife, try using an electric one. You can buy an inexpensive electric carving knife for under $20. That way, your cuts will be perfect, regardless of how you do it!

[Munku]

Originally posted by wondash
If you're not good with a carving knife, try using an electric one. You can buy an inexpensive electric carving knife for under $20. That way, your cuts will be perfect, regardless of how you do it!

True, but that's totally not as cool as sitting there with a giant, gleaming, silver blade slicing the fresh bird. Old school man.

[splck]

Make sure the knife is sharp, sharp , sharp. That's the main thing to remember.
Tommorow night is turkey night in Canada.

[ratbastid]

Swallow your pride and buy an electric. You can make good Rocky Horror jokes while you carve.

Seriously.

I'm the Designated Carver among the group of friends I usually do Thanksgiving with. Not because I brought any particular skill to the table (though I have learned), but because I was the only guy who wasn't afraid of it.

First, remove the wings and drumsticks and set them aside. Then make begin taking slices from the breasts. The breastbone is right at the surface in the middle of the bird, but drops deep as you go down the side. There's room for a lot of slicing on both breasts.

Then start taking meat off the thighs, legs, and, as much as you can, wings. There's no neat way to do this, you sort of have to wrestle off what you can get. You'll be surprised how much you get off, though.

I like to leave half the bird unsliced until everybody's had one run past the buffet. Keeps that half from drying out before people have time to come back for seconds. Take the limbs off, though, that's easiest when the bird is super hot.

Above all, don't be afraid to make a mess! Just get in there and slice. It all eats, whether it's neatly cut or not!

[wondash]

Here's my non-traditional carving method. It can be done with a very sharp knife or an electric;
Remove the legs and wings and set them aside.
Cut each breast in its entirety off the bird. Try to stay as close to the bone as possible.
Place each breast on the platter side by side. Slice the breasts cutting down toward the platter (against the grain). Make sure to keep them in the original shape.
Place the wings and legs back on the platter in their correct position to make it look like the original bird.
Remove the rest of the dark meat from the carcass and place it around the bird or on a separate platter.
That's it!

[Mephisto2]

I always leave the wings and legs on the turkey.

Just shows you that there's more than one way to skin a cat (or a large tasty bird in this case).

Mr Mephisto