Rolled/stuffed turkey crown, sous vide or not?

Scam · 22 Dec 2020 at 13:50

I'm picking up the turkey crown from my butchers tomorrow, it will be ready for stuffing. They offered it rolled and ready-stuffed but we fancied this sausage and apricot recipe from everyone's favourite fat-tongued Essex lad so we're going to do it ourselves.

Question, if doing that recipe (minus the bacon) would you get better results sous vide'ing and finishing in a pan, or roasting it as per his instructions? Gravy is not an issue as I'm getting chicken wings and bones from the butcher as well, to make that the day before.

For reference, I have a Thermapen so fairly confident I could roast it well (checking temps etc.). For secondary reference, pork needs to cook to 70c whilst turkey needs to go to 74c. I'd imagine sous vide'ing at 74c would be fine. I'm leaning towards that...

Thoughts?

turbot1984 · 22 Dec 2020 at 13:56

Thats making me hungry! I wouldn't sous vide as always prefer roasted meat, but is it supposed to keep the bird moist? Good luck with it!

Raikiri · 22 Dec 2020 at 14:54

I'd sous vide if you have it, although you don't need to go to 74c.

I would sous vide to about 59-60c, wrap in bacon then roast for 30 mins at high temp.

https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes...y-breast-crispy-skin-recipe-thanksgiving.html

PlacidCasual · 22 Dec 2020 at 14:54

I use my sous vide a bit but I'm not convinced it necessarily improves everything. A turkey crown should be a relatively easy thing to cook in an oven and the high direct heat early on before covering in foil and dropping the temperature should ensure you get some browning and a still mosit joint. The sausage meat should prevent it drying as long as it isn't left uncovered to high for too long.

I'm having rolled turkey breast btw and intend to roast 180 for the first 20-30 then down to 160 under foil for the rest. Chickens generally work out well like this so confident the roll will too.

Scam · 23 Dec 2020 at 09:30

Raikiri said:
I'd sous vide if you have it, although you don't need to go to 74c.

I literally went to Serious Eats after posting this thread

PlacidCasual said:
I use my sous vide a bit but I'm not convinced it necessarily improves everything

On the flip side, I'm never interested in cooking (for example) chicken breasts because they're always just a bit dry and "meh". Thought I'd try sous vide'ing some a while ago and it was like a completely different food stuff. Lean meat is where sous vide really excels. I always sous vide my steaks too. The combination of salting them in the sous vide and obviously the accurate temp works wonders.

I know what you mean about losing the roasted sort of flavour/browning though. I would definitely brown it in a pan afterwards but that's probably still not the same..

Picking it up today so it might be decided upon whether or not it's too big to fit in any of my sous vide bags

jpaul · 23 Dec 2020 at 10:12

Scam said:
I always sous vide my steaks too.

I guess you're not, finally, browning them ? I had thought everyone did. ...maillard.

Scam said:
chicken breasts because they're always just a bit dry and "meh"

I agree when shallow frying them, so usually prefer legs/thighs.

- for the turkey, in addition to liking the browning associated with roasting,
would the desirable mixing and migration of fats (gravity&flipping during roasting) occur between the stuffing and turkey, if it were sous-vided. ?

200sols · 23 Dec 2020 at 10:49

Lean meat like turkey should sous vide well, it certainly smokes well and is a joy to eat after slow cooking like that. I prefer a whole turkey at Christmas as the thigh and leg meat is so much nicer than the breast when roasted.

Scam · 23 Dec 2020 at 13:14

jpaul said:
I guess you're not, finally, browning them ? I had thought everyone did. ...maillard.

Yes, definitely browning steaks after sous vide. With a bit of mayo to increase caramelisation. It works wonders!

200sols said:
I prefer a whole turkey at Christmas as the thigh and leg meat is so much nicer than the breast when roasted.

I'm always a dark meat (leg, in the bone etc) type of guy. I actively dislike chicken breast, I honestly don't see the appeal. However there's only two of us and the minimum weight turkey from our butchers was 4kg which might have been pushing it a bit

jpaul · 23 Dec 2020 at 21:22

so would you be, also browning the sous-vide turkey ?
we are forgetting here that when you roast the turkey you add a lot of additional lard too, or some jamie sub-dermal butter, to help the moisture content and cooking process

ganesh · 24 Dec 2020 at 00:02

Don’t bother with the sous vide, brine the turkey before you stuff it and then roast.