Wet-brined roast turkey with make-ahead gravy

Thaw the turkey in the fridge three to four days, or in a sink of cold water in about eight hours with supervision.

Lay the bird on a sheet tray, clear the cavity, keep the neck and discard the liver, giblets and heart, and pull out the plastic doneness indicator.

Cut the skin between the flat and the drummy down into the joint, twist the wing to expose the two bones, then cut between the drumstick and the flat. Repeat on the other side.

For the brine, combine water, salt, sugar, bay leaves, halved garlic heads and the poultry herb blend in a large pot.

Bring to a boil over high heat, about five minutes, then infuse ten minutes.

For the gravy base, cut the wing tip off, break the flat through with the heel of the knife and cut the neck the same way, giving ten to twelve meaty bony chunks.

Put the bones on a sheet tray with the onion, celery and carrot and roast at 500F for twenty minutes until caramelized with plenty of fond in the pan.

Pour the infused brine over the ice to dilute it to 5% salinity and bring it straight down to about 40F.

Draw cold brine into the injector and inject each breast five to six times and each leg thigh two to three times.

Stab the breast forty to fifty times and each leg twenty to thirty times with the injector tip to open channels for the brine.

Scoop a quart of brine out to prevent overflow, submerge the bird breast side down, top back up, lid it and brine in the fridge for three days.

Move the roasted bones and vegetables to a sauce pan. Add a cup of water to the sheet tray over very low heat and scrape up the fond with a wooden spoon, then add those juices to the pan.

Add the store-bought stock, thyme and bay leaves, bring to a simmer and cook forty-five minutes.

Strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer.

Melt the butter in the sauce pan, whisk until foaming, stir in the flour until worked in with no lumps.

Whisking constantly, add all the roasted turkey stock, bring to a simmer and cook five to ten minutes until reduced by about ten percent and no floury taste remains; it should coat the back of a spoon and leave a trail.

Cool the gravy base and refrigerate; it is left unsalted because the turkey drippings will season it.

After three days, rotate the bird breast side up in the brine and inject each breast once more.

Set a roasting rack in a roasting pan, lay on two to three foil strips folded in half twice, hit them with pan spray and pour one cup of water into the pan.

Set the turkey in breast side down so the legs take more heat early and the breast and thigh reach their temperatures together.

Push one probe through the front of the breast into the tenderloin and another into the deepest part of the leg thigh, clear of bone.

Cover with a double layer of foil and roast at 425F for one hour.

Variation, same-day shortcut brine: a quarter batch of 1,000 g water, 100 g salt, 25 g sugar, all the herbs and garlic, then 1,000 g ice to cool it; inject ten times per breast and five to six per leg thigh, rest pumped up one hour on the counter, then cook exactly as above for about sixty to seventy percent of the result.

Remove the foil, lower the oven to 325F and roast another ninety to one hundred and twenty minutes, to 150F in the breast and 165F in the leg.

Rest tented with foil for about forty-five minutes to an hour.

Reheat the gravy base gently in a saucepan.

Push tongs into the cavity, use a towel against the hot skin and squeeze and turn to flip the bird breast side up.

Slide kitchen twine under the drumsticks, crisscross, pull tight and knot; trim the excess.

Brush the pale breast skin all over with a little oil.

Lift the bird out and pour about three quarters of the drippings into the gravy, tasting before adding the rest because the brined drippings can be salty.

Roast the bird at 500F for twenty minutes to brown the skin.

Reduce the gravy further if it needs thickening, then optionally pass it through a fine mesh strainer to remove coagulated protein from the drippings.

Carve by slicing between breast and leg thigh down into the joint, press the leg sections down to separate them from the rib cage, then slide the knife down the breastbone to take off each breast.

Variation: cooking breast side up is viable but leaves the breast ten to fifteen degrees past optimal, about eighty percent as good.

Slice the breast skin side up so the skin stays on the meat and does not oversaturate with juice.