High-Heat Roasting Makes Tom Turkey A Bird of Paradise

A STARTLING and relatively new method for roasting poultry can make even today's bland, overbred turkeys memorable. The blast-heat method will produce a crisp-skin bird with moist, intensely flavorful white and dark meat.

For 25 years, I have been an unbearably smug turkey cook, turning out bronzed picture-perfect birds. My tried and true cooking method was ridiculously simple: 450 degrees for the first 20 minutes, then 325 for the remainder of the cooking time. For moisture, I draped the bird with cheesecloth soaked in oil and butter, and basted periodically.

But turkeys have changed. Increased standarization and over-breeding of big birds have created turkeys that keep gaining in size but losing in flavor.

In an attempt to recapture that original turkey taste, I roasted 19 turkeys in the last month, using a variety of methods. Each turkey was 12 to 14 pounds, bought fresh at butcher shops or supermarkets.

For my home-kitchen electric-oven marathon, I tried cooking in a paper bag (unsafe if there are chemicals in the paper), wrapping in foil, draping in caul fat, turning the breast downward for part of the cooking, basting constantly, cooking at different temperatures and oiling the bird under the skin.

Turkey No. 19, cooked quickly at a constant 500 degrees, was the triumph. The reasons: no stuffing (which blocks an even flow of heat); no basting (which softens the skin and keeps it from becoming crisp); no turning from side to side or upside down (which lets the juices run out), and no overcooking.

High heat intensifies flavor. For turkey, it crisps the skin and drives excess fat and water out of the bird, which bastes as it goes.

Last year, when I used the high-heat method pioneered by Barbara Kafka, I ended up with a smoky kitchen. I now know that the culprit was my 20-year-old, blue-speckled enamel roasting pan, which was not strong enough to take the heat.

This year, I tried again with a heavy metal roasting pan. The resulting turkey was worth celebrating. Here's what you need:

Use a heavy 18-by-20-inch aluminum or stainless-steel roasting pan about 2 inches deep (no deeper or the turkey will steam). Disposable aluminum pans are unsafe for this job.

Use heavy pot holders.

Have ready a V-shape, adjustable rack that fits the pan. The rack will cradle the bird and lift it off the bottom so the underside will brown.

Use an instant-read thermometer; the pop-up kind is unreliable.

Make sure your oven is clean; accumulated debris can cause smoke during high-heat cooking. Here are the steps for roasting:

1. Remove the fresh, not frozen, turkey from the refrigerator two hours before it is to be cooked. Putting a cold bird into a hot oven can only send it into shock.

2. Remove and reserve the giblets and neck from the turkey cavities.

3. Rinse the turkey, inside and out, under cool running water. Without blotting dry, put it breast side up on the V-shape rack, set at the lowest slot, in the roasting pan. Drape a clean tea towel over the bird to keep it from drying while it warms.

4. Put the giblets and neck in a saucepan, add six cups of water or chicken stock, and let simmer an hour or until reduced to four cups.

5. Put oven rack at its lowest level.

6. Heat the oven to 500 degrees half an hour before cooking time. At this temperature, figure on eight minutes of cooking to a pound; an average 14-pounder will be done in about an hour and a half.

7. Remove the towel from the turkey. Do not season, stuff, truss or skewer the bird. But spread the drumsticks as far apart as possible without breaking the skin.

8. Put the turkey in the oven with the drumsticks toward the door. Let it cook undisturbed for 45 minutes. Do not even open the oven door during this time.