[ot-caption title=”Gathering with family in the kitchen and selecting our special family recipes year after year is a tradition most of us share on Thanksgiving. (via Annika Polatsek, sophomore)”]

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]As Thanksgiving quickly approaches, family, health, and happiness are not the only things people appreciate. Although not many people will admit it, stuffing our faces once a year carries its own sense of joy and anticipation. This year, I have the perfect addition to your recipe book. After receiving much praise for our bullet-proof turkey recipe, I find it necessary to ignore the urge to maintain modesty and admit to its infallible yumminess.

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]For this recipe, you will need to allot nine hours and forty-five minutes for turkey perfection: fifteen of those minutes for prep, seven hours for inactivity, and two hours and thirty minutes set aside for cooking.

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]Ingredients include:

• Fourteen to sixteen pound frozen turkey
• One cup of kosher salt
• Half a cup of light brown sugar
• One gallon of vegetable stock
• One tablespoon of black peppercorn
• One and a half teaspoons of allspice berries
• One and a half teaspoons of chopped candied ginger
• One gallon of heavily iced water

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]For the aromatics you will need:

• One red apple and half an onion, both sliced
• One cinnamon stick
• One cup of water
• Four rosemary sprigs
• Six sage leaves
• Canola oil

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]A few days before roasting, I recommend you begin thawing the turkey in a place that will maintain a temperature of 35 to 40 degrees. The next step is to place the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large pot and let it simmer over medium-high heat. Every once in a while you can gently stir to combine all the ingredients together in preparation for refrigeration.

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]Once Thanksgiving is finally here, it is time to do the final prep, preferably early in the morning to allow enough time for the turkey to marinate and cook. The first step of the final countdown is to combine the brine, water, and ice in a five-gallon bucket with the thawed turkey breast side down in the brine. With the innards removed and the turkey fully immersed and covered, place it in the refrigerator for eight to sixteen hours, while turning it once half way through. Then, preheat the oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and remove the bird from the brine and rinse thoroughly with cold water. After drying it, combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and one cup of water in a dish and microwave it on high for five minutes. Add the previously prepared aromatics to the turkey’s cavity, in addition to the rosemary and sage. Your final job is to tuck the wings underneath the bird and layer the skin with canola oil. Roast the turkey at five hundred degrees Fahrenheit for thirty minutes and insert a probe thermometer into the thickest section of the breast, while decreasing the oven temperature to three hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit.

[spacer height=”10px” id=”2″]After your family and friends get a bite of this bird, they won’t be able to stop gobbling for more. On this Thanksgiving, enjoy life’s simplest pleasures with the ones you love. I will even give you full bragging rights and credit for this recipe – just don’t forget to inquire on my behalf when you score the longer half of the wishbone this year.