(Note: it is best to baste with the oven door closed.) Erin Dawson / flickr / 2007 / CC BY 2.0 Basting tools How to brine a turkey.īasting a turkey with a ladle. Cooks Illustrated suggests that you butter the turkey instead: “Brushing the turkey with butter before roasting is very little extra work, contributes to browning, and adds a mild buttery flavor.” Hays, Rebecca. Some people feel that basting adds flavour. But Cooks Illustrated disagrees and says it can actually have a detrimental effect on the skin: “As a matter of fact, basting in the last hour of roasting can actually turn crisp turkey skin soft.” Hays, Rebecca. Some say that it can be useful to baste in the last 15 minutes or so of cooking, especially with fowl, as it improves the skin.

How to Brine a Turkey and How to Salt a Turkey. If you’re really concerned about moist breast meat, then brine or salt the bird before cooking it and be careful not to overcook the bird.” Cooks Illustrated. So skip the baste it wastes time and turns out to be counter-productive. Basting also means you have to constantly open and close the oven, meaning you lose heat and have to cook the turkey for a longer amount of time.

The liquid just runs off the turkey and it actually turns the skin soggy. The verdict? Don’t bother. Basting does nothing to moisten dry breast meat. So we ran a few tests to see if this was a necessary step.

The fat you baste a bird with just runs right off, back into the pan.

5 Basting with drippings is a modern cooking techniqueīasting poultry does not help to keep the meat moister.

Baste definition dredge definition food