If you are like me, you try to do as much as possible before Thanksgiving Day.

In my case, I spent more than an hour yesterday peeling and chopping vegetables. There were several vegetables for my roasted vegetable dish; gold beets, red beet, parsnips, red onion, butternut squash and garlic. Then I chopped the onion and celery for the dressing. I put everything in Ziploc bags in the crisper drawer; now my refrigerator has a definite oniony aroma.

Today I started the poolish (preferment) for the sandwich bread that I am making tomorrow. Also tomorrow I will be making a new recipe for oatmeal rolls. If you haven’t seen the sandwich bread recipe before, it is absolutely excellent! Here is a link, if you are interested:

Easy to make sandwich bread – Brian L.

I will also be baking brownies tomorrow that will be used in the brownie/raspberry trifle that I am making for my grandson’s birthday on Friday.  Also, the turkey will be cut up and brined, and the turkey stock (for gravy) prepared.

This year I am dry brining very simply with kosher salt alone, and I am planning to use a mayo/herb rub for the turkey.

According to the author, J. Kenji López-Alt:

Some recipes for mayo-roasted turkey promise extra-juicy results with minimal effort. This one does no such thing. The mayonnaise won’t help the turkey stay juicy: Only salting and resting (a light curing process known colloquially as dry-brining) and carefully monitoring its internal temperature as it roasts will. The mayonnaise will, however, produce a turkey with glistening, burnished, golden-brown skin evenly flavored with herbs, no basting required. The mayo’s viscosity helps it stay in place as it roasts, while the extra protein from egg aids in browning. This recipe will make a little more mayonnaise than you’ll need. Use the excess for leftovers sandwiches, or toss it with roughly chopped vegetables (carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, zucchini or squash) before roasting at high heat for 10 to 15 minutes.

If you are interested, here is the method.

HERB MAYO 

1½ cups mayonnaise (such as Hellmann’s, Best Foods or Dukes)
1 cup loosely packed fresh parsley leaves, stems reserved
½ cup loosely packed fresh sage leaves, stems reserved
2 tablespoons fresh thyme or oregano leaves, stems reserved
2 scallions, roughly chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a tall container just wide enough to fit the head of a hand blender (or using a regular blender or food processor), combine the mayonnaise with the parsley, sage, thyme or oregano, scallions, lemon zest and 1 tablespoon water. Season generously with salt and pepper. Use the hand blender to blend until it all forms a relatively smooth, pale-green sauce. Transfer to a sealed container until ready to use. You should have about 1¾ cups of herb mayo. (You can make the mayo in advance up to a week and keep it in the fridge.)

Take the turkey out of the refrigerator to let it rest as the oven heats. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees for a 10- to 12-pound bird or 400 degrees for a 12- to 14-pound bird. Line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Scatter the diced celery, onion and carrot over it (2 celery ribs, 1 large onion, 1 large carrot.) Place a cooling rack directly on top of the vegetables, then place the turkey on top, skin-side down.

With your hands, slather ½ cup of the herb-mayo mixture over the exposed surface of the turkey, making sure to lightly coat every surface. Get it into every crack and crevice. Then, with your hands, spread a couple of tablespoons of the herb mayo between the skin and meat of the breast.  (Reserve any remaining herb mayo for your day-after-Thanksgiving sandwiches.)

Transfer the turkey to the oven and roast until the breast meat registers 150 degrees at its coolest point (typically the deepest point of the breast next to the breastbone) and the thigh and leg meat register at least 165 degrees at their coolest point (typically the center of the joint between the drumstick and thigh or thigh and hip), 80 to 90 minutes, rotating halfway through. (You may want to start checking the turkey’s internal temperature after about 1 hour.) If any of the skin starts to darken too much during roasting, tent darker areas loosely with aluminum foil. Remove from oven, transfer to a cutting board, and let it rest.