Long Island Larder: A Groaning Board

When is more better? On holiday tables when Big is Beautiful and to err on the side of plenty divine. Allegedly everyone is watching his fat and hitting the gym two hours a day - not.

The time between Thanksgiving and Jan. 2 should be known as the Partying Season - like Fasching in Bavaria, which goes on for months. The beer flows like wine and the bratwurst like turkeys. Actually, we're not a true wine-drinking country, as you soon discover when you go west of the Hudson (or head down I-95, which leads to warm, sunny, but mostly beer-drinking climes).

Keeping the boards groaning for the next few weeks is the cook's job and unless you have help and/or lots of time to make scads of little twiddly bits for cocktail parties and dinners, the best direction to head in is the great big ham, turkey, or Christmas standing rib roast. These, with your own personal touches like a special marinade or spice rub, feed multitudes with the least amount of fussing in the kitchen, or, even better, get the job out of the kitchen and onto the grill.

While the notion that outdoor cooking - i.e., the barbecue grill - is a "guy" thing, it's never been so in my house. True, it's a bit tricky trying to be both inside and outside simultaneously, but, as Peggy Lee sings so triumphantly, "I'm A Woman," so I manage it.

Recently I've added to my collection of outside equipment and sent one old Weber kettle grill to the dump. Now I'm down to two smokers and two gas grills, and my husband wonders if I'm planning to open a chicken and ribs joint.

My new smoker/grill is a fabulous ceramic cooker called the Big Green Egg. Patterned after the kamado, an ancient Japanese smoker (which, as many Japanese things are, was lifted from a Chinese design about 3,000 years old), the Big Green Egg is manufactured in Mexico for a company in Atlanta that sells nothing else. (Nothing else except all the auxiliary grills for fish and vegetables, and even a baking stone for bread or pizza and a couple of weird but effective vertical stands for roasting turkeys and game birds.)

Vertical Roasting

Peking duck and nearly all the smoked foods are hung vertically to cook, a feat usually impossible in the heavily insulated and wide rather than tall American oven. Naturally, you can roast things in a V-shaped rack in the Big Green Egg, but the vertical roasting technique is especially great for turkey and chicken because the heat penetrates inside and outside very quickly and ensures a brown and succulent bird.

In my zeal for "plenty" at Thanksgiving I went overboard and bought two turkeys, so with a couple of flu-stricken drop-outs I had more than plenty. The second turkey went into the new ceramic cooker/smoker and emerged triumphantly juicy and shining deep brown, albeit minus stuffing.

But everybody around here was pretty well set with stuffing at least until Christmastime, when I just may go with smoke-roasted goose with the kind of stuffing meant only for flavoring.

Smoke-Roasted Turkey

While I like all poultry headed for the smoker, gas grill, or oven to be brined at least for a few hours, for a more emphatic flavoring, a brine cum marinade works wonderfully. It's also useful when you don't want to cook your bird for a couple of days. This turkey was left in its marinade in a large covered canner (on the floor of a near-freezing garage colder than my refrigerator) for three days. Carved in thin, small slices this 15-pounder goes a long, long way for a buffet or cocktail party fare.

1 fresh turkey, about 15 lbs.

Marinade:

3 Tbsp. duck or goose fat or vegetable oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 stalks celery, coarsely chopped

Some celery tops

1 bay leaf

4 whole cloves

1 Tbsp. black peppercorns, cracked

Half bottle dry white wine

6 Tbsp. kosher salt

Cold water to cover

Wash the turkey thoroughly inside and out with cold water. Reserve the giblets for gravy.

Melt the fat or heat the oil in a large skillet and saute the onion, garlic, and celery until limp but not browned. Add the celery tops, bay leaf, cloves, peppercorns, wine, and salt and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add cold water or ice cubes to cool it quickly. Mix with cold water to come halfway up in a large container. Add the turkey and turn it around in the marinade. Add cold water to cover the turkey by an inch or so and stir well to distribute flavorings and salt. Cover and place in a cold (below 40 degrees) place for two or three days. Stir it up twice a day. If time is short you can make do with an overnight brine/marinade bath.

Rinse the turkey well in cold running water and pat it dry. Place on a rack in front of an electric fan running at high speed for about an hour. Turn the bird frequently to dry evenly. This forms the pellicle that makes the bird shiny when finished. After drying, rub the turkey with oil or softened butter.

Build a fire using natural wood charcoal chunks if possible and soak some wood chips (pecan or fruit woods are good for poultry) for half an hour. In the Big Green Egg the turkey is forced down over a vertical frame with a round base (available in housewares and hardware stores) before drying. However, measure your grill to be sure it will accommodate the upright turkey; otherwise, place it on a V-shaped basket. Either style requires a heavy underpan to catch the drippings. Put about half an inch of water in the pan under the turkey on its rack and place it on the grill when it reaches about 300 degrees F. Toss the wet chips on the charcoal embers just before putting the turkey in.

An unstuffed 15-pound turkey, wings tied close to the body but legs akimbo, should reach 180 degrees in the thickest part of the breast in 2 to 2 1/2 hours if the temperature is kept at 300. Add more charcoal after about one hour, and if the temperature drops down to 250 occasionally, no harm is done - the smoke-cooking will just take a bit longer. However, open the grill as infrequently as possible and close it quickly so as to lose as little heat as you must. Let the turkey rest on its rack for at least half an hour before carving with a very sharp, thin knife.

The pan drippings make a delicious dark brown gravy. If you don't need it at the meal the turkey will be served at, use it to make a sauce for turkey meatballs made from pre-ground raw turkey, a rather insipid though healthful low-fat meat.

Barbecued Fresh Ham

A fresh ham weighs about 18 pounds and is a great choice for 30 or more people, depending on whether it's a main course or part of a buffet, when it will serve about 50. Order in advance as these huge cuts aren't always available. Most are cured, rather cursorily, and sold as "ham."

Aged country hams will be covered in another column in time for New Year's and more Hoppin' John to keep you lucky. If you prefer, this recipe can be made in a regular oven; however, the meat will need tenting with heavy foil to avoid drying it out.

Dry Marinade:

1 large bay leaf

1 Tbsp. dried sage leaves

1 tsp. dried juniper berries

1 Tbsp. black peppercorns

1 tsp. whole allspice

1 tsp. marjoram or thyme leaves

1/4 tsp. ground mace

1/4 cup coarse (kosher) salt

A fresh ham (about 18 lbs.)

1/2 lb. slab salt pork, sliced in large thin squares

Grind all the herbs and spices together and mix with the salt. Trim the rind from the ham and reserve it - it's very tasty roasted, and useful in giving body to stews and bean casseroles. Trim the fat to quarter-inch thickness. Leave the skin on the hock to hold it in shape. Rub the marinade mix all over the meat and inside along the bone, opening it carefully with a thin boning knife, then pressing it back together. Put it in a large plastic bag and refrigerate it. Turn it every 12 hours for two days. Rinse and then soak the salt pork slices in a large bowl of cool water overnight. You can marinate the fresh ham three days if you prefer.

The day before serving, wipe the ham dry with paper towels and tie it in shape with soft string. Brush it all over with plain oil, then tie the drained, dried salt pork over any areas not protected with the natural fat. Place it on a V rack in an open roasting pan.

Preheat the charcoal or gas grill to 400 degrees (hot). Put the ham with some water in the underpan into the grill and roast for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to around 325 degrees (medium-low on most grills), brush with oil, and let it while away the time for a total of about 4 hours in a grill, though it can take up to six hours in a conventional oven. Once an hour brush the ham with the drippings under the roast, as quickly as possible. Remove the salt pork an hour before the meat is done and baste well. When the temperature reaches 155 degrees Fahrenheit at the deepest point, the ham is done. Don't attempt to carve it for at least one hour. Fresh ham carves best cold and tastes best at room temperature.

Tiny biscuits or mini corn muffins with mustardy mayonnaise are good cocktail party partners for fresh ham.