How to Choose the Right Turkey Meat Board
When planning your Thanksgiving turkey situation, you are likely to focus on the recipe, and not give a ton of thought to what happens after you remove the glorious, perfectly roasted bird from the oven. Obviously you are going to eat it, but the turkey needs to be carved before eating, and for that you need a large cutting board.
Since most people don’t normally make or eat 20-pound birds per reg, most kitchens don’t have cutting boards that are geared up for this task. You don’t need to think about it, but there are a few things to look out for when choosing a turkey carving board:
- Buy Large: Most regular kitchen cutting boards are simply not big enough for a turkey, which can make carving uncomfortable and unsafe. Your turkey should fit completely on the board, with a few inches of work space on each side. About 20 “long and 15” wide should be large enough to hold just about any large piece of meat.
- Buy a wooden one. Glass cutting boards are knife-dull trash and should never be used for anything, especially turkey. Good hardwoods like maple or teak are not only good for your knives, but they also have natural anti-microbial properties . Unlike plastic, which stains rather quickly when cut and diced, a wooden cutting board is built to last and can be sanded if too scratched for your taste.
- Make a few modifications: slippage and spill are two things you need to worry about when carving out a giant bird, so if you see a board with grip pads on the bottom and juice chutes along the edge, go ahead and grab it. If you don’t have that, don’t worry, you can hold the board steady by placing a damp tea towel or a piece of shelf liner under it, and catch the leaked juice by placing the board on a rimmed baking sheet .
Also very important: make sure you give this turkey a rest before chopping it (at least half an hour, maybe 45 minutes for really big boys) so that the juices can redistribute and not spill out the moment you cut it open. (A succulent turkey is a lucky turkey, and the world’s prettiest wood carving doesn’t matter if you lose the juice.)