Use a Mattress Pump to Improve Turkey Skin
Tucking a bunch of butter under the skin of a turkey for Thanksgiving is a great way to keep it moist and flavorful, but it takes a little dirty on your hands. If you want to spend less time separating the skin from the flesh , pick up the air mattress pump.
While this does not completely obviate the need to do a little hands-on work (or, in fact, “manual work”), using an air pump does make things much easier and help separate areas that even tiny, children’s hands might not be accessible.
Just take a (clean) air mattress (or other electric) pump, poke a small hole between the skin and the meat with your fingers, and insert a (very clean) pump tip into that hole. Flip the switch and watch the turkey skin balloon in a slightly creepy but kind of delightful way. You may still run into a bit of connective tissue in your attempts to push through the oil, but I think you will find – like me – that this will be the loosest turkey skin you have ever worked with. (I know it sounds disgusting, but in this case, it’s good.) Plus, all that airflow helps dry out the skin, which means it gets crisper, and oily, crunchy skin is very good. (Just remember to completely sterilize the air pump afterwards; wiping it down with a dilute bleach solution should help.)