Gwen Schoen: Hi I am Gwen Schoen and food writer for The Sacramento Bee and in The Kitchen today, we’re carving turkey and with us is Sean Menard executive chef at Chops Steak House in Sacramento welcome.
Sean Menard: Thank you.
Gwen Schoen: Thanks for showing us on how to carve a turkey.
Sean Menard: Thank you for inviting us.
Gwen Schoen: Timely task you have to do. So, this turkey is been out of the oven for about 30 minutes. Is that about the right standing time?
Sean Menard: It is about to right standing time. When you remove your turkey from the oven you want it to let it sit for a least 20 minutes so the juices can redistribute throughout the rest of the bird.
Gwen Schoen: Oh great and then when it wont get to cool?
Sean Menard: It wont get too cool and if it does when you are done carving, you just cover it up and put in the oven and warm it up a little bit.
Gwen Schoen: Okay great, so how do you begin?
Sean Menard: Well, what are we going to do first we are going to take the turkey and you want to place on a board and take the knife.
Gwen Schoen: Now, first of all you want to come out and do this at the table.
Sean Menard: No, I don’t recommend carving turkey at the table. I recommend you put it in a platter, present it to your to your guest and then disappear it in the kitchen. It’s just going to take about 10-15 minutes to do this and clean it all up. But you know, with enough time, then you don’t have to tumble around.
Gwen Schoen: That makes me nervous when people watch, so that’s better.
Sean Menard: All right so what are we going to do, is we are going to start actually just we start with taking the wings off. And we are just going to pull this until we—have the air pop out of the joint, we take a small knife.
Gwen Schoen: And you are using a small knife, some people use big long carving knifes.
Sean Menard: They do and they are more cumbersome and actually it’s a high risk for cutting yourself. So, I’m just going to take that?
Gwen Schoen: A little drama for the Thanksgiving table.
Sean Menard: And then we are going to do the same here, I’m going to pop that out. Try to keep the breast meat intact.
Gwen Schoen: So, you are going to take apart the entire turkey?
Sean Menard: Yes, okay so, we are going to cut that off, place that off to the side. Then, we are going to come back, we are going to rotate this guy. We are going to make an incision here on the side of the breast and the hanging quarter—
Gwen Schoen: —right down to the joint.
Sean Menard: Yes, and then we are going to do the same thing and you are going to pull until you fell it pop. And once you feel the pop you are coming here and make a cut, small incisions.
Gwen Schoen: Well, I could see why you wouldn’t want to do this at the dining room table.
Sean Menard: Exactly, find the joint, take the bones out of the way because you don’t want to be harmed with the knife. Take this piece off.
Gwen Schoen: Well, that’s a nice and big piece, okay.
Sean Menard: Okay, we are going to do the same over here. Try this so you can see, okay we pop it, the bone comes out of the joint, you just want to take the knife and just clean it up.
Gwen Schoen: Right between the joint pieces, okay.
Sean Menard: Okay, so toss to the side and then for the breast, take a little bit of a balance act, you want to take it right along this breast line here. Take it down as far as you can and bring it back.
Gwen Schoen: It sure smells wonderful.
Sean Menard: Yes it does. And then, you want take it here, you want to come up under and then you’re just going to use it.
Gwen Schoen: You’re taking the whole breast off at one piece or half of breast.
Sean Menard: Okay and the you turn around so you can hold it and just kind of come along and carve along the cartilages. And remember, it’s still pretty warm insides, so—
Gwen Schoen: Okay, and this is a 16-pound turkey so we should probably get ten servings on it?
Sean Menard: Probably about ten, yes. If you want to do about a pound per person because there are a lot of parts of the turkey that are not usable. So,
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