If olive oil is not good for cooking, what would be a better oil to baste, say turkeys or ducks with? I have tried butter and it was not that good, plus I don't even eat butter anymore. Any suggestions? I normally would use olive oil and lots of different spices and baste the heck out of any turkey before roasting breast side down! What should I be using instead?

I have a book about roasting and it claims that you don't need to do anything to the skin if you roast at a high enough temperature. That's her whole philosophy, high temperatures and quick cooking times. The book is Roasting by Barbara Kafka and I think you can get it for pretty cheap used on amazon! I've roasted several chickens with her method and it's been delicious every time.

Anyway here's an abbreviated version of what she says about turkeys so that you can get an idea:

preheat the oven to 500
rinse the (15 pound) turkey, pat dry, sprinkle with pepper. don't truss
put turkey in an 18x13x2 inch roasting pan, breast side up
place in oven legs first
roast for about 2 hours, let sit 20 min before carving

If you really want to baste the outside, maybe you could baste it in its own fat after it's been cooking for a little while? Ducks and geese especially let out a whole lot of fat. If you ever roast one, you should definitely keep the fat for cooking even if you don't use it for basting.

Peanut oil is what I often use or if you don't mind a mild coconut taste, virgin coconut oil would also work well.
I don't actually baste the poultry with the oil, but I rub the skin well before I season it and put it in the oven.
For basting I use the pan juices or add a little chicken stock of there aren't a lot of pan juices.

I use palm oil shortening for basting because it's relatively high in saturated fat, and because it's cheap (most ends up in the bottom of the pan). I've tried the high heat method for beef rib roasts and it works great, but those don't need basted anyway.

Wyv

kallyn,

Basting the turkey in it's own fat is a great idea! I wonder how long I should wait until I take it out of the oven and baste it. I guess I would have to have the spices all mixed up ready to go, then suck some fat drippings out of the bottom of the roasting pan, and quickly mix that up with the spices, then baste and get it back into the oven. I use a lot of different spices that make it taste wonderful.

I have heard that it is best to just leave the turkey in the oven the whole time, breast side down, with the lid closed. To not even baste while it is cooking, as some people do, because that dries out the meat. I have always had super tender meat by basting first, then putting breast side down into the roaster and covering and leaving it alone. I roast it at 325° F for 15 minutes per pound. This fast method at high heat sounds odd. Does the turkey get done throughout? Is the meat really tender?

As far as keeping the fat... you betcha! I keep every bit of the drippings, and when heating slices of turkey up on a plate in the microwave, I put some of these drippings (they look like jello from being in the fridge) on top the meat. It comes out of the microwave swimming in drippings, and is as tender as the moment it came out of the oven!

The high heat method sounds simple enough, but how would you get a lot of good spices onto the turkey?

Thanks for other's suggestions. But, peanut, palm, or coconut oil just doesn't fit with turkey, I don't think. Even butter was rather odd tasting (too heavy).