Today I am here to show you how to Carve a Holiday Turkey. We've already taken the turkey out of the oven and let it rest for about 20 minutes. It's going to be lovely and juicy when we slice it.
We've removed all the strings, pulled out skewers and scooped out all the stuffing. We're going to pull the leg away from the body like this, slice to the skin down here, then keep pulling on the leg until we expose the hip socket. You can see it right here. When that ball pops outs of that socket, you can insert your knife tip right in there. And pull the leg cleanly away from the body.
Now we're going to separate the thigh from the drum stick. We do that by feeling for the convexity of the ball joint right here and slice our knife through it. We've separated that drumstick out. Slice it, if you like, if it's a nice, big drumstick. I don't. Somebody at the table always wants to eat it.
Now I'm running the tip of my knife along the sides of the thighbone here. Put my thumb underneath it, cut out through the ends here. And we have one big, beautiful piece of thigh meat here that which can be sliced into beautiful little serving sections.
Okay, now we're going to use the traditional method for slicing turkey breast. This is the kind of slice that you would want to use at table side. You want to cut the slices about a quarter of an inch thick. And work parallel to the breastbone.
Now I'm going to show you a different way to carve the breast here. What you're going to do is you're going to make an incision along the top of the bird, along the sternum, and make long, thin cuts along the breast down here. Until the whole breast pops up in one neat little piece. That we're then going to carve on a different board.
Now we've moved it over to another board and we're ready to cut into nice, uniform slices. This makes for a beautiful presentation and it couldn't be easier.
And now we are going to separate wing from the body. What you're going to want to do is follow your thumb along the bone here to where it attaches to the body. Feel for the socket joint there and with the tip your knife, separate it from the body.
