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Pet Peeve: it's "ballotine," not "balantine".
Kenji, you'd need either an i before the double-L or an e or y after. "Maillot de bain," bathing suit, is pronounced mah-yo; "chantilly," of course, is chohn-tee-yee.
I have this theory that the "balantine" hybrid word came about in part because of Ballantine's whiskey.
Re: mayo, I guess I'm saying that the offending aioli might actually have the teeniest smidgen of garlic in it. Oh I don't know.
Pet Peeve: it's "ballotine," not "balantine".
Kenji, it's not pronounced bah-yo-tine. It's bal-o-tine. And aioli and mayonnaise are, as I'm sure you know, different things.
The Food Lab: Turkey Brining Basics
Thanks, Kenji! Norman Rockwell is rolling in his grave a little, but hey :)
I have only ever made one Thanksgiving turkey (am a recent arrival to US) and I basically pretended I was cooking a very large version of Thomas Keller's "poulet roti a ma facon." So I salted my unbrined, unstuffed bird like crazy--with coarse salt--and put it in a roaring hot (450) oven for 2 hours. Didn't touch it or baste it during that time. Fast and moist, but, like I say, I don't have a lot to compare it to.
Which is all to say that if you ever feel like doing a exhaustive, and surely exhausting, comparison of methods, I would be very eager to see how that method stands up. I won't hold it against you if you don't, though.
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About Michele Humes
Website: http://michelehumes.com
Location: Brooklyn, NY
About: Serious Eats contributor, rabbit enthusiast, pedant.
Favorite foods:
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I really like this guy. TJ and I once spent an entire evening watching him construct and "play" his entire range of vegetable ocarinas. They all sound kind of awful, but his futile passion is winning and contagious.