When it comes to Thanksgiving, listen to a seasoned professional: 85-year-old grandma Sue Beisman.
The Fort Myers, Florida, resident wrote The Post to dish on the best way to get the moistest bird possible. And who could argue with Sue?
“At the age of 85, I’ve lost count of the number of turkeys I’ve cooked,” wrote Beisman. “Keeping the breast moist does not require trickery, dismemberment or a Ph.D. — simply common sense.”
The exasperated granny continues, “Cook the bird upside (breast) down for the first three-quarters of the cooking time. (May need help turning a large bird.) These days common sense seems to be lacking in many areas,” she writes.
When reached by phone, the feisty Beisman continues her agenda to flip the bird.
She read a Wall Street Journal article that promoted dismembering the turkey and was horrified by the bad advice. For the past half a century, Beisman, a mother of four originally from St. Louis, has been turning her turkeys upside down — and enjoying the fruits (or rather, juices) of her labor.
“When it’s cooking, the juices run down,” she says. “Sometimes you have to put a piece of foil if the leg is getting too brown. Flipping it over changes everything — just put the thing upside down and baste it with a butter sauce as needed.”
Husband Jim and her some 18 guests each year haven’t complained, she says.
But not every professional chef is on board with the granny’s secret-weapon turkey technique.
“I’m a huge klutz and flipping the bird, so to speak, has landed me in seriously precarious Turkey Day situations — dropping the bird, limbs falling off bird — so I avoid it,” says NYC-based Danielle Rehfeld Colen, chef and founder of the Inherited Plate recipe site.
“Instead, I cook the turkey and then pull it out, check the breast for doneness and carefully carve off the legs and put them back in the oven. Chances are your breast will be done long before the dark meat is. I would let the white meat rest lightly tented with foil while the legs continue to cook,” adds the chef, throwing shade at the octogenarian.
“Flipping is for chickens, not giant turkeys,” she says. “I’ve had searing hot turkey juice pour down my arm trying to flip a turkey.”
More power to Beisman, then.
“If that 85-year-old woman can flip a 26-pound turkey, I’m going to her house on Thursday,” Colen says.