Brick Oven Turkey

1 (16 to 20 pound) frozen young turkey
For the brine:
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 gallon vegetable stock
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1/2 tablespoon allspice berries
1/2 tablespoon candied ginger
1 gallon iced water
For the aromatics:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
6 leaves sage

3 sprigs of thyme
Herbed butter:

1 stick of butter

1 sprig of rosemary

1 sprig of thyme

3 leaves of sage

Brine

Combine all brine ingredients, except ice water, in a stockpot, and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve solids, then remove from heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled.

The night before the day of cooking, combine the brine and ice water in a clean 5-gallon bucket or ice chest that has been lined with a garbage bag. Place thawed turkey breast side down in brine, twist the garbage bag closed while removing the air from the bag, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 6 to 12 hours. Turn turkey over once, half way through brining.

Herbed butter

Finely chop fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme. Mix herbs into one stick of softened butter and set aside.

Oven

Fire your wood oven up slowly to 500+ degrees. (I find it best to fire the oven up very hot the night before to make pizza. The residual heat left in the oven from the previous night will help the oven to maintain its heat throughout the turkey roasting process.) After the oven is over 500 degrees, push/sweep the coals to the back of the oven. Note: I like Almond wood! It has sufficient BTU's to get the oven hot and it provides a fantastic smoky flavor to the food.

Aromatics

Combine the apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and cup of water in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

Tie two separate bundles of fresh rosemary, thyme, and sage together.

Turkey

Remove bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard brine.

Place bird on roasting rack inside a cookie sheet (see note) and pat dry with paper towels. Add steeped aromatics to cavity along with rosemary and sage. Tuck back wings and coat whole bird liberally with herbed butter. Stuff some of the butter under the skin by gently separating the skin from the breast. Note: Do not use a roasting pan. The high sides of a roasting pan will prevent the oven's heat from circulating around the bird thus causing uneven cooking.

Place 2/3 of the apple, onion, cinnamon mixture along with one herb bundle into the main cavity of the bird. Place the other herb bundle and remaining apple, onion, cinnamon mix into the neck cavity. Tie or truss the cavities closed.

With the oven at 500 degrees F, slide the cookie sheet with the turkey into the wood fired oven and close the door. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes turning once. Remove from oven and cover breast with double layer of aluminum foil, insert probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and return to oven. The oven temperature will lower to 350 degrees F over the next hour. If it falls below that then throw a small log onto the coals to bring the temp back up. Set the meat thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees. Continue to rotate the pan every hour during the roasting process. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 1/2 to 3 hours of roasting. Let turkey rest, loosely covered for 15 minutes before carving.

Note - Every wood oven is different and may need longer or shorter cooking and firing times. You may want to give a trial run a few days earlier with a test turkey to see if your cooking times differ from this recipe. I have found that when you brine and roast the turkey in a wood oven, the type of turkey does not make a big difference. I have used expensive fresh turkeys as well as the least expensive frozen birds and they both turn out fabulous! That said, save your money and get the lowest price turkey you can find.