What Is The Right Way To Carve A Turkey?
You grab a knife, put Turkey in the middle of the table, and carve away, putting your carving on everyone's plate, dishing up dinner. WRONG!!
According to the video below by Chow, you will have better-looking meat and a better-looking presentation. You will also have more meat to serve, and won't leave behind so much meat. You won't have shaved turkey, some thick some thin. Sometimes you have big lumps of meat. You will also be able to make stock with this way of cutting.
Don't use a dull knife, that will shred the meat. Cut in the kitchen then you can present on a plate rather than a dead carcass of a turkey on a plate. Carve the legs off first. Then cut off the breast and use the bone in the middle top to guide yourself.
A lot of people like to stuff the turkey with stuffing, but that's not good. You don't know if the bird has been cleaned in the middle and it just makes it harder to cut when you are shaving the meat. Cut against the grain, it will make your meat tender. Another thing to do that I watched a chef do one time was to take the skin off and baste, then cut the meat off and when it's on the plate, baste again, then it makes it tender and flavors the meat.
I personally like the skin, but I'm hearing more and more there is so much fat hidden in the skin and it's easy to choke on.
The last thing the video says is to deal with the turkey as soon as possible so you can put it away and also get everything ready for stock and soup.