No one ever expects chef David Burke
to do anything the usual way. He's built a legendary career on playing
with our expectations and making food fun. But we'll admit that even
knowing about Burke's commitment to the element of surprise and flair for drama, we really did not see his Thanksgiving turkey recipe coming.
Let's set the scene: you're hosting Thanksgiving, and have an oven's
worth of side dishes to cook and reheat. How can you lighten the load on
this kitchen appliance during its most active day of the year? Burke
says you can cook your Thanksgiving turkey in the dishwasher. Dishwasher
turkey. You read that correctly. This is a dishwasher turkey recipe.
Yes. This kind of dishwasher. Can this really be done? Why would you ever even try to find out? Well, the legend goes like this:
In 1982, Burke worked as a private chef for a family in Oslo, Norway.
The family requested cold poached salmon for a buffet that Sunday
evening. The group of chefs went out and caught themselves a 10-pound
salmon. After realizing they didn't have any cooking vessel large enough
to cook the whole fish in, Burke's notorious creativity kicked into
gear. He seasoned and wrapped the salmon, then hung it on the top rack
of the dishwasher, where the glasses typically go. Three cycles later,
he was rewarded with a perfectly poached whole fish, and has been
experimenting ever since.
Which brings us to today. Now, before you all lose your freaking
minds the way we did when we first heard about this, we want to
stipulate that Burke is not suggesting you wrap up an entire, 20-pound
Thanksgiving turkey in cling-film and toss it in the dishwasher -- his
recipe calls for turkey breasts only. Still, if you want to give your
oven a break (and probably freak out your relatives as an added bonus),
we got Burke to share his Thanksgiving dishwasher turkey recipe with us.
Click here for the Ingredients
(Please note: We take NO credit for this story!)