Thanksgiving is like the Super Bowl for food. All year, this is what you train for. Everything you have done up to this point is just practice for the big day. It’s the only holiday where it’s socially acceptable to refer to it by the meat you’ll be eating that day, i.e. “Turkey Day”.

Turkey Day will test not just the limits of the elastic in our sweatpants, but also our mastery of food preparation. That’s why, when the day arrives and I need to make a big play, I know exactly what to do with that turkey — wrap it in bacon.

Prepare Yourself for this Meat Tornado

The Recipe

Ingredients

1 turkey (12 – 14 pounds, thawed, giblets removed)
4 garlic cloves
½ pound butter
1 large handful mixed fresh herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, sage)
1½ pound thick-cut bacon
3 carrots, chopped
3 leeks, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, quartered
2 apples, sliced
Salt and pepper

Directions

Pre-Turkey Day Check:
A frozen turkey can take a little while to thaw. Depending on the size of your bird, it can take anywhere from 2-5 days to thaw it in the fridge, so be sure to follow the thawing guidelines to avoid a frozen turkey on the big day! Another thawing option is to let it rest in cold water for 24 hours.

Before the big day, it’s always a good idea to run through your ingredient list to make sure you have what you need. No one wants to make that last minute run to the grocery store! Also be sure you have a properly fitting pan for your turkey. We can’t afford any mistakes come Thursday.

Step One: Prepare the Turkey
Move oven rack to the bottom of the oven. Set the oven to 450 degrees. You might have noticed your turkey still has some extra parts. Reach inside and remove the neck, gizzards, liver, and heart. You can just throw them away or use them for gravy. Rinse your bird our with cold water. Now, carefully slide your hands between the turkey and the skin to separate and lift. We’re going to stick some bacon butter in there.

Step Two: Bacon Butter
Finely mince your garlic cloves using a food processor. Add in other herbs, briefly pulsing to chop them up. Finally, add the softened butter and ½ pound of bacon. Use pulses to carefully chop up the bacon with the other ingredients.

Take half of your bacon butter and spread it underneath the turkey skin. Really get in there. Once you’ve gotten under its skin, massage the other half over the skin. Season with salt and pepper.

Step Three: Blanket of Bacon
Begin by wrapping the drumsticks with bacon. Cover each one with overlapping strips of bacon.

Just below the neck (hole), lay a horizontal strip of bacon across the breast. Then place a vertical strip on one side, going from top to bottom. Continue alternating horizontal and vertical strips to weave a grid-like blanket of bacon onto your turkey.

Step Four: Cooking
Place the carrots, leeks, celery, apples, and onions in the bottom of your roasting pan. You’ll then place the roasting rack on top of the vegetables, and then the turkey on top of that.

Cook the turkey at 450 degrees for 30 minutes.

At this time, cover the bacon with tin foil. You’ll then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees and continue cooking for up to 3 ½ hours. When it starts getting close, you’ll want to check the internal temperature of the turkey using a thermometer. Your turkey should reach 160 degrees.

Simple, Yet Effective
While there is a small amount of preparation and you need to keep your eye on things, this turkey recipe is pretty easy. There’s no brine or any stuffing of weird stuff inside the bird; it’s really all about the bacon. And I think that everything should always be about the bacon.

~J.C.

The post J.C.’s Incredible Bacon-Wrapped Turkey appeared first on Metal Master Shop.

That means hurricane season is already here! The tropical storm Arthur briefly became a hurricane and hit the east coast around the Fourth of July, before reverting back to a tropical storm and moving on northward.

There have been a lot of storms and rain here in Miami recently, but we’ve been really lucky for the past several years when it comes to hurricanes.

Still, that’s no reason to get complacent! Take the lull in heavy storms and hurricanes as an opportunity to get your home or commercial space outfitted to handle this kind of weather in the future!

You’ll want to have metal roofing installed before the next major storm comes to call.

Want to know more? Just ask us!

~J.C.

The post Hurricane Season in Full Force appeared first on Metal Master Shop.

If you’re not ready yet, it’s important to start preparing now to minimize any damage to your home in the thick of hurricane season. Fortunately, there’s a way to significantly improve your home’s strength in a hurricane, and it’s called metal roofing.

Here are two big advantages of having metal roofing on your home during hurricane season.

Durability

Damage to your roof cover is one of the most dangerous and devastating effects of a hurricane. The problem is, if the roof gets partially damaged or completely destroyed, the rest of your home is vulnerable to wind, water, and other elements. Without a roof, you could lose your entire home or sustain permanent damage to your furnishings and belongings as soaking wet plaster and insulation collapses onto the lower levels.

Metal roofing is the solution. It has a tremendous amount of wind resistance compared to traditional roofing materials, possessing the capacity to withstand winds of up to 150 miles per hour. They are also leak-proof and built to be strong against the elements.

Longevity

A traditional, non-metal roof has an average lifespan of about 17 years. During hurricane season, you do not want to be worrying about whether your roof is nearing the end of its lifespan.

Unless you bought your home brand-new and you’ve lived in it for well under 17 years, you run the risk of having a roof that’s deteriorated and even more vulnerable to harsh weather. Every 10 to 20 years or so, you also need to reproof a roof made of a material like asphalt.

A metal roof is known for its amazing longevity, especially compared to other roofing materials. You can expect more than 50 years out of a metal roof, which basically means you’ll never have to replace it. There’s a peace of mind in knowing that your roof’s expiration date is not going to come in the middle of any foreseeable hurricane season.

Prepare Now

Having a roof with durability and longevity is so important during hurricane season. I can’t stress it enough. The fact that a metal roof can withstand intense weather and last for decades makes it a perfect choice for South Florida, not to mention the other benefits you get with one.

If you don’t quite know how to proceed to get ready for hurricane season, give us a call! We want to make sure you’re set this season.

Talk to you soon!

~J.C.

The post The 2 Biggest Advantages of Metal Roofing During Hurricane Season appeared first on Metal Master Shop.