A New Take on the Thanksgiving Turkey

If you want to cook a Thanksgiving turkey the way Jacques Pépin thinks you ought to cook it, is to reach way back into your kitchen cabinet and haul out the sort of caldron you might use to steam lobsters.
Proceeding with his recipe will yield a bird with an incomparable balance of crispness and moistness; we’re talking about white meat so moist that it stays tender even after a few days encased in Tupperware in the fridge.
Put that bird in that big pot, where hot vapors will melt off its fat. (If you prefer, use a large covered roasting pan.) Slicing deeply at key joints — between the drumsticks and thighs, and between the wings and breast — will help ensure that the meat is cooked through. Then roast it, letting the oven burnish its golden surface.
Virginia Lee, an expert on Chinese cooking, introduced Pepin to the idea at some point in the 1970s, when he watched her prepare a pork roast with steam at the home of Craig Claiborne, the food writer and editor for The New York Times.
“She said, ‘We do that type of thing in Chinese cooking,’” Mr. Pépin recalled. He became better acquainted with steam ovens in kitchens where he taught and worked (the French Culinary Institute and the Russian Tea Room) and learned that the process adds moisture to the meat while allowing for “a nice crust,” thanks to that blast in the roaster. Fat collects in the pot beneath the bird, giving the home cook a fine base for a rich gravy, with the assertive flavors of the glaze providing a good counterpoint.