Christmas turkey with a twist - bake it in a salt-dough crust

When the Christmas meal is to be intimate and suited to those with a preference for light meat over dark, we reach for the bone-in turkey breast.

Over the years, food section staffers have brined, butterflied, fried, poached, smoked and stuffed turkey breasts.

The recipes produced laudable results.

But this year we reached back to a method that is low-tech and foolproof and has never appeared in our pages: encasing the breast in a salted-dough crust.

Age-old method

Cooks have been roasting and baking foods in salt crusts for thousands of years. Steam heat and moisture retention are obvious benefits.

But when it comes to handling a turkey breast this way, a few others become apparent: easy clean-up, no prep work, no roasting pan or rack required.

And the encased meat can stay hot, not merely warm, for hours.

The biggest selling point is how well the breast meat turns out. It is incredibly juicy and evenly seasoned, with nothing other than a few fresh herbs tucked inside.

Refrigerated leftovers stay moist for days.

It is true that nibblers will be cheated out of crisped skin and chances are good that any juices collected will be too salty to use for making gravy. Calorie counters might not mind either drawback.

Some salt crusts call for a firm flour dough that is not meant to be eaten. Roll out a swath that's wide enough to envelop the whole breast, reserving a few pinches of dough for patching; make sure there are no gaps.

The turkey takes about two hours in a fairly low-temperature oven and needs no further tending. It's best to test the internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer, just in case the package needs to be patched and returned to the oven.

When you're ready to serve, break into the crust and extract the turkey breast, discarding the flabby skin. You'll send clear juices running down the knife with each cut. You'll taste. You'll see.