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How do you prepare your turkey?


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All the Mac and Cheese talk got me thinking about turkey.....

 

I've had a deep fryer/burner/pot for 10 years, along with 5 gallons of peanut oil - but never used it.  Turns out my wife and sister-in-law agreed that Thanksgiving would always be at the in-laws - no occasion to fry a turkey here.

 

But I've watched Alton Brown do his classic "how to" video on frying turkeys, and it's a gem all on its own:

 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/deep-fried-turkey-recipe-1952235

 

Someday I'll try it.  That, and smoking one, too.

 

LL

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I'm going to smoke a turkey breast.  It's the only part of the bird my family will eat.  Smoking a boston butt and some chicken leg quarters at the same time.

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1 hour ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

All the Mac and Cheese talk got me thinking about turkey.....

 

I've had a deep fryer/burner/pot for 10 years, along with 5 gallons of peanut oil - but never used it.  Turns out my wife and sister-in-law agreed that Thanksgiving would always be at the in-laws - no occasion to fry a turkey here.

 

But I've watched Alton Brown do his classic "how to" video on frying turkeys, and it's a gem all on its own:

 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/deep-fried-turkey-recipe-1952235

 

Someday I'll try it.  That, and smoking one, too.

 

LL

I tried smoking turkey once.  Couldn't keep it lit.

 

I love roast turkey left over made into a open faced hot turkey sandwich on plain old white bread  with lots of gravy

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I am one that wishes they sold turkeys without the breast. 
 

My favorite turkey is my wife’s roasted turkey. I have a smoker but I haven’t tried smoking a turkey yet. 

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3 minutes ago, Forty Rod SASS 3935 said:

I tried smoking turkey once.  Couldn't keep it lit.

 

I love roast turkey left over made into a open faced hot turkey sandwich on plain old white bread  with lots of gravy

Which brings to memory...... White bread. If you removed the crust you could ball it up and it would almost be a dough. The white bread now is so dry you have to coat it with mayonnaise to swallow it. :)

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I sit and talk with him, have a couple of drinks with him, tell a couple of jokes. At the right moment, I point and say, "Hey -- isn't that Don Edwards?" When he looks that way -- bam! The meat is always more tender when they're relaxed.

 

On the serious side -- brining. Salt, some spices, some gin (yes -- gin). 24 hours in the brine, a few hours to rest, then roasted. Just before finish, glaze and brown with butter and molasses.

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9 minutes ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I am one that wishes they sold turkeys without the breast. 
 

My favorite turkey is my wife’s roasted turkey. I have a smoker but I haven’t tried smoking a turkey yet. 

 

I thought I was the only one who wished that.

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We deep fried the turkeys every year for the family, when we were still in California.  This year we're bringing the fryer out again to cook one for dinner with some friends who also have family out of town.  That is my favorite way to cook turkey.  Moist and flavorful every time.

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

I am one that wishes they sold turkeys without the breast. 
 

My favorite turkey is my wife’s roasted turkey. I have a smoker but I haven’t tried smoking a turkey yet. 

The grocery store has packages of drumsticks and thighs.

 

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As there are only two of us, we just do a small Butterball breast these days.

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I smoke a Butterball breast along with the prime rib roast in the Traeger smoker. More beefeaters at TG anymore and a big turkey has a bunch of leftovers which I’m not a fan of.

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Season it, or sometimes brine it.  Then joint it, lay the parts on a bed of aromatic vegetables, and roast it.  The drumsticks, wing tips, neck, and major part of the carcass went into the stockpot well before the rest went into the oven.  Make the stock for gravy.

With just the two of us we have decided that it is not reasonable to cook a whole bird. So this year we are having Delicata Squash with sausage stuffing, green beans with almonds, Stovetop Stuffing, and some small sweet potatoes.  Also, for an appetizer :

 

Parmesan Crusted Delicata Squash

INGREDIENTS

 

cooking spray

1 Delicata squash, about 14 oz, washed and dried

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

black pepper, to taste

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

 

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 425°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment, lightly spray with oil.

Slice the squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Slice the seeded halves into 1/4-inch thick slices (half circles) and place them in a large bowl.

In a small bowl combine the parmesan, parsley, thyme and lemon zest.

Drizzle the olive oil, garlic, salt and black pepper over the squash slices, tossing toss well to coat.

Lay flat on the prepared baking sheets, pour the parmesan mixture over the squash.

Bake in the center of the oven until soft and golden brown on the edges, about 25 minutes.

Dessert will be a mince pie made with a Diamond Walnut or Pecan bottom crust, jarred Nonesuch Mincemeat, and a storebought top crust.  

 

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2 hours ago, Ozark Huckleberry said:

On the serious side -- brining. Salt, some spices, some gin (yes -- gin). 24 hours in the brine, a few hours to rest, then roasted. Just before finish, glaze and brown with butter and molasses.

 

That sounds good.  The gin will give it a subtle juniper flavor.  I've been using gin for cooking for about 20 years, especially for pork, duck, or goose.

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Roasted breast-down on the Weber.  Indirect coals; pan between the two coal mounds to catch drippings for gravy.

 

A 12-lb bird is done in under two hours; very moist and tender.  *Drool!*  

 

Larson, one of my most fond Thanksgiving memories is of two turkey dinners (don't recall if they were Swanson, Birds-Eye, or what) cooked on a Coleman stove in a duck blind and shared with my old Brittany, Woody.  That was a special day....  :blush:

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4 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

Roasted breast-down on the Weber.  Indirect coals; pan between the two coal mounds to catch drippings for gravy.

 

A 12-lb bird is done in under two hours; very moist and tender.  *Drool!*  

 

Larson, one of my most fond Thanksgiving memories is of two turkey dinners (don't recall if they were Swanson, Birds-Eye, or what) cooked on a Coleman stove in a duck blind and shared with my old Brittany, Woody.  That was a special day....  :blush:

 

Thumbs Up! to this method, but breast up instead (bird size: about 18-20 lbs).  We don’t like dry white meat, and breast-up (sometimes with foil over it) helps prevent this, while ensuring dark meat is cooked.

 

Cat Brules

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1 hour ago, Cat Brules said:

 

Thumbs Up! to this method, but breast up instead (bird size: about 18-20 lbs).  We don’t like dry white meat, and breast-up (sometimes with foil over it) helps prevent this, while ensuring dark meat is cooked.

 

Cat Brules

 

Actually, breast-down is better for moist white meat - gravity, don'tcha know.  Juices tend to flow down through the breast.  Done it both ways.   :)

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5 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Actually, breast-down is better for moist white meat - gravity, don'tcha know.  Juices tend to flow down through the breast.  Done it both ways.   :)

 

Absolutely -- breast down for most of the cooking; I haven't had an issue with dry white meat since I started cooking it that way.

 

I always roll it for the last bit of cooking to crisp the skin. Rolling hot 15 pound birds is a pain, but worth it. 

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12 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

That sounds good.  The gin will give it a subtle juniper flavor.  I've been using gin for cooking for about 20 years, especially for pork, duck, or goose.

 

The mix I use originally called for ground juniper berries, but after Thanksgiving I could never find a use for leftover ground juniper berries.

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One last thing I'll throw in.

 

I only cook turkeys once a year, it's not an every day thing. So about twenty years ago (coincidentally when I started brining) I also started taking notes every year about what I did and how the meat turned out. Brine recipe, oven temp, roasting time, when to turn, how long to let rest -- the works. It has helped me cook up some consistently good meat.

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12 hours ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

 

Actually, breast-down is better for moist white meat - gravity, don'tcha know.  Juices tend to flow down through the breast.  Done it both ways.   :)

 

;)

We’ll try it breast-down this time!

 

CB

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I go to my nieces house and all I have to do is bring a couple pies that I get from a local bakery. I’m so lucky! I’ve never cooked a turkey in my whole life!:D

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We drown our turkeys (brine them).  Ma puts some spices together, put the turkey in a 5 gallon pail we reserve just for this, cover the turkey with water and ice, put it in the walk in cooler (garage) overnight.  Next day, recover the body, wipe the excess spices off, pat it dry, slather on butter, stuff the cavity with celery, onions and a couple carrots for flavor.  Cover with foil and into a 300 degree oven for a couple hours or until that little pop up thing goes off.  Take off the foil and leave for another 30 minutes.  Turn off the oven and let it rest while the rest of the other food is prepared.  Siphon off some drippings for gravy, home made mashed taters ( make them and am told by my grand daughter they are the best), some kind of veggie, home made dinner rolls, punkin pie, some other kind of fruit pie, usually apple and dressing in a side dish. I'd rather eat that than my taters.  Canned or freshly candied cranberries, dill pickles, olives of some sort. Ma sometimes will make a disgusting brussels sprout dish.  She thinks just because she par-fries them along with bacon that they taste good.  Nope, no way.  I let her have my portion.  I'll have another piece of pie.

The turkey is moist and delicious.  Left overs are my favorite.  We have a small gathering. Usually around 20 show up.

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For the 5th year in a row, we are having a kosher turkey in honor of our dad.  It was Thanksgiving of 2014, and we decided to try a kosher turkey for the first time.  Pop proclaimed it the best turkey he ever had.  It turned out that was Pop's last Thanksgiving.  We've maintained the tradition of having Thanksgiving at Pop's house for friends of the family and local cousins, and in honor of Pop we've had a kosher turkey ever since.

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On 11/24/2019 at 1:23 PM, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

Gotta use quality papers.

 

19 hours ago, Cowboy Small said:

Hard to find them big enough.


There was a certain Cheech & Chong album that had one the perfect size. :lol:
 

Big Bambu ;)

 

 

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Larsen T. Pettifogger has the right idea, and that's how we're going to do it ..
TV Dinners.
Our first Thanksgiving dinner was with Cornish hens instead of turkey, and my wife enlisted my aid and assistance in removing those frozen bags of whatever from inside the cavity.
I ended up pinning the frozen carcass to the kitchen table while wearing a (clean) leather welder's glove, reaching into the cavity with water pump pliers, gripping the frozen giblet bag and swearing most heartily as I tried to murder that rock hard frozen giblet bag out of its shelter.  She still kids me about that.
Maybe it's because I was wearing a welder's glove, bright white boxer briefs and an irritated expression.

(Hey, I have precedent for this state of undress ... John Wesley Hardin is reputed to have gunfought wearing no more than his hat!)
In 23 years of wedded bliss, we've had one, count 'em, ONE traditional Thanksgiving dinner.
We got so sick of left overs we agreed, "Never Again!" -- so before that traditional meal, and ever since, we've had anything but.

We've had Thanksgiving stir fry.

Thanksgiving tacos.

Thanksgiving pizza.

Thanksgiving lasagna.

Thanksgiving beef stroganoff (yum!)

And since we're both classified as Essential Emergency Personnel, we are subject to call, I'm on midnight shift before, during and after, and she has to work ... so TV dinners are the choice this year!

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