How Do You Cook Your Turkey? |
|
| By: Elliott Thursday November 26, 2009 9:18 am | |
I start with a fresh bird, stuff with a classic celery/onion bread stuffing and cook it upside down for the first half. Time and temperature for me are cookbook basics. Very simply roast turkey.
How do you cook your turkey?
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In spite of everything, we do have much to be grateful for.
Roasted Turkey pic courtesy of ddaarryynn
About MyFDL
MyFDL is the community site of progressive political blog Firedoglake. Anyone can participate by writing a diary, commenting on others’ diaries, or joining groups to find other people in your area. Content posted to MyFDL is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to Firedoglake.
News. Community. Activism.
Firedoglake is a member-supported organization.
Help us continue our work for as little as $45/year.
Tweet
37 Comments
Easy. I don’t (not a big turkey fan here)
But if I were tasked to provide the bird, I would find someone local to me and pay the cost to have it deep fried. The moistest, tastiest bird I ever have had was at a cousins in Albany, GA one year and he had fried the bird the day before (while also frying for friends and co-workers of he or his wife).
Oh, and carving the bird is an art and a project.
Some of the funniest home movies from when we were little are of my father trying not to lick his fingers as he carved the bird.
Happy Thanksgiving Elliot!
have never had to cook a turkey for the family – only for soup kitchens and that wasn’t till my mid thirties and they were roasted. I’m the I’ll bring the sweet potatoes, extra stuffing (cornbread thankyewverymuch) and dessert gal.
I’ve heard fried turkey IS really moist and tender,
but it’s also a great source for Darwin Awards.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This is our must-have dessert, Cookie Dessert. Nabisco’s Famous Wafers, I used to fret that Nabisco would stop making them but then Martha Stewart featured it so I figure we’re safe for now.
We’re not eating at home today, but for Christmas I will probably slow cook a turkey on our Kamado grill.
Oh way too true about the Darwin Awards candidates. My cousin set up his fry pit out away from the house, trees and anything flammable but was telling stories about neighbors who didn’t quite grasp the concept (like frying inside the garage or right next to the house or on the stove top inside).
Note: our paternal grandparents had run a road side restaurant and we both learned from watching our fathers and aunts and uncles do a lot of cooking and frying that they had learned from the parents.
Wow, haven’t seen those Kamado grills for years!! how cool! think I need to budget for one of those.
That is one handsome appliance.
Here’s what the shuttlenauts are having:
oldnslow loves that dessert – maybe I’ll pick some up while out and about this week end
Holy Crap ! look at this version !
I don’t, vegetarian. :)
HOLY CRAP!
I thought you were going to link to this one
Tofurkey all around !
You guys are truly decadent, and getting more so by the minute! Happy Thanksgiving, one and all!
Do you have a regular replacement for the traditional turkey, or does the menu change year to year?
Okay, here is, IMVVVVHO the best way to cook turkey:
BACON BACON BACON BACON BACON BACON BACON BACON!!!
You see, by throwing bacon on the top, you shut up all the “oh, you’ve got to brine the turkey” people (except, as Teddy pointed out elsewhere, the observant Jews, Muslims, and Veggies, though I’ve had all make an exception for bacon turkey). IMO, brining ruins the texture of the MEAT, and you might as well be chewing on a sponge.
BUT.
But bacon does accomplish two things the briners claim brine does: deliver salt to the meat slowly, and ensure a juicy bird.
And bacon has two more advantages.
1) snack time. By the time my pie is done and I head back over to where I’m eating, that bacon will be waiting for me screaming “Snack time!!!” You eat the bacon right off the bird, and then it browns perfectly.
2) extra protection for the breast. Which will come in handy today, bc today’s bird makes me look breasty.
One more comment. Every time I say I got this method from my white trash grandmother, everyone claims it comes from Craig Claiborne. Me, I think Claiborne was sneaking hints from white trash folk, not the other way around, bc I’m fairly sure my grandmother never heard of Craig Claiborne.
Menu changes every year. This year, however, we’re pulling an FDR and moving Thanksgiving to Saturday, because my mother, otherwise knows as the-person-in-charge-of-all-the-food, has the swine flu.
Hope your Mom gets better soon. Did she have the shot? I got mine yesterday.
We smoke turkeys on our Weber grill. Brine the bird in seasoned salted water overnight. Heat the coals, put several handfuls of hickory or apple chips in water to soak. Pat dry. Pat dry again. Then again. Sage under the skin, onions and apples in cavity. Olive oil and kosher salt all over. Baste with olive oil during the cooking.
Smoked oyster stuffing; a pan of Jiffy cornbread, soak with chicken stock, chop and add a tin of chopped smoked oysters (rinse first!). Onion is good, and some people like celery, but I hate celery and my wife doesn’t eat onions.
Cranberry/orange relish: rinse and pick over 1 bag cranberries, then dry them. Wash a naval orange, chop into quarters. Chop in food processor. Add a bit less than 1 cup of sugar. Let sit for several hours in refrigerator. Taste. If dry or not sweet enough, add a bit of orange juice.
Ambrosia: cut up citrus fruit, orange, pineapple, grapefruit, add coconut.
Waldorf salad. Who knows? My wife makes it. Sometimes I make fresh mayonaise for this salad.
Assorted pies.
My personal favorite desert: Vin Santo with fresh biscotti. Unfortunately, the price of Vin Santo has gone through the roof.
((jRo Mom))
Bacon is for eggs, for heaven’s sake!
It isn’t for filet mignon either.
Perhaps a nice North American ice wine instead of Vin Santo? There are a number of very nice Michigan, Washington State and Canadian ones.
Can’t think of the name/label of a California sauterne I’ve served for dessert, also quite good.
If you do, be sure to order with the hole pre-drilled for the fan unit of a BBQ Guru–the best way to cheat on slow cooking. This is the unit that is replacing my old one: you monitor pit temp and meat temp separately. The controller adjusts airflow into the fire to control the cooking temp and can lower cook temp as the meat nears completion. A turkey takes 12-20 hours to smoke like this but is incredible.
lol
Turkey-shaped Jell-O® Mold: 2009 Competition Winners.
My favorites are Turkeyburger, Live Feed, That’s No Turkey, Flapping Jacks, and Fish Bowl.
(via BoingBoing)
Excellent! must greatly improve the consistency of smoked meats.
Hubby is going to flip when I tell him he can get me one of these for my next birthday…
It’s not like he won’t be reaping some pretty tasty benefits from it :)
Yeah, mine was birthday. I got the big one, and it was delivered by truck. It took me hours to uncrate it and get it through the screen door onto the back porch. I had to build a ramp out of the crate. Fortunately, they did crate it with it on the wheeled base.
The propane starter is great, and it gives an excuse to get the drum table to go alongside. The propane tank hides in there.
Cornbread fan here too, must be the Texas-Oklahoma family influence.
Speaking of those dear ones, I remember one Thanksgiving where one uncle cut himself with the newfangled electric carving knife. Had to go to the ER. Then another uncle was showing how well he could use it and …had to go to the ER.
Very late dinner that year.
No, no shot. I guess it’s too late now! :)
Margot, forgive me for laughing at the one, I presume they healed nicely.
We’re in the home stretch…just waiting for the final 10 degrees of internal temp and we’ll be looking at a finished turkey.
About time to put the sides in the oven to finish off — oasted sweet potatoes with brown sugar, sausage-chestnut dressing — tossed salad and crudites already waiting.
Wonder if my spouse forgot the rolls which have been rising for quite a while now?
You’re forgiven, we all laughed too.
And we’re done! Phew, I’m ready to yield to an endorphin-enhanced nap.
For the very first time I am relieved of my kitchen duties; the teenager and hubby are batting cleanup. Seems like it’s the least they could do after 11 hours of cooking and additional prep time, huh?
Wishing the rest of you similar dish-washing reprieves!
We cook our birds almost the same way. Although, rather than “smoking” we primarily roast on the grill. The only other difference is that we make a sage, sausage & giblet stuffing due to shell fish allergies here. We make a hot buttered rum cranberry chutney and cranberry orange relish. We start things off with relish trays and goats cheese topped with a cranberry chutney and crushed Marcona almonds.
We did our sweet potatoes differently this year. We peeled, coarse cut length-wise and tossed with olive oil, cinnamon and balsamic vinegar. Then we roasted them with pearl onions and parsnips. It was quite fantastic.
We had a New England bread basket of homemade bread rolls, blueberry muffins, corn bread and pumpkin bread. Served with homemade pumpkin butter and/or herb butter.
Fresh fruit salad, homemade German egg noodles (Spaetzle),blaukraut,green beans roasted with walnuts and garlic, twice baked potatoes (from scratch), and lots of pies.
sounds divine!
Spaetzle!!! Yum!!!
Think you just gave me an idea for the first turkey leftovers — homemade spaetzle with turkey and gravy. Thanks, klynn!