Turkey Techinques

Ive never done my own turkey, and my dad usually smokes thirs in the smoker, which is delicious, btw.

I did see on a cooking show someone brining theirs in a 5 gal bucket, not sure where they stored it while it brined though.

Our turkey story was the year my sister got married in SoCal. By then my brother was the only family living down there so a lot of people bunked at his house, and since she got married on 12/26, we also celebrated Christmas there. Consequently the turkey was in his oven cooking all afternoon, and when someone checked on it after a couple hours, we found his oven was broken and the turkey was almost raw. Eventually someone tinkered with the oven and did get it to work, but even after another couple hours the turkey still wasn't done. After about EIGHT hours, the turkey 'looked' done (I think it was somewhere around 7-8pm by then) so we took it out and carved it up. I don't recall turkey being a big hit that year, but we all had fun anyway.

We brined our turkey last year, having been told it kept it really moist, but didn't really notice much difference, so skipped that process this year. My mom put it into a huge Dutch oven, butt first and was able to cover it that way.

I've never heard of Brineing or whatever it is. hehe

I just did the normal, stuff and roast it in the oven last year. Our house is old as shit, the floors all lean ect. So my oven wasn't completely even and the turkey juice spilled out over before I could get it out fast enough. (I had never cooked one myself before.) I thought I got all the damn thing cleaned up after it was finished cooking, yeah, no! lol Every time we turned on the oven for the next month more turkey juice would leak out from under it, funny thing was that we couldn't find any in there anywhere. I have no clue where it was hiding! lol

We haven't done up our turkey yet this year, May save it for Christmas instead. I'm too afraid of another disaster!

Brine=success! So full. Full of juicy delicious turkey.

Roasted the turkey breast down uncovered on a rack over a shallow pan (deep enough to catch the drippings). Was 18 pounds, I did 45 minutes at 400, 2 hours at 350, and about an hour and a half at 250. 400 sealed everything in, 350 cooked things up, 250 eased the turkey up to a food safe temperature. Fucking awesome, I rule everything!

Tied up the wings so they stayed close to the body. Filled the cavity with a yellow onion, apple pieces, fresh herbs, pepper, celery, carrots. Tied up both ends so the turkey was a tiny ball of delicious. I have conqured the turkey and therefore rule all things!

GRATZ!!! Its always awesome when something like this pays off!!

Oooh that sounds yummy, Veri!

Yeah I was pretty chipper about this last night (might have been the bottle of wine too :X).

Tomorrow I will be making turkey stock and then starting the process of dealing with the 6 pounds of leftover meat I have in my fridge.

I think next time I will skip the brine bag and just get either a big bucket or use the cooler again. I'll be sure to buy plenty of ice ;).

I have yet to try my own turkey roasting. But I'm starting to fear trying. LOL

I filled up my stock pot with bones and other stock making goodness. Then I froze the other -half- a carcass. I won't need more stock until Easter at this rate.

I was thinking of doing the stock in the ice cube tray trick - making little blocks of frozen stock that you can throw into a pot with whatever you're making.

Niekra, maybe start small, like with a little oven roaster chicken? I can sympathize, I don't think I would have been nearly so brave if I hadn't gotten my turkey for free. That's a lot of $ down the drain if it goes wrong, neh?

Edit - also, I think the meat thermometer is my friend. There's just no better way to get it done exactly the right amount. I started testing about an hour before it was supposed to be done, and it was done a half hour early.

Veri, that sounds like an awesome turkey. :)

We don't eat turkey here because I'm allergic to it (yeah, it happens) but I do roast a chicken or two depending on the amount of company. I'm not sure I was ever taught how to do so, but my method seems to produce general "yummy" noises every time so I've kept with it. I use a baste of olive oil mixed with soy sauce. I prefer to slow-cook mine, so even with the littler roasters I'll keep them in for 4 hours on about 300-350, and yeah, the meat thermometer is the best ever invention!

Every hour or so I add a little more of the oil and soy mix, keeping the chicken moist, and I cover it with tin foil. i also sprinkle the outside lightly with garlic, pepper, and orange zest.

For the stuffing I saute the liver and heart in butter and toss it in the food processor with onions, celery, carrots, and a few slices of bacon. I mix this sticky mess into a big bowl of bread cubes and add dried cranberries. Stuff the cavity, not packing it in too tightly because that gets icky (any leftover stuffing gets baked separately in a casserole dish). In the final half hour of cooking I remove the tin foil in order to get the skin to a really nice golden brown.

After removing the chicken from the oven I'll skim off a good deal of the oil, leaving just a little, and add the reserve to a pot, cutting it with chicken broth until it smells "right." Then I slowly bring that to a boil, adding a mix of flour and broth to thicken it into gravy.




....It sounds a lot more complex than it is. It's really pretty simple, and tasty. :) I may have to look into this brining thing, it sounds yummy!

Veri your recipie sounds a lot like the one I saw Alton Brown do.. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

Sounds divine too! Haven;t had a holiday at my house in several years so haven;t been able to try this method out, but if it turned out as good as you say then I am suggesting it to my aunt who is hosting Christmas!

Doing Hallowgiving this year - turkey day is this Saturday for my family. I'm going to do the turkey once again, hopefully learning from last year's mistakes.

This year -could- be the year I do something with the innards other than throw them away as quickly as possible with a shudder of disgust! Stay tuned to find out!

I have a 14 pound turkey, which I think is smaller than what I had last year. Which I'm fine with. I'm also doing some kind of vegetable which no one will eat because they'll be stuffing themselves with delicious carbs.

Hmm this reminds me, I still have half a turkey carcass in the freezer from Thanksgiving (Canada has it in October). I think I'll make more turkey soup.

Doing an early thanksgiving again this year, which should be merry fun. By now I think I have the technique down, though I still have not been brave enough to mess with the innards *shudder*. I bought a giant busket with a sturdy lid for the brine process, and this year I have a brand new real roasting pan and rack, so I won't have to improvise with a jelly roll pan and a toaster oven rack :X. I'll be able to rearrange the fridge to put the busket inside, so I won't have to worry about food safe temperatures. This year I'm buying a fresh turkey, which I am optimistic about.

I will do the turkey, gravy, cranberries (I'm the only one who likes real cranberry sauce, but fuck it, I'll make it anyway and buy a can of that revolting jelly for everyone else), and green beans. Other family members will contribute the rest of the food. I don't think I will get to make special mashed potatoes at all this time, which is a shame because I think my mashed potatoes come out rather well. The secret there is the 16oz of cream cheese I put in there. Ommm. Not something I would do on a regular basis, just for special, because mashed potatoes made with cream cheese and heavy cream and real butter are not that good for you :X.

Gimme the busket!

Turkey oven bag. Beer. Yum.

Someone needs to make a turducken (lmao, I can't even type it without laughing) and post a picture of it.

Gongaa just wants to know some sexual position techniques with Turkeys.

:o

lolololol