Turkey Turkey, Who can cook a turkey?

[Sapphire Silk]

This is how Evil Empryss makes her turkey every year (several times a year actually, as we like turkey so she'll cook several birds over the course of the holiday season).

She makes a fine, fine bird. Moist, tender, flavorful every. single. time.

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That's really complicated and I'm on my iPhone right now but I'll try. This is my personal recipe so personal taste may vary. I don't do stuffed birds so if that's what's wanted I can't help.

You don't need an expensive Butterball for this: I get the cheapest bird I can every year and it comes out great!

Start thawing the turkey at least two days prior by putting it in the fridge. DO NOT THAW ON THE COUNTERTOP OR IN HOT WATER... unless you like roaring cases of salmonella.

Preheat oven to 325* F (or per the temp suggestion on the packaging).

Make a dry herbal rub of two tablespoons of salt and rubbed sage, one tablespoon of pepper (I use fine ground white) and ground thyme, and about a teaspoon of ground garlic. I use mostly salt and sage; the thyme and garlic should be used the least. Dump all of them into a bowl and mix together.

Open the wrapping and Make Sure to Remove the Neck and Giblets! Sometimes they're in the neck cavity so make sure to check both ends of the bird. Set giblets aside to make gravy later.

Rinse bird inside and out. If there is still ice in the bird that's not a problem, just run cool water through it for a few minutes to finish thawing it.

Put the bird in a roasting pan. Pat dry inside and out.

Using your fingers, make a gap between the flesh and the skin over each breast and also over each thigh. This can be tricky to do without tearing the skin, but you need to be able to put a pat of butter in each pocket (about half a tablespoon each). It's easier to slip the butter in if it's cold so don't take it out until you're ready to use it. You want to position the pats so they will melt over the meat while cooking.

Pour a handful of salt (regular, kosher, whatever) and rub the inside of the bird with it.

Rub the bird inside and out with butter or olive oil (your choice).

Pour some of the herb rub into your hand and pat it all over the bird. Make sure to put some inside the bird, too.

Take one white onion and cut the top off. Peel and cut it into quarters without cutting all the way through the onion. Put the onion inside the bird.

Make a tinfoil tent over the bird, making sure not to let any foil touch the bird. I don't use the roaster lids.

Put bird in preheated oven, making sure the foil doesn't touch the heating elements.

Cook for 45 minutes less than the recommended time. Take foil off and return bird to oven. Start basting bird every ten min.

This is the tricky part: if you wait for the little red plug timer to pop up, the bird will be overcooked. If you can't judge doneness by touch or the appearance of the juices (both take lots of experience) then trust a thermometer. Stick it in the thickest part of the thigh without touching the bone. Done is 165*F; I take my birds out at about 155*F and let them rest. They will finish cooking on the counter due to internal temps.

Gravy instructions will have to wait to see if anyone is interested. :-)

[Food Lady]

I don't eat turkey, but my mom--from 50 years of cooking--says the bags are good. They keep the turkey moist.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

I forgot to look for cooking bags when I went into town for supplies today, and I'm not making the 45 minute, each way, drive again tomorrow, so no bags for me. (There aren't any at the local grocery store, not surprising, other things you can't buy in my town include light bulbs, bandaids and coffee to make at home.) Since you all seem in agreement, I have decided to make the stuffing as a separate dish, I'm actually going to make it tonight, and reheat tomorrow. I shouldn't have a problem with gravy if it is similar to chicken or beef gravy.

And I thought I would make some apple pie with it, because my kid loves apple pie (in case I screw up the turkey badly there will be something for him to eat besides salad). I already have some crust dough frozen, so I figure if I make the pie tonight or early tomorrow I can use the apple peels, some onion and spices cooked off in chicken stock inside the body for roasting. And I will put some butter/spice mix under the skin before cooking.

Thank you all for the tips, and cross your fingers for me tomorrow. I'll let you know if it turns out in the slightest.

[mjr]

I know it's a bit late, but I want to chime in anyhow. This might be helpful for the future.

I use a modification of this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ey-recipe.html

I just don't do the brining part.

[ArcticChicken]

I love a cider brined turkey

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/appl...0000000780346/

[MoonCat]

We always do the stuffing in the turkey. As long as the internal temp is correct, you're fine. But doing it separately is fine, too.

Mmmm....stuffing....

[Jarlaxle]

Not many tips (all of mine have been covered), but I thought a turkey tale from my family might get some laughs. Moral: when you make a shopping list, be SPECIFIC!

there is the Thanksgiving that Liz (my wife) and I did the shopping. It was at my mother's new house (it was frequently at my house)...my mother had shoulder problems and was under strict instructions to not lift anything with her right arm; this made shopping, while not impossible, impractical. My stepfather was planning to do the shopping the Saturday before Thanksgiving. He left work early Friday, though, and by Saturday, he had what seemed to be a raging stomach virus; needless to say, he was not doing anything that took him more than 50' from the bathroom. I told my mother that if she'd e-mail the grocery list to me, Liz and I would do the shopping. She did, we printed out two copies, and on the way to my mother's house, stopped at the supermarket.

Liz and I each took a list & a carriage...she started at one end of the store, I started at the other, we'd meet somewhere in the middle. (Being for eight people, it was a large list.) Now, I must explain two things: first, my mother wrote the list for my stepfather...some of it was a bit vague, but he would know exactly what she meant after 20+ years of marriage. Liz and I didn't, necessarily. Second, I am cheap and will look for the lowest price on just about everything, and if a larger package is a better buy (and it won't spoil), I will usually buy it.

Liz started at the meat department. Topping the list was, and I quote, a "LARGE" turkey". So, Liz did the logical thing: she told the guy behind the counter, "Please bring me your biggest turkey." He did: he went into the freezer and came out with a 37lb (about 16.5kg) frozen turkey! We got the rest of the stuff...things like 10lbs of potatoes, 5lbs of carrots (the list was "5-1lb carrots", which I assumed to be a typo) a squash, 6lbs (3.5kg) each of ground pork & ground beef (My stepfather is a Canuck...he makes meatpies & uses meat stuffing.), four bags of stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, etc. (She also put "dinner napkins" on the list...we got a package of 800.) We filled about ten bags, plus a large box for the turkey. We brought everything to the house, I backed into the driveway, and we began unloading. My mother began poking through the bags as Liz and I went back to get the turkey. She seemed puzzled when I asked if she would get the door, but she did. The expression on her face when she saw the banana box was priceless! (Also, we were pulling this stuff out of Liz's tiny Festiva.) After spluttering for about thirty seconds, she finally said, "What is that? I'm not feeding the whole town!" Liz innocently replied, "Well, we were hoping to persuade you to make soup!" She shook her head as she poked through the bags, then saw the carrots. No typos, she really DID want five one-pound bags of carrots. Her reasoning being: the carrots in the 5lb bags tend to be much thicker. With her bad shoulder (can't push down on a knife), they are very hard to slice. Well, OK, this is easily solved: if someone would peel them, I would slice the carrots.

Now, we have to figure out how to deal with a 37lb turkey. It needs to thaw...which, to put it mildly, will take a while. There were 5 days to the day before Thanksgiving (when it had to be prepared for cooking)...thawing it in the refrigerator would take about a week and a half, so we did the cold-water method. The turkey went in a large Sterilite tote, which was then filled with water, in the (unheated) basement. That took all night and most of the next day...then, it went in the downstairs fridge (after taking out all the shelves).

Then, cooking it. It would JUST fit in her oven (1/2" from the top of the cover to the top of the oven), and took about ten pounds of stuffing. (It took all the stuffing we'd bought, PLUS all the stuff we had gotten for meat pies.) It went in the night before (like, 11pm), because it would take a LONG time to cook. Getting it in was another adventure: between the bird, the stuffing, and the massive cast-iron roasting pan (the bird JUST fit), this was close to sixty pounds going in the oven. We managed, and it cooked. My stepfather & my sister kept making dire predictions that it would be dry before it was properly cooked...he doesn't like frozen turkeys & thought any turkey over 25lbs is nearly impossible to cook properly, she just doesn't like Liz. So it cooked, then came out (two people to take it out) to cool. My mother made gravy with the drippings (needless to say, there was plenty!), my stepfather carved. Despite his predictions, it was PERFECT. (My mother is a very good cook.) To almost everyone's amazement, my father in law ate an entire leg from this huge turkey. There were, of course, leftovers...everyone ate lots of turkey sandwiches that weekend! (Which is not a bad thing.)

The final comedy came a few days later, after my stepfather stripped the carcass & my mother got ready to make soup. She discovered that even cut into pieces, this gigantic turkey wouldn't fit her biggest pot! She wound up making TWO batches of turkey soup. She demanded I take home three containers of it, since I was the one that bought this huge bird. I was, of course, heartbroken at having to take home a gallon and a half of homemade soup.

We still talk about that one...anytime someone mentions a turkey, my mother says, "No more 30-pounders!" or something similar.

[lordlundar]

I know it's a bit late, but I want to chime in anyhow. This might be helpful for the future.

I use a modification of this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/a...ey-recipe.html

I just don't do the brining part.

Why on earth would you skip the brine? It's what brings the most flavour and moisture.

[CoffeeMonkey]

I know that I've never brined a turkey because I am not in charge of turkey for family gatherings and my mom overrules my suggestion that a brine would be a grand thing. another reason I can think of is it being a pain to get a large enough vessel and a place to put it depending on the space and weather.

Know what I always brine, though? (sort of) Pork loin! Half of a package is the perfect size for my use, and fits grandly in a quart sized ziplock. Mix up some seasonings and fill it with chicken broth and voila! I don't add the sugar component of the brine cuz I'm not a fan of sweetness in meat. Then I use that broth to deglaze the pan after I sear the roast and it goes into the roasting pan to keep it moist and give me drippings for gravy. (I love gravy.)

We now end our porcine tangent and return to turkey.

[AccountingDrone]

Back in the 2 year period when we raised a dozen turkeys, right at the very end we had 2 toms left, a 42 pound monster and a 44 pound monster. We dressed out the 42 pound one [official name was Roast] and shipped it, frozen solid and packed in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 3 foot box wrapped in multiple layers of insulite and packing peanuts to my parents. They had to go to the restaurant owned by a friend and have him run it through his chain oven to cook it. They had leftovers for 2 months

When we went to cook Turkeyzilla [Previously named Giblet] he would not fit in the oven as it was set up, we had to set a pair of bricks on the bottom and lay the shelf on that. We also didn't have a roasting pan large enough so Rob had to make one in the metal shop at work. He cooked up fine, however the breast was lovely, the skin crackled beautifully but the leg meat was like iron. I peeled off one breast and grabbed my medium stock pot [5 gallons] and dumped the body in after dinner so everything ended up in the pot - mashed potatoes, the stuffing from inside, the carrots in cranberry glaze, enough water to just cover and clapped the lid on and set the stove to simmer. It simmered over night. The stuffing sort of liquified, along with the mashed garlic potatoes enriched with creme fraiche, butter and heavy cream. Morning came, and we hailed Turkeyzilla's dearly departed body out of his hot tub. Set him on my largest jelly roll pan and let him cool down. While he was cooling down, Rob took the immersion blender and went to town on the cooking medium. It ended up looking like the richest gravy you could imagine. Golden brown, creamy with eyes of wonderful fat gently floating on the surface. When Turkeyzilla was cool enough, we peeled off all the meat, chopped it into bite sized chunks and shreds, chopped up onions, celery, potatoes and carrots and peeled a couple bulbs of garlic and tossed it all back in and simmered it for another couple hours. It was like drinking an entire turkey dinner in a bowl. Creamy, turkey-y, a hint of cranberry and onion and herbs. All 4 gallons of it We froze it in 1 cup and 1 pint recycled chinese fast food soup tubs, we froze some in 1 quart tupperware and we had 20 people over for a potluck and fed them the last gallon of the soup [along with a deeply heaped table of other foods]

Would we do it again? Hell yes =)

[Seshat]

I know I'm late for NC's meal, but I'd like to make some comments.

1. A meat thermometer was one of the best cooking investments I've made, and one of the cheapest. (I also adore my sweets thermometer, for sugar-based cookery.)

2. I like to fill the organ cavity with something, when cooking a whole roast bird. I have in the past used a random ball of bread and herbs, but I'll try the onion/citrus/whatever idea.

3. Put the carcass in a food-safe bag of some sort (a pudding bag can work) to make stock: that way you can simply lift the bag out of the stock water and let it drain, knowing you're not leaving any bits of bone or cartilage in your stock.
If you've left meat on the carcass, you can take the drained bag and empty it out onto a plate, then pick the meat out to put back into the stock.

4. If you make a good white sauce, make a mornay. I just make a saucepan's worth of white sauce, add leftover chicken meat (or turkey in this case), add herbs that suit the flavours in the poultry, and often add mixed frozen (or leftover) vegetables. Serve over rice or pasta, with parmesan available to taste.
Or if you prefer, put in a baking tray, cover with cheese, bake until the cheese has become gorgeously coloured and the flavours have melded a bit.

5. I would imagine that turkey caesar salad would be tasty. Just be careful with the fats-and-oils component: I have heard of a dietitian calling caesar salad 'not a salad, just a silly way to eat bacon'.
Use the dressing and the bacon (if any) with a light hand, and make the bulk of the salad the lean turkey leftovers, a variety of dark leafy greens, and a mix of vegetables.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

So dinners done, dishes are done and kitchen's been put right again. Verdict - mostly success. I didn't brine the turkey, due to time, space and financial considerations, but I did put herbed butter under the skin and coat the top and inside with it. The turkey was in no way dry (and it was done, I do have a meat thermormeter), the kid loved it and the gravy and I made a cranberry jelly for it. I'm still not a huge fan of turkey, but I preferred it to the wild ones I have tried. And there is enough leftovers for a weeks worth of dinners, a weeks worth of lunch sandwiches, followed by a weeks worth of soup once the carcass is stripped and ready to boil, plus about another 3 weeks worth of meat I've already cut off and bagged for the freezer, which is not bad for a free dinner!

I probably wouldn't buy a turkey, but if I somehow acquired one again, I'd do it again. Thanks all for the tips.

[wolfie]

Great! Sounds like time to celebrate your success in the kitchen by sitting down with a nice sipping bourbon. Dare I suggest - Wild Turkey?

[Food Lady]

wolfie, LOL You are ridiculous.

[Seanette]

My son won a turkey at school for running around the soccer field the most times in his grade because .... well I'm not really following that part. But anyhow, I have a frozen turkey defrosting in the fridge. I have never bought a turkey, I don't think I've ever eaten a farmed turkey before, not being a huge fan of the wild type, but I'm also not one to turn down free food. So Sunday, I'm going to try to cook my first turkey.

14lbs, I can google, so this is what I've come up with : At 175 degrees, on a grill rack in a roasting pan, stuffed, covered in foil for 3 1/2 hours before uncovering for 1/2 - 3/4 hour.

Any tips, tricks or favourite recipes anyone wants to share? I'm welcoming suggestions from all.

I really love Reynolds Oven Bags (note: no financial affiliation with any brand I reference). They do a wonderful job keeping your birdzilla nice and juicy. Just don't also cover the pan. Made that mistake one Thanksgiving, nearly wound up serving turkey sashimi.