I hate Turkey rant

[farscott]

I may have smoked my last turkey. This was our first Thanksgiving in FL, and it was just the two of us. The original plan was to get food catered or go to one of the local restaurants that is open for the holiday. That plan crashed to earth when we got a coupon for a free Butterball turkey. To be fair, it was faltering before we got the coupon. The new plan was to get the smallest fresh bird available, smoke it, and turn it into dog food. That plan morphed into cooking the turkey for us and turning the leftovers into dog food as my wife and I are really not comfortable going to a restaurant on Thanksgiving. It is not a holiday if you have to work. And a catered meal was really pricey. Plus we like cooking.

What I should have done is grilled steaks and smoked the turkey for the dogs, but what I did was smoke a turkey and help my wife with five sides (green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and fresh rolls). The smallest fresh bird was 12.5#, and we ate perhaps a pound of turkey between us. We also put barely a dent into the sides as the recipes do not lend themselves to smaller quantities. The good news is the food was good, and the smoked turkey, further brined in orange and pineapple juices, was delicious. There were not enough mouths to eat everything. We went from cooking for at least eight to cooking just for two. We looked into inviting new neighbors, but (surprise, surprise) they had their own plans. The good news is the turkey will end up being the protein in homemade food for our seven dogs.

For Christmas, I will be grilling some thick ribeyes, adding a lobster tail, baked potatoes, and some TBD veggies.

[Borderland]

We had a house full of people planned but some kids were sick. Two thirds of our guests didn't show. Just 4 adults this year with a 12 lb pre cooked turkey from a local grocery store. Not too bad but we didn't even make a dent in the turkey and all the sides. I did the cleanup again this year and made sure the left over turkey went out the door with the guests. I can hear it all now. Dear, why did we end up with so much turkey? I would have kept some of it if I still had a dog, but sadly, I don't. Probably should work on that.

We had sun and 50° weather yesterday so even though there was only turkey as a main dish it was a very pleasant day. Weather now goes back to our typical 30-40° with rain and snow in the forecast.

One of these days I'm just going to make some chicken enchiladas and proclaim it a Mexican Thanksgiving. BYOT.

[CSW]

Cooked ours out on the Weber kettle this year.[again]
Delicious as always. No drama, except for my daughter, 27, filling us in on the new love in her life. [he did not get invited, because we were not aware]
Usual spread of accompaniments. Damn good meal, damn good family time.

[mtnbkr]

We normally travel, but this year, for reasons that escape me, my in-laws decided they would rather come to us, so we hosted them (if that sounded like I wasn't happy about that, I am actually). SWMBO decided we had to roast a turkey, something I've never done.

It came out great. Nobody was as shocked as me.

I didn't do anything fancy, just brined it for 16 hours and roasted it in our convection oven at 325 for about 4.5hrs on Wednesday, then wrapped it and stuffed it in the fridge until yesterday morning when I put it back in the convection oven at 325 with a little water in a roasting pan (with turkey on a rack) and a foil tent over the bird for a couple hours until it was up to temp while we cooked the sides. It ended up moist and flavorful with a nicely crisp skin. We ate our fill and I removed the rest of the meat for "turkey pastry" (Chicken Pastry is a NC riff on chicken and dumplings, I'm going to make it with turkey).

Chris

[TGS]

Another year of cooking a turkey in an oven bag, and the result being another delicious, moist turkey which took almost no effort to make.

Another year of reading comments about how laborious turkey is to make and/or doesn't come out well, cause ya too dumb to try an oven bag.

[Clusterfrack]

...cause ya too dumb to try an oven bag.

Who needs a bag when you have a deep frier?

[TGS]

Who needs a bag when you have a deep frier?

I've never had a deep fried turkey, but based on how I like other deep fried foods I think I'd prefer oven roasted anyways.
I've also watched too many videos of people burning down their houses with deep friers. Almost like clockwork, my Thanksgiving day shift when I still worked in EMS, we'd go to a fire call every thanksgiving for a deep fried turkey gone wrong. In addition, I'd go to about 3 cardiac arrests the day after.

An oven roasted turkey seems like the best plan for me to stay out of both those groups.

[mtnbkr]

Another year of cooking a turkey in an oven bag, and the result being another delicious, moist turkey which took almost no effort to make.

Another year of reading comments about how laborious turkey is to make and/or doesn't come out well, cause ya too dumb to try an oven bag.

Not that my attempt was particularly laborious, but I completely forgot about the oven bag method. My mom used those things all the time for turkey, roasts, etc.

Chris

[Clusterfrack]

I've never had a deep fried turkey, but based on how I like other deep fried foods I think I'd prefer oven roasted anyways.
I've also watched too many videos of people burning down their houses with deep friers. Almost like clockwork, my Thanksgiving day shift when I still worked in EMS, we'd go to a fire call every thanksgiving for a deep fried turkey gone wrong. In addition, I'd go to about 3 cardiac arrests the day after.

An oven roasted turkey seems like the best plan for me to stay out of both those groups.

I totally believe that about deep frier accidents. There are a lot of ways for it to go really wrong. I use a Butterball electric frier, so the fire hazard is a lot lower than with a propane crab cooker. Still, I do it outside and have a good extinguisher handy. I think burns are the biggest risk. I have heavy boiling-oil proof cooking gloves and wear eye pro.

The feeding frenzy started the moment I took it out of the frier. I even had to break up a dogfight. The crisp skin and moist meat is hard to replicate in the oven. I get it right every time in the frier. And it's not oily at all, assuming you drain it well.

[BehindBlueI's]

So...earlier in the day on Thanksgiving I finished off the leftover beans and cornbread I'd made over the weekend to get them out of the fridge.

Then had the meal I mentioned upthread for dinner, which included cabbage.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is nearly as bad a combination for as Lucky Charms and Budweiser in terms of "gut activity levels".

I am glad that I was in the office for a few hours and my office is only my office. I feel I need to write an apology note to building authority for what I did to that poor bathroom as well....