Share your turkey cooking secrets

[IndianaJones]

Brine?

Fried?

Microwaved?

[mainegreen]

1. Hot Lava!

[ohiosmith]

2. In a bag.

[MrCoffee]

5. MrsCoffee cooks it in a paper bag

i've never had a bird so juicy

[ohiosmith]

7. The turkey or,....never mind.

[MrCoffee]

11. i even edited it to keep you from doing exactly that.

i should have known that there ain't nothing gonna keep you from doing exactly that.

[ohiosmith]

18. It's my gift.

[flvegan]

3. Fake 'n bake

[BrklynLiberal]

4. Cook it breast down for a significant amount of time, and then turn it over for just enough time for

the breast skin to get dark and crispy. This will keep that white breast meat very juicy...as opposed to dried out.

[MissMillie]

6. brine... and cooked breast-side down for the first hour

stuffing cooked in a separate dish (so that the cavity of the bird can be stuffed w/ even more aromatics like oranges, lemons, sage, celery, onion.... (makes for a kick-ASS gravy)

[KitchenWitch]

8. Reynold's Oven Bags

[shanti]

15. yup

moistest turkey ever! not so pretty cause you have to pull the bag away and some of the skin comes off with it, but hey, i eat my turkey, so looks aren't a priority.

[guitar man]

9. on the smoker

of course :D

I inject the bird with a marinade of lime juice, garlic, red pepper and black pepper and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

I'l' start it out wrapped in foil for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, depending on size at about 275-300 degrees, then bring the smoker temp down to about 225 and open the foil to let the smoke get at the bird. Total cook time is about an hour a pound or so. I cook it breast down until about the last hour, and baste it with the above marinade ever so often.

[ohiosmith]

10. I've had great results deep frying.

[IndianaJones]

13. you just said in a bag. nt.

[ohiosmith]

17. The bag was a gag. Although, this year I did buy one of these:

[IndianaJones]

20. isn't that the same bag? nt.

[ohiosmith]

28. Yes. This will be my first.

[TommyO]

42. I wanted to go the deep fry route this year

My brother and I sampled it at Cabelas late in September and it was incredible.

The family nixed the idea for this year, however they have agreed to let me brine the turkey, so I'll doing that on Wednesday afternoon.

[AlCzervik]

12. Sage, onion and green apple in the cavity instead of stuffing.

the flavor of all 3 permeate the meat.

[Squatch]

14. Brine it. Inject it. Fry it.

Whatever you do...always brine a supermarket bird.

If you buy an heirloom bird, brining is not as necessary, but can help.

[MonkeyFunk]

16. Step 1:

Phone my sister-in-law and hint around that I have nothing to do for Thanksgiving.

Step 2: accept invitation.

Step 3: Bring wine to please the S-I-L.

[shanti]

19. someone just told me this one re: deep frying turkeys

before filling the container with oil, fill it with water and add turkey. remove/add water as needed to correct level. then remove turkey and check water level. empty water and add oil to that level. no worries about spilling oil!

[SacredCow]

38. That's one way to do it....

And you also have to consider the expansion of the oil upon heating, as well as the gases escaping once you drop the bird in the pot.

The fire department typically stays pretty busy during fried turkey season around here!

[TommyO]

46. Alton Brown has some good deep frying tips to keep you and your house safe

Check out Good Eats: Fry Turkey Fry, it just played on Food Network, though I don't see it on their schedule between now and turkey day.

Here's what I remember:

Brine the turkey first, make sure it's dry before frying

Do a displacement test to see how much oil you'll need and to ensure that it's not too close to the top of the pot

Make sure your fry rig is stable.

Build a turkey derrick from a ladder, cotton clothesline, and some assorted connectors so you can lower the turkey into the hot oil while not having to stand over the fry rig.

Heat the oil to 250 degrees, lower the turkey in and then raise the temperature of the oil to 350, this lowers the possibility of splattering super-hot oil as the turkey gives off moisture, it also drastically reduces the risk of a boil-over

There's more in the episode, but these are the keys that I took away from it.

OH, never leave the oil or turkey unattended, and always keep your only kitchen multi-tasker handy - that would be the fire extinguisher!

[guitar man]

21. Public Service Announcement

I know we have a bunch of bright folks here, but just in case you are new to Turkey Frying:

NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES PUT A FROZEN OR EVEN PARTIALLY FROZEN TURKEY IN A FRYER!!!!

trust me, you won't like what happens :(

thank you

[guitar man]

22. dupe

delete

[Arkansas Granny]

23. My usual cooking secret to damn near anything: butter.

I soften 1-2 sticks of butter and mix in seasonings of my choice (usually salt, pepper, sage, thyme, rosemary, minced garlic) and rub it all over the turkey, inside and out, before I get it ready for roasting. I also loosen the skin over the breast and rub butter under the skin. After that I've put them in a regular roasting pan or I've cooked them in the oven bags and they've always turned out good.

This year we are trying the Martha Stewart method of roasting turkey which involves covering the bird with cheesecloth through most of the cooking time. It sounds really interesting, however we are going to substitute chicken broth fro some of the wine in the basting liquid.

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=eccfc137bf22f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default

[Beaverhausen]

24. Best TOFURKEY recipe

Roast Tofurky baked with Caramelized Onion and Cherry Relish

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, sliced very thin
1 cup dried sour cherries
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons apple cider
1 Tofurky roast

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium heat. Add onion, cherries, brown sugar and vinegar and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft. Stir in mustard and apple cider, and simmer for two more minutes.

Place Tofurky roast on sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, and spread with the onion mixture. Wrap roast snugly with the foil. Place in roasting pan, and place on center rack of oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Uncover roast for last 10 minutes of baking.

Slice roast, and serve with some of the pan juices spooned over it.
*Can be served with Tofurky Giblet & Mushroom Gravy drizzled over it also.

************
I made this last year and it was so yummy! Even the carnivores at the thanksgiving dinner I attended liked it.

[IndianaJones]

25. thats insane. nt.

[ThomCat]

26. You should try it before saying that.

:9

[IndianaJones]

I meant the carnivores part. I'll try anything once. nt.

[Beaverhausen]

31. have you tried that recipe? My kitchen smelled so good when I was making it

all those different flavors! I remember wanting to lick the foil when I got to the end of it.

God, I can't wait till next week!

[IndianaJones]

32. is the tofurkey available in large supermarkets? nt.

[ThomCat]

35. That depends on where you are.

I know I can find it in Wegmans and Shopright supermarkets here in New York State.

[ThomCat]

34. I haven't tried that recipe.

But I've had tofurky that was marinated and baked and it was pretty damned good.

Your recipe sounds wonderful!

[Beaverhausen]

39. I think it was an award winner in their contest a few years ago

here are some more from the website:

http://www.tofurky.com/recipes/tofurky_recipes.htm

[TommyO]

49. This sounds absolutely wonderful

it sounds like something this omnivore would love

[AllegroRondo]

27. Alton Brown is my hero

brine it
stuff it with: sliced onion, apple, cinnamon stick, clove, sage, thyme, and parsely - all mixed with some water and microwaved a couple minutes
olive oil on the skin
bake on 500 degrees for 20 minutes to get the skin nice and brown, THEN cover with foil, and lower the oven temp to 325 to finish cooking

[grasswire]

29. brine and bag

the most delicious turkey I ever made was a frozen Honeysuckle (got it free) that I brined with herbs, lemons, oranges, salt and sugar, and then roasted in an oven bag for turkey. It was the very best, better than an upscale fresh turkey that cost real dough-re-mi.

[AngryAmish]

30. Going to the In-Laws

Bringing a lot of wine.

I like my in laws, but my MIL is a raging anti-Semite. I have no idea where it comes from. Good Democrat, abortion clinic volunteer...and everything bad in the world is because of the Jews. She was raised in rural Wisconsin -- not a whole lot of Jews there.

So I drink my wine, shut up and watch the ballgame.

[judaspriestess]

33. deep fried

its the only way to go

[rubberducky]

36. Thick sliced bacon on the turkey breast while baking!

[1gobluedem]

37. Let someone else cook it

Works for me every time.

[LynneSin]

40. Make friends with those who like to cook and clean

Mooch an invite for Thanksgiving Day

Eat, Drink and then passout like a beached whale on the sofa whilst you watch football

[tandot]

41. go visit family who'll cook it for you?

:evilgrin:

[Coyote_Bandit]

43. I go visit family

I go a few days early and help woith shopping, advance meal prep, table setting, side dish and desert prep, dishes, and the turkey carcass "cleaning." I leave cooking the bird to someone else.



FWIW, I knew someone in grad school many years ago that managed to make the turkey explode. She put it in the microwave frozen. She was a kooky religious airhead. All these years later I still get a chuckle out of her cooking skills......

[hedgehog]

44. I start out with a fresh turkey from a local farm

I chop up the heart and some of the liver and saute that with onions, mushrooms, garlic, celery, sage, salt, pepper, savory, parseley and thyme. Then I mix in torn pieces of whole wheat home made brad with enough eggs to hold it together. That's the stuffing.

The neck, tail bone and rest of the giblets go into a pot with some chopped garlic. onion, clelery and water to simmer away.

The turkey gets dried off and lavishly rubbed with soft butter. I melt about 1/2 cup butter in the pan and set the turkey in.

The oven is preheated to 425 degrees and kept there for the first 15 minutes. This browns the bird and seals in the juices. Then I turn it down to 350 and baste like crazy and rotate the pan every half hour or so.

It takes me about 3 hours to cook a 20 lb bird.

The turkey comes out and is set on a big platter. I pour off the drippings into one of those pitchers that lets you pour from the bottom. I brown some flour in the bottom of the roaster pan, then return the drippings minus the fat. I'll add some turkey broth as needed to balance the gravy.


The cats get the turkey neck and the leftover grease gets poured over the dogs' dry food, so everyone is very happy.

[azmouse]

45. Smoke it.

[Liberal Veteran]

48. I tried that once, but couldn't find any rolling papers big enough.

:D

[azmouse]

50. It's hard to keep lit too.

:smoke:

[Liberal Veteran]

47. Thaw...heat in hot oven for several hours.

Works every time.

[Sequoia]

51. Buy it already cooked with the fixin's.

I'm not slaving all day in the kitchen to eat my meal in 10 minutes and be done like last year.

[redqueen]

52. I'm just posting here so I can find this later.

I don't have any secrets... just... I dunno, put butter on it? I know, that's not really a secret, is it? :P

[Javaman]

53. First I get a turkey, then I cook it., then I eat it. Shhh, don't tell anyone. nt