FFF....Let's talk turkey and stuff....ing....

I am making up my grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner. I am interested in how others cook their turkey. Does a fresh turkey taste better than a frozen one? Anybody brine their turkey? I bet some of you do the fryer thang.
I have about 10 people coming for dinner. I usually do the traditional turkey, sausage stuffing, homemake cranberry relish, candied yams, a "baked" mashed potato dish with cream cheese, slow cooker cheesy cauliflower, tossed salad and homemade pumpkin pies and some other odds and ends..... Nobody every goes home hungry.
Any secret recipes you guyz and galz wanna share? hh:
What's your favorite part of the Thanksgiving dinner?

Gotta have the green bean casserole

I made that one year hoss....and nobody liked it.... :long:

Daksy....that sounds like a slammin recipe...I may make it...

Brine it overnight. Cut up a stick of butter and slide the pats under the skin, and rub in a spice mixture, like Emeril's Essence, under the skin as well. The drippings make awesome gravy. I used to use a bag, but now I use a roaster. Frees up the oven for other stuff.

The Dixette & I are sharing the duties this year, I've got the bird, stuffing, & pies. She's got the cook top stuff

The oven roasted turkey will be from the local supermarket (special this week$.29 per pound, I'm buying 2, 1 is going right into the freezer). Bread/sausage stuffing, gravy, veggies, pies.

An extra day off after 2 weeks straight will be my reward

I'm liking the day at home, and my "Jewish Cowgirl" daughter (Erin's gal pals from HS that are still tight) coming for dinner. 3 to cook for. Easy Peasy. Beats slaving for 25, like I have the past few years. Quality time with the Murph, ain't nothing better

I'm gonna head out there in the AM. Only buying 10 pound birds, after all Matisse is not rideable, yet. And I haven't sat on Dix in 2 years, sad, I know. The good part is that it won't be a rodeo when I get on. Best mare in the world, Da Dix is Making plans to start working her again, if even on a longe line in a round pen

AM Thanksgiving rides were a tradition. They need to come back.

I do the brine thing. Basically, I follow the "Alton" method. (Search Alton Brown Turkey, or just check Food Network for "Good Eats", they play the episode to death this time of year).

Basically, plain old salt water brine, use a cooler and lots and lots of ice. Don't want that bird gettin warm and growing nasties and whatnot. Alton sticks all sorts of different flavorings in the brine, but I'm too lazy for that Let her sit overnight.

Probe the breast (god, I do love sayin that) with a digital thermometer and stick some aromatics into the cavity (Even that sounds bad..I'm goin to hell). apples, onions, carrots...whatever, loosely packed. (No, we don't "stuff the bird with stovetop stuffing"....that just be bad mojo)

Oven, by the way is coming up to 500 degrees. Yup. 500. Bird goes in for about 15 to 20 minutes - and yes it'll start hissin and spittin....pull it back out, drop the oven to 350 or so, cover the breast with some aluminum foil (it should be nicely browned, if it still looks pekid, leave the aluminum foil off for about an hour), and let 'er roll until 161 to 165 (Recipe says 161, I go to 165 to 168). Out she comes, cover it up nice, and let it rest about 15 to 20 minutes while you stovetop all the rest of the goodies.

Favorite part of Thanksgiving? When the in-laws leave.

Better watch out! I'm coming up to your side of town, and that's my favorite part of the turkey.

My wife and I have had fantastic luck with the free Giant turkeys you get when you accumulate enough points. Lots of flavor and juicy.

The Italian Stuffing is great. :cheese:


zap

Cooking the bird in the oven, for me, was very problematic on my first try. Especially when you have 25 hungry family members for Thanksgiving. I resorted to the gas grill with smoking wood chips for the subsequent Thanksgiving events. 15# bird + 3-1/2 hrs = Perfect. Mother in law would always bring an oven cooked bird of the same weight to feed the masses. My Dad just got a turkey fryer as a gift, and we gave it a test drive a few weeks ago. YES! So this year, we go for smoked turkey, on the grill. Deep fried Turkey. The oven is free for heating up the sides that the relatives bring. I get to drink beer with the boys and get the turkey's done outside, with hopefully minimal female interruption!
Yes, I do brine the turkey that goes on the grill. Overnight, with lots of water, salt, apple cider, spices. I don't think it matters. We did the injection thing with the "test drive" fried turkey. It was awesome. If you like fried chicken, you'll like fried turkey. Fried turkey provides the best wings and legs of any turkey you've ever had.
Most importantly, drink beer and have fun. It only comes once a year!

I'm trying an Indian Thanksgiving this year - East Indian, that is. Indian-spiced Turkey Breast, Panch Phoron Potatoes, Creamy Peas, Naan Bread, Indian Stuffing, Chai-spiced Caramel Fondue for dessert. Mom is making Sweet Potatoes, Mashed Potato Casserole (younger son insists on this), and Pumpkin Pie (daughter-in-law insists on this). My dad made the best smoked turkey in his Big Green Egg, but I have been scrambling to come up with a T'day tradition since he passed. Will be daughter-in-law's first T'day with us, she's a smart girl, have a feeling she will start to get an inkling as to how many short of a six-pack this family is :smirk:

We started making butternut squash soup to bring to dinner last year. It went over pretty well and was delicious. Less cheese and crackers before dinner. Why fill up on the apps when a fantastic meal is about to be had?


http://www.garden.org/celebratingtheseasons/?page=butternut-squash



+1 on the green bean casserole. It is fantastic, with the crunchy onion rings on top.

edit: pecan pie for dessert.

TGD morning finds Lady BK up at 6 AM to start the bird. Always a fresh turkey, usually a premium brand (it's one day out of 365). Biggest one we can get, usually up around 25 pounds.

She uses Mama BK's stuffing recipe from half a century back:

1 large onion and three celery stalks, chopped and sautéed in a stick of butter
3 large potatoes, boiled and mashed
2 pounds dense stuffing bread (pulled apart, not cut into cubes)
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
Bell's seasoning to taste

Simple basic recipe that lends itself well to adding roasted chestnuts, giblets, sausage, cranberries, etc. The mashed potatoes get added until the right consistency is achieved, and help to bind the ingredients together. We like a dense stuffing that holds up to cutting with a knife for sandwiches later.

She stuffs the bird to capacity, then inserts several sage leaves from our garden under the skin. Looks pretty and makes a real nice tasting breast. In the meantime, I'm out in the garden collecting a big colander of the sweetest brussels sprouts from the garden. A few years I've had to bring a shovel to get at them. A snow shovel, that is.

The BK family Turkey Day extravaganza begins:

Fresh seasonal fruit
Nuts, dates, figs, and fig rolls
Celery w/cream cheese
Black, green and oil-cured olives
Bread'n'butter pickles, dill pickles, and sweet gherkins
Fresh cranberry and orange relish, and cranberry jelly
Pickled beets from the garden
Mashed rutabaga
Mashed Maine potatoes
Baked Idaho potatoes
Baked white sweet potatoes
Braised brussels sprouts
Butternut and acorn squash
That green bean thing, except I buy fresh green beans and french-cut them myself (why simplify if you don't have to)
Candied carrots from the garden
Peas
Scalloped corn
Scalloped oysters (when my FIL was still alive)

Da bird, of course... and about half a gallon of gravy

Then dessert...

Apple, pecan, pumpkin, chocolate cream, lemon meringue, and mincemeat pies (can never have too much pie)
I am the world's best pie crust maker ;-)

Several bottles of Pellegrino with lemon slices
Cranberry juice
Several bottles of good Oregon Pinot (always plenty leftover, but a sin to run out)
4-5 single-malts (for variety, more or less as the budget allows)
2-3 bourbons (budget always allows)
Organic Sumatra coffee - roasted Viennese-style, fresh ground, and brewed strong
Humidor full of cigars

Brand new bottle of Gavascon sitting by the recliner.

Then there is the procession of meals spawned by having a 25 pound turkey.

Besides cold turkey sandwiches every day for lunch:

Day 2 - leftovers
Day 3 - leftovers (break turkey carcass apart and make soup stock)
Day 4 - hot turkey sandwiches
Day 5 - creamed turkey and peas on homemade biscuits
Day 6 - turkey chow mein
Day 7 - turkey soup

Getting a new house, so we won't be doing Thanksgiving dinner here this year. Everything will be packed. Going to my DIL's aunt and uncle's house. All I have to do is bring the Pinot and the pies.

I could get used to that.

Green bean casserole is Lutheran food, we even have a song about it. :cheese:

Honey baked ham for us this Thanksgiving, nothing gets stuffed but us. For about 4 days.

Missing out again because we are taking the megabus-- http://us.megabus.com/default.aspx

Wife and I always do the B & B . . . bake and baste . . . we have yet to eat dry turkey . . . and we love stuffing it with sausage stuffing.

Family favorite is banana bread . . . probably some dumb Maine tradition, but it seems as though almost every Maine home I've ever been to for Thanksgiving they have banana bread . . . for some reason it never seems like Thanksgiving for me without banana bread . . . then again for a long time it seemed weird to eat banana bread when it wasn't Thanksgiving.

This year my wife has to work so I'm solo . . . thought about just spending the day cutting wood, but a few of my other loser friends who have spouses working all or part of the day thought we might get together for lunch at Dysarts Truck Stop (sounds much worse than it is . . . actually they serve wicked good food).