And of course, there is the perennial argument about how to roast the turkey. Over the years I have had the turkey a number or ways from Fried to Slow Roasted to Stuffed with other animals.
True! Turducken is an interesting New Orleans treat my brother and his wife introduced me to one thanksgiving. Basically, you stuff a chicken. Then you take the stuffed chicken into a duck. You then stuff that into a turkey. It is actually quite good.
Fried turkey is good, but you can’t fry a stuffed turkey. Besides, it’s not as if with all the butter, cream, and eggs that go into preparing the traditional Thanksgiving meal one really needs to look for ways to make it more fat laden!
But by far, my favorite way (and the way I have always preferred) is the way my mom used to make it. You butter the inside of a grocery bag (back then there was not the choice of paper or plastic, they were all paper… PLEASE DO NOT USE A PLASTIC GROCERY BAG FOR THIS RECIPE!) Then pop your stuffed turkey into the bag, seal it, toss it into a shallow, open roasting pan and roast it as you would normally. (See yesterday’s recipe for timing.)
Besides this recipe being really easy and making the moistest turkey I have ever had, it is also good because the pan is ridiculously easy to clean and you can toss any remaining stuffing (that didn’t fit in the bird) into the bag and it cooks up so nicely.
The worst Thanksgiving turkey I ever made was the year I had to work… I was working in Memphis and we had a number of Canadian clients so we had to staff the call center. For 4-hours work, we got paid time-and-a-half and got two vacation days exchange. I had friends I had invited for thanksgiving dinner so I did all the prep work the night before, all the veggies were ready to cook; the turkey was stuffed and ready to pop into the oven.
So that morning, boiled the giblets while eating breakfast and then moved them into the ‘fridge. I popped the turkey in to roast before I headed into the office. I was therefore surprised when I opened my apartment door after work and noted the distinct absence of roast turkey aroma. It would have been good to have turned the oven on before I left! Here’s today’s tip for the perfect roast turkey: TURN THE OVEN ON!
Luckily, the grocery store on the corner had not yet closed for the holiday. I zipped down and bought a prime rib, roasted it and served that for the holiday.
Wherever you are today, I hope that you will have a great day and a great holiday!
Don Bergquist – November 26, 2008 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA
2 comments:
TURN THE OVEN ON. Too funny! !!
I guess the funniest thing that I have done, was hide a plastic bags of food in the oven, so Smokie (our dog) would not get at it. It was left overs from last years Thanksgiving.
I then forget about it (for several days), when I went to preheat the oven to make cookies, I found the the lost food.
As you pointed out plastic does NOT do well in the oven, as you pointed out. What a mess......
Happy Thanksgiving!
Yeah! The lessons we learn are amazing...
Luckily, my friends and I all eat our beef practically raw (Rare's the way, baby!) so it was much quicker to roast a beef roast than it was to get the turkey cooked.
We did have turkey a couple days later... I invited them back on the weekend for Thanksgiving Redeaux!
And a happy holiday to you a and your family too!
djb
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