Just wondering how you all are going to cook your bird? I'm having 20 people total so decided to buy 2 13 pounders with a backup ham since my nutty wife hates turkey. So I'm brining both in a brine with orange peels and lots of fresh rosemary and peppercorns. Pulled out of the brine 20 hours later and now drying open in the fridge till cook time... crispy skin.
To hedge my bets, I decided to cook one in my pellet smoker with a mixture of rosemary/apricot and apple wood pellets. Smoke an hour at 180 then up to 325 for about 3 hours.
Turkey Two Gets a hot oil bath.... not sure how long yet.
Anyway, just decided to change it up this year since I usually just toss it in the oven until the breasts are too dry to swallow.
Whatcha doin? Even if it's a disgraceful non-turkey dinner
It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy
It's been my experience that a deep fried turkey will evaporate in no time - even the dark meat. A smoked turkey will get a fair showing and people will eat it but you'll have leftovers. A turkey baked in the oven get's stripped of the white meat and the rest is left over for other uses well after Christmas. Ham? Love it and I'd be conflicted to have to pick ham over roast beef on most days but I'd go with ham as a backup on Thanksgiving.
This year I'm only on the hook to bring the beer so I have 'several' cases of craft beer ready to load up and transport to Littleton tomorrow morning. That won't keep me away from the turkey fryers and criticizing every move my little brother makes in the process of frying up four 15-ish pound turkeys though! What else are big brothers for?!
The bonus round for me this year is that I get to be the "beer steward" so I'll be handing them out to the guys manning both fryers - I also have a hand in letting them take a break when they need to "get rid of excess water" so it could be an entertaining day! Bottom line, kids, dogs, family and friends all gather and we feast! It never gets any better than that!
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
20 people here too, so going with a 14# brined and fried, and one 18# in the oven, also brined.
They usually turn out pretty juicy! So glad the weather is not too cold. Not as much fun to fry a bird when it is 20 degrees and windy, plus hard to keep 350 degrees in the oil.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Too bad future generations aren't here to see all the great things we are spending their $$ on!!
In the interests of everyone's enjoyment of their meal, I am staying away from the kitchen and leaving the cooking to those who are competent and capable.
EM is making lemon-garlic cauliflower, Butternut Squash Soup, and Pumpkin Creme Brulee for us to take to a friend's house - it'll be a nice, small gathering. We dropped Lil Science Chic off yesterday so she could have a sleep-over with our friends' daughter, in the hopes that they would entertain each other and stay our of their parents way while they cook today. LOL
Call me old-fashioned, but I like it baked in the oven just fine. Frying seems way too messy. Smoking it would be awesome, but our smoker isn't big enough.
Happy Thanksgiving Y'all!
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Never have soaked the bird in brine before cooking, might have to try that this year. Dinner is with family so I'm not responsible for the bird, but I did get one to smoke anyway. Would love to look at some of the brine recipes that are being used. Going to be the first time smoking the bird, so might as well include another first along with it! Have always roasted in the oven 'cause that's the way it has always been done in my family, and that's the way the bird on the table today will be cooked as well.
Happy Thanksgiving one and all. May this day serve to remind all of us what is truly most important in life, those who are by our sides as we journey through it.