Roasting chestnuts for the appetizer. And I'm sneaking a roasted beet into the salad, dammit!

Purple kale, golden beet, spinach, pomegranate seeds, maybe some toasted nuts...this is going to be one purty side dish.

We made a kale salad with pomegranate seeds the other week (with toasted pine nuts) and it was indeed gorgeous. Loved the tart tang and crunch they gave!

Ooops! Tnx Gary, I hadn't thought about that. I'll measure my LG before I go to BBB. I was looking at their 21" x 18", with a rack.

Wouldn't *that* have been a PITA: show up with a pan that wouldn't fit in the oven!

Geo

BB&B's biggest pan fits! Cool beans!

I got my turkey today. Instead of 12-14#, it was 19# !! The farmer said "Those birds put on weight way faster than we expected--next year we'll get them two weeks later." This is their first year with turkeys.

Tell you one thing: spatchcocking at 19-pound, pastured, heritage turkey is NOT a trivial proposition. Those birds been runnin' around, strengthening muscle and bone, eating bugs for vitamins. I ended up resorting to my grape pruners in order to cut out that backbone! Ouf...

Geo

Geo wrote:BB&B's biggest pan fits! Cool beans!

I got my turkey today. Instead of 12-14#, it was 19# !! The farmer said "Those birds put on weight way faster than we expected--next year we'll get them two weeks later." This is their first year with turkeys.

Tell you one thing: spatchcocking at 19-pound, pastured, heritage turkey is NOT a trivial proposition. Those birds been runnin' around, strengthening muscle and bone, eating bugs for vitamins. I ended up resorting to my grape pruners in order to cut out that backbone! Ouf...

Geo

Yeah, cutting out a chicken backbone is child's play, but I let the butcher handle the turkey backbone. In any event, happy spatchcocking!

Geo wrote:The farmer said "Those birds put on weight way faster than we expected--next year we'll get them two weeks later." This is their first year with turkeys.

Can't recall who's site/post I saw it on but one of the farms from around here said that the turkeys were bigger because of the warm weather--they ran/grubbed/ate more because they could. The entertaining (!) part was that they were "apologizing" for the higher prices customers were going to see (who ordered in advance) since the birds people were going to be bigger than ordered. Of course, it didn't cost them a nickel extra to GROW that bigger bird--but that didn't mean they were going to lower the price/lb. Hope that your novice grower doesn't overreact--seems like it would be a lot worse to have the birds turn out smaller v. larger if the price is set in advance!

Any farming of live animals is not like making shoes.
You just can't order the exact size you want and expect to have it!
The grower can't be sure of the finished size unless the grower is a large turkey farm.
Picked up my turkey yesterday from the local grower.
27.5#.
No conversation about size or weather, all were already spoken for.
Always sold by the #.
If it's too large for the number of people coming, I cut in half with Wusthof Poutry shears and Wusthof Meat Saw. Dismember further into useful sizes and freeze.
I usually get two turkeys but this year one because of supply.
I stuff with my leek stuffing, herb crust, roast,
Simple.
We always give 'goodie' bags for people to take home so they have leftovers.
Happy Thanksgiving.-Richard

Pie Lady wrote: We might be serving my parents dessert so I might as well go whole hog.

nr706 wrote: How do you make dessert out of a whole hog?

That episode of Chopped will premiere on the Food Network next Tuesday @ 8:00 pm CT.
I could be wrong, you know.

^^^^^^ LIKE! Tnx pudgym!

Geo

Turkey dry brining in fridge. Gravy stock jelling. Stuffing made. Mac & Cheese done. Brussels Sprouts, chanterelles, shallots and bacon roasted. Fresh cranberry and blood orange relish chilling. Strawberry cheesecake baked. Apple strudel made. Now just have to load it all in the car and haul it to Schererville.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!! Don't forget the bitters and soda

boudreaulicious wrote:Turkey dry brining in fridge. Gravy stock jelling. Stuffing made. Mac & Cheese done. Brussels Sprouts, chanterelles, shallots and bacon roasted. Fresh cranberry and blood orange relish chilling. Strawberry cheesecake baked. Apple strudel made. Now just have to load it all in the car and haul it to Schererville.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!! Don't forget the bitters and soda

This brings back fond Thanksgiving memories of cooking, then packing and schlepping T-day dinner to Michigan while the Chow Poodle's mom was alive. Once she died, we started our new tradition of going to Mexico for Thanksgiving. Dinner tonight will be at Coco's Kitchen, where they do an excellent job of hitting the perfect Thanksgiving flavors. The only downside: no leftovers.

G Wiv wrote:While I love classic Thanksgiving bread stuffing, made one just last week at Barn for a Friendsgiving, our family tradition was, is and always will be a non traditional brown rice stuffing.

T-Day is not T-Day without my dad's brown rice stuffing. And yes, that's canned cranberry jelly on the plate. Don't judge.

Jalapeños are a nice touch, Gary!

You're allowed 'jellied cranberry sauce' ––it's just it's own different thing, after all. I make the traditional style, but add bow-coo amounts of grated fresh ginger and orange zest just at the end of cooking. Ends up pretty exotic.

I *like* the colour of your gravy, btw—hope you saved enough for biscuits + turkey à la king tonight!

Geo

I had three fails this year

1 - Always label your freezer containers. I thought I had cranberry relish in the freezer but it was strawberry rhubarb freezer jam (I'm the only one who likes either of those so I freeze it - it lasts a good long while)
2 - My gravy looked perfect but tasted like a Marie Callender's chicken pot pie - and there was no chicken in it, even the stock was turkey. Needed more herbs, maybe some sherry. The turkey was quite juicy but didn't give up much fat to the pan, so there wasn't much to scrape up into the gravy.
3 - My pumpkin pie was the blandest thing ever! Maybe because the gingerbread crust was so tasty, the pie itself tasted like nothing.

Giving thanks today that we found an available plumber after some "helpful" guests decided that shoving all the uneaten food down the dispose-all was a good idea.

Happily, our meal was great. I came up with a new innovation to incorporate my homemade sausage into the stuffing. In order to maximize browning, I formed 2 pounds of sausage into a giant disk and cooked it pancake-style. After it browned well on both sides, I diced it up into cubes and mixed it in with the rest of the stuffing components . . .


Diced Sausage Disk

This worked out very well because unlike with crumbled sausage, there was a lot of even browning and virtually no moisture loss.

=R=

Dined with my brother's family -- house full of good cooks, so we ate well, if non-traditionally. Chicken Excelsior (butter, lemon juice, sherry, sour cream, mushrooms) over noodles, palak paneer, red cabbage with raisins, home-made rolls, and for dessert, pear crumble and/or pecan-sweet potato pie. Only things not made at home was the Malbec. Wonderful meal.

OK, because of intra-familial timing problems, we did a boneless partial leg o' lamb plus roasted veggies. I've done the lamb before--it's standardly c. 2.5lbs, netted, which I also tie. Marinade in garlic, rosemary, soy, and EEVO, minimum 48 hrs. Cooking Kenji-style: roast at 200°F until 125°F internal; pull the roast, crank the oven up to max, let it stabilize at heat, re-insert roast for 10-12 mins in order to brown, pull, tent for 15 mins, eat.

But oh, the roasted veggies! As noted in the thread above, I'd never done this before (!! really!!). Mixed up a medley consisting of sprouts, yams, Hubbard squash, boiling onions. turnips, lots o' garlic, and some super local parsnips. EEVO and lots of herbs. Here's what the pre-roast looked like:

Vegs1 by Geo, on Flickr


Roasted at 425°F until things looked. smelled and felt right, nice browning on some things:

Vegs2 by Geo, on Flickr

Man, have I been missing this in my Former Life! Super excellent, delish, wonderful, etc. The parsnips were heavenly!

Tnx for everyone's suggestions upthread!

Geo

Geo wrote:Pairs, it's funny about the squabs. First, they're hard as deuce to find. Second, how do you fix them? But, OTOH, many food folks swear that they are simply the best of the birds, including wild pheasant. Dunno, I'd like to try.

When I was a kid, a buddy of mine and I would bike out to some local farm, and offer to clean the farmer's barn of wild pigeons. Which we then did, using our bb guns to deadly effect. We'd share out the birds, take them home, and our families would totally enjoy them. I remember the pigeon as being very rich, all dark meat, and relatively abundant for such a small carcass.

I'd real be interested in what other LTHers might say about squab/pigeon.

Geo

My grandfather used to raise homing pigeons. Pack at the turn of the last century, it was a cheap and effective way to communicate with relatives miles away. Since he always had a growing supply of pigeons, it was frequent meat on his table well into his 60s.

My father would butcher the pigeons for the family table along with the rabbits he raised. It was a good source of food during the depression. He would also trap raccoons and opossums and sell those for extra pocket money.

When I need squab, I buy the frozen birds at the Chef Store (US Foods) in Tempe, AZ or occasionally at Sprouts. In Chicagoland, I would probably look at Woodman's and maybe H-Mart.

Interesting, Joe. My grandfather raised rabbits during the Depression and well into my Boomer kidhood. My grandmother was Polish (and he was Italian, but raised in a German family), so we had lots of properly rabbity rabbit dinners. I still crave a bit of Haßenpfeffer every now and then.

How do you prepare the squabs, Joe? I'll be in Mesa in late Jan, maybe I'll go to the Tempe store and get some birds to fix for my sister and niece.

Geo

Here's a link to my family's dressing recipe, which uses Brazil nuts for a remarkable difference.

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/51543/thanksg ... y-dressing

Nobody in the family- kids, spouses, grandkids - will accept any other.

It's a little late for T-day, but Christmas is coming up.

For years I would buy 2-3 pounds of Brazil nuts, set a board on the dining room table, and spend 2-3 hours with a hammer sheling them.

Now I get shelled ones from Trader Joe's. I like that a lot better

.

MikeLM wrote:Here's a link to my family's dressing recipe, which uses Brazil nuts for a remarkable difference.

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/51543/thanksg ... y-dressing

Nobody in the family- kids, spouses, grandkids - will accept any other.

It's a little late for T-day, but Christmas is coming up.

For years I would buy 2-3 pounds of Brazil nuts, set a board on the dining room table, and spend 2-3 hours with a hammer sheling them.

Now I get shelled ones from Trader Joe's. I like that a lot better.

Hi,

I happen to really like Brazil nuts. I remember the process of elimination to figure out which one it was when I was 10-years-old. If nobody notices, I will pick them out from a mixed nut bowl.

I saw the amount of bread involved and wondered how many people are you feeding? How many patties or muffin cups does it make?

2 14-OZ PACKAGED STUFFING MIX- "SAGE AND HERB"
2 batches CORNBREAD, with coarse stone ground, whole grain cornmeal using Cook's Illustrated "The Best Recipe" p. 387- Golden Northern

Regards,

C2—

I'll save all my Brazil nuts for you!! I don't like them...

Geo

Defatted duck drippin's. What do you do with 'em and how long can I keep 'em in the fridge?

Thanks!

They'll freeze just fine.

Geo

I agree. Freeze 'em in an ice cube tray, and use one or two cubes in sauces.

Caught this crazy-cool turkey prep method at Jason Perlow's blog:

A Jewish Puerto Rican Thanksgiving


Rolled and Smoked Pavochon

Thinking I might give it a try sometime before next Thanksgiving.

=R=

Cathy- you're right...

This makes a lot of dressing, but we've usually had eight to twelve for T-dinner, and we definitely want a lot of leftover to go with the rest. It will freeze well, too. Just be sure you have enough really good turkey gravy to match up with it.

It should make at least three dozen patties in muffin tins.
We always use the ATK recipe for Northern cornbread made with Bob's Red Mill coarse cornmeal.
You could certainly get away with a boxed mix.

OK, final report on Thanksgiving 2015. As noted before I had one very healthy 19-lb pasture-raised Bronze heritage turkey. I ended up having to use my grape pruners to get him spatchcocked, and I didn't do a symmetrical job, as the "before" photo shows:

turkey1 by Geo, on Flickr

I'll cut to the chase: best damn turkey we've *ever* had. Flavour was rich and deep, everything, esp. the breast, was incredibly juicy, the skin deserved being eaten by itself (which much of it was), but the most amazing thing was the *texture*!! Even the breast had the resilient texture of real meat. Not the slightest bit of moosch. And the legs were firm, well-exercised muscles, juicy and chewy. Wow.

Things didn't start out well. This kind of bird has *huge* drums (and the wingettes are bigger than small turkey drumsticks), but almost no thigh. So I stuck the thermometer into the thigh as best I could, but the temp went up incredibly fast. Sooo, I stuck it in the huge breast and set it for 150°F. The skin browned up beautifully, and was thin and crispy, really tasty. (I'm wondering if the 3 days of dry salt brining might not have contributed to the excellence of the skin?).

Damn bird was nearly twice the size I expected, awfully glad of that now! Worth every bit of the $5/lb we paid for it.

Now, about the pix. The "before" is just fine, but I freakin' forgot to take an "after" picture until only one breast half and one leg were left whole. But you can see the beautiful skin colour, plus the size of the pieces.

turkey2 by Geo, on Flickr

Oh, forgot to mention: I came in from underbeneath and clipped the keel bone in several places in order to make it possible to flatten the breast out a bit. Bone was too tough otherwise.

Just a great, great turkey!

Geo