Post Your Turkey Pictures Here

With so many of us cooking turkey for Thanksgiving in so many different ways, I thought it might be a good idea to have a picture gallery of all of our respective efforts. So, before you carve up the guest of honor at your Thanksgiving feast, snap a photo and post it here.

Let me post the first in what I hope will be a long line of pictures:

Thanksgiving Turkey 2005


16 lb. Kosher Turkey (lazy man's brine)
Cooked Martha Stewart Style
Stuffed with Greek Style Stuffing

Steve,

Turkey's not just for breakfast any more.

Well, they may not win the earliest bird contest at this rate, but the 40, count 'em, turkeys smoked for the Uptown Salvation Army center under the command of Captain Merrill Powers, with Adjutant Grillmaster G Wiv in charge of the turkey-cookin' brigade, surely win on quantity. Merrill's trailer-style smoker was originally going to be just the smaller of two smokers, but bad weather kept the other one home in Indiana. So it was fired up while protection for the crew was handled by a local gang:



While G Wiv handled the fire (he also brought his own WSM for making snacks along the way), the rest of us were sent upstairs to KP, prepping 40 not-all-that-thawed turkeys as quickly as we could. Here Pigmon gives one a thorough cavity search:



Cough!



Around 10 pm the first group of about 16 birds went on the smoker, along with some ribs and some wolf turds, aka sausage-stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos. By 11 pm, in the cold, they were just the thing:



I went home soon after but returned this morning around 8 with some fresh-baked scones and the boys, who wanted to see the really giant smoker, especially when they heard it looked like Thomas the Tank Engine blowing smoke:



Alas, G Wiv had gone home moments before to get some sleep, possibly because he hadn't had enough pork fat to keep him going-- the cold winter wind kept his WSM from maintaining a fire and his ribs never really cooked properly. But the last batch of turkeys in the big smoker looked great and there's no doubt in my mind that a few hours from now, the folks at the Salvation Army that day will be having one of the better meals in town.



Let us all be thankful for whatever we are privileged to have today.

Ran off to get my camera, and this is all that was left.



Ultraball - 12 pounds.


Bill/SFNM

Here's my heritage turkey; it's more angular than an industrial turkey, you can see that. Flavor was a little, not a lot stronger, gamier, and not surprisingly mainly so in the dark meat; the main difference was that it all seemed more muscular, the meat had some real tooth to it, not to the point of toughness, just like the difference between a strip and a filet, say.

I did the Chez Panisse brine, which seemed to work fine though hell if I know if 5 tiny juniper berries in a big bucket of water actually contributed anything. One thing is that it seemed as if the bird didn't absorb nearly as much water or salt as the industrial birds do, again perhaps because of denser, more muscular flesh. I say this because 1) the meat didn't seem all that salty, 2) there weren't many drippings and they didn't seem that salty as in years past, 3) it didn't express a ton of liquid as it sat there on a platter after cooking, 4) the stuffing inside it didn't seem to absorb that much in the way of meaty juices, etc.

Best thing about brining: I overcooked it (to judge by temperature) slightly, yet it was still better and juicier than any bird in pre-brining years past.

I'll report on the annual post T-Day sandwich with Arthur Bryant's sauce tomorrow.

Antonius Maximus Superbus carved the beast:


After dinner, Lucantonius and I cleaned off the bones and this morning we mounted the skeleton, including the bones of tail, neck and head, which we had cooked separately:*


How is that for a 'heritage turkey'?

We give thanks.

Antonius

*Timballo di maccheroni colla salciccia fresca di testa e coda della bestia.

LTH,

As Mike G mentioned it was darn cold, but the work went well and the evening made warmer by Mike, Pigmon, MHL, and D Bigg's hard work and company. Not to mention Captain's Merrill and Nancy Powers, who are wholly responsible for the Salvation Army T-Day lunch. It should be noted that while special events such as the T-Day Turkey cook are fun, gratifying, and provide a nice change of pace for the clients of the Salvation Army Tom Seay Center, the center, of which Merrill and Nancy are co-directors, serve over 7,000 meals per week, in addition to all the other services they provide.

Merrill, aka Captain Q, played his pit like a violin, it was extremely difficult to keep temps up given the wind and cold temperatures.

Merrill with Waba Waba, his Big Jim BBQ Pit


D Bigg brought Cowtown WoldfTurds for snacking.


D Bigg prepping a turkey. (Mike G Picture)


MHL and Merrill with a few of the finished birds


Sunnyside East of Broadway around 1am.


I must still be tired, as I feel a wave of maudlin sweeping over me, suffice to say I'm once again reminded of the many things to be thankful for.

Enjoy,
Gary

LTH,

Wednesday I broke down a small, little less than 7-lbs, heritage Bourbon Red Turkey, made stock with the back, neck, wing ends and and gave leg/thigh and breasts an overnight soak in a buttermilk brine.

I oven roasted the leg/thigh, breasts and made a standard, though tasty, gravy from the stock. Rounded out the meal with the Wiv family traditional stuffing of brown rice w/waterchestnuts, sauteed garlic, onion, celery, mushrooms lots of salt/pepper and cayenne and T-day dinner was on.

Heritage Bourbon Red


Heritage turkey was moist with great flavor, more turkey in the turkey so to speak, and just the right amount of chew.


Brown Rice Stuffing. (Ok, I know it's a casserole since it's not in the turkey, but it's still stuffing to me. )


Enjoy,
Gary

it was.. REALLY REALLY GROSS:

the menu:


butternut squash soup:


plate of grass:

(clock wise: steamed kale w/ cashew/miso dressing, cucumber/carrots with rasberry (ie, neon pink) dressing, tempen gravy & stuffing, mashed sweet potato + pecans)

what i couldn't eat:
what
long/short grain brown rice topped w/ cranberries...

the restaurant in question:

http://www.manzanitarestaurant.com/
1050 40th St
Emeryville, CA
(510) 985-8386

Raw ham marinated in Mojo with sweet potaoes.



GWiv, thanks for offering the use of your WSM ,I scaled things down a bit and my WSW (West Side Wonder) worked just fine.

JSM

Before the holiday passes to long term memory, two more pictures...

The turkey turned out well, but should have been pulled from the oven a little bit sooner... The gravy, made with the freshly made and concentrated stock and the pan-drippings was rich in flavour and colour. For a change of pace, we used Yukon golds for the mashed potatoes. The stuffing, made with cubed American-style white bread from Masi's and herbs from the garden was especially tasty, me thought.


There are lots of reasons to love the traditional Thanksgiving Day line up of dishes. One of the things I like is the range of textural contrasts that all appear on one and the same plate. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potato and homemade cranberry sauce...


As they say, good stuff...

Antonius

Tony,

Your stuffing, in particular looks and sounds very good.

Thanksgiving 2006



Kids off to bed, turkey carcass boiling for stock, I thought it was time to revive this thread (Stevez's fine idea, last year) and for folks to share what we made and all we have to be thankful for.

I have a set of certain very traditional dishes I have to make on T-Day, year after year, and yet for some deep-seated psychological reason I always find myself buying the Thanksgiving recipe issues of magazines like Food & Wine or Gourmet, to read about wonderful new dishes I'd never actually dare to make on the holiday itself. As it happens, however, I'd come into possession of a heritage turkey a few weeks ago, and so I'd basically already made Thanksgiving dinner once this month-- which freed me tonight to finally try something new.

So, out of Food & Wine's November '06 issue, I tried Buttery Maple-Thyme Biscuits (p. 122), which were fine but could stand to dial up the thyme and the maple (if not, God knows, the butter); Cranberry-Glazed Sweet Potatoes (p. 130), shown above, which were excellent, tartness offsetting T-day sweet potatoes' usual cloying insipidity, they may well become a new thing I gotta make; and Shredded Parmesan Brussels Sprouts (p. 144), nutty and cheesy and slightly sweet, another thing I may well make again, and not just on T-day.

I was less enchanted with the cranberry relish I made, out of David Rosengarten's It's All American Food, and now I'm stuck with practically a whole bottle of Tequila. What will I do with it?



Finally, there's the turkey. I brined as usual, but decided to try some ideas in this recipe, originally from Bon Appetit, along with a couple of tips I picked up in Food & Wine. So I made the sage gravy, but also shoved a couple of pieces of bacon under the breast skin to help keep it moist, and used the turkey stock from the last bird in the pan as this one was cooking.

Results? Bacon in turkey-- fine, but I like real turkey flavor more than porky-turkey flavor. But the gravy, oh man, by far the best gravy I've ever made, depth of bird flavor, onion, sage, it rocked.

Actually, finally there's pumpkin pie. We are indeed thankful for that and so much more.



Happy Thanksgiving, LTHForum.

No pix, but mine turned out beautifully - dark mahogany skin, tasty juicy flesh. DH took the back and breast bones out of a 15 lb "Natural, Brined" turkey from TJ. We had 2 halves. I rubbed butter with fresh parsley, sage, garlic, thyme under the skin, and did it in the WSM (empty water pan, apple wood chunks) until it was 175 in the thigh/leg area (at about the 1/2 way point I swapped the halves from top to bottom rack and vice versa). Unfortunately the pan juices were caramelized to a crisp in the pan, luckily I had roasted the back, breast, giblets, etc, in the oven in some stock for gravy. Two of the sides came from Cooks' Illustrated (cornbread stuffing, glazed brussels sprouts with Chestnuts) and we also had steamed green beans, roasted sweet potatoes (with apple cider and butter), cranberry-orange sauce, and 3 pies. Good company and good food!

I've always participated in Thanksgivings -- yesterday was the first time I was in charge of one. Very small Thanksgiving -- only did a breast, which was free range, no hormones and 4 lbs. I made an olive oil herb paste (Parsley, rosemary, thyme, garlic, onion) which I rubbed under the skin and roasted the breast on top of a pile of rosemary, bay leaves and thyme. It turned out nice and juicy for a stand alone breast. Green beans and cornbread/apple/sausage stuffing were also tasty and were accompanied with Yukon Gold mashd potatoes, simple gravy with thyme and fine carrot dish -- carrots glazed with balsamic vinegar, which were really yummy. The standout dish, however, was a homemade pear applesauce that I made. My first attempt at applesauce and it was just so much better than I expected. I used an assortment of apples and pears with lemon zest and cinnamon for flavoring and it was just the finest chunky applesauce I've ever had, if I do say so myself. It was a mellow intimate dinner with friends and it was even better with 2 bottles of Prosecco. I felt quite thankful to get through it all intact!

shannon

LTH,

My wife and I are visiting the folks in Florida for Thanksgiving and I cooked T-Day dinner for my lovely bride, parents, my parents very sweet Canadian neighbors and the neighbors kids, if you can still call 50-olds kids.

15-lb brined bird came out of the oven looking darn good.


Moist, tender, easy to carve.


Looked pretty on the platter


T-Day Turkey 06 seemed to be a hit.


Hope all had a very nice Thanksgiving.

Enjoy,
Gary

Not the the most flattering angle for the poor bird, but she lived her life free and presumably happy on the Wettsteins organic farm and boy oh boy did she taste fine.

Brined with some thyme and black pepper, buttered under the skin with garlic, fresh sage, fresh thyme, and dried marjoram. Cooked, all 18 pounds of him, on the regular old Weber kettle, in under two hours. An auspicious first Thanksgiving in the new condo.


Edited to point out that even in the turkey world, the females don't get their due honor, and remembering that the Wettsteins said all their turkeys were hens.

Great pics. I'm a longtime lurker. This is my first post. I'm very happy how my bird turned out this year. Very juicy. The applewood I used imparted a nice smoky flavor. Thanks to GWiv and his WSM 5 step site for getting me started. I've done all 5 dinners and they turned out wonderfully:

http://www.wiviott.com/

Yesterday I followed the directions on this page. It was done in just under 3 hours:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/turkey3.html

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We had a great dinner down here in Florida with the better brother, mother, in-laws, and friends. I went the trailer park route and fried a turkey. Since I'm in a high-rise, I had to set up next to our parking lot. Besides the turkey, I threw a few ducks into the pot. Accompanying the turkey were Ms. Rev's sweet potatoes with marshmellows, my cornbread and chorizo dressing, another european type dressing from the in-laws, and a wonderful red cabbage brought by our German friends. Mom made her famous cranberries. I baked a sweet potato pecan pie with chantilly cream for dessert. Unfortunately, because of the hyperactivity of getting everything together after the turkey was cooked, I neglected to take a picture of the finished turkey. It was a thing of beauty. Here's a few pictures of our experience.

Reenactment of the injection of the bird


I season the ducks with Chinese 5-spice


The better brother and I with some bubbly while a duck bubbles. I guess it should've been beer to be authentic.


Lowering the turkey. Notice the proper safety technique. The fryer is at least 2 feet from high voltage.


"AFLAC"


A sweet finish

Lowering the turkey. Notice the proper safety technique. The fryer is at least 2 feet from high voltage.

At least you had one hand free to "electrify" the bird when you lose your balance trying to lower the bird with "one" hand.

Andy,

I am just thinking of all that spitting oil with you wearing shorts. You are brave!

I had the picture perfect turkey, which never got photographed. Brined, roasted without once basting and flipped just once after an hour. Three hours start to finish and quickly devoured. Enough left for a few sandwiches of stuffing, turkey and cranberry sauce.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Andy,

I am just thinking of all that spitting oil with you wearing shorts. You are brave!

Cathy, Not brave, just stupid. I realized that as the spattering oil was burning my legs.

Bruce wrote:

At least you had one hand free to "electrify" the bird when you lose your balance trying to lower the bird with "one" hand.

Bruce, I had to use 1 hand to lower the turkey because that allowed me to stay a little further from the pot while my legs were getting burned from the hot oil. Genius!

Rev,

Next time, maybe you need a turkey derrick like Alton Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9mq29BaLLk

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:Rev,

Next time, maybe you need a turkey derrick like Alton Brown:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9mq29BaLLk

Best,
Michael

Wow, I can do that! Great link and really about the safest approach to making a fried turkey I have observed.

I have a great respect for hot grease. When I do it at home, I use an electric fryer that I put into my stainless steel sink with an open box of baking soda to extinguish a fire. I have seen oil ignite once, it was enough.

Regards,

I'm just wondering -



Gary - do you check that Sabatier in your luggage and hope for the best, or just demand one in your technical rider before cooking at appearances?

RevrendAndy wrote:

Bruce wrote:

At least you had one hand free to "electrify" the bird when you lose your balance trying to lower the bird with "one" hand.

Bruce, I had to use 1 hand to lower the turkey because that allowed me to stay a little further from the pot while my legs were getting burned from the hot oil. Genius!

At least you weren't wearing sandals.

RevrendAndy wrote:We had a great dinner down here in Florida with the better brother, mother, in-laws, and friends.

Here are a few more choice moments omitted by RevrendAndy:

Sometimes you need a little more power to get the temp of the oil up.



Aaaaggghhhh!!!! I warned him not to get his head too close to the pot!!!!



The Poliburo lives! Everyone was a lot happier after they had a chance to taste this incredible feast.

Ann Fisher wrote:Cooked, all 18 pounds of him, on the regular old Weber kettle, in under two hours. An auspicious first Thanksgiving in the new condo.

Ann,

Turkey on a Weber Kettle is partially what got me into BBQ/smoking. Years ago Ellen's cousin, Peg-Leg SaintCross, had us over for dinner the highlight of which was turkey smoked on a Weber Kettle. Up to that point I was lukewarm on smoked food, having had more than my share of li*uid sm*ke flavored food, inexpertly prepared creosoted low and slow and eat-it-with-a-spoon Chicago style ribs. One bite of The Legs kissed with apple wood juicy bird and I was hooked.

As they the saying goes, it ain't the pit, it's the pitmaster and you have it down.

Turkey looks terrific!

Enjoy,
Gary