Thanksgiving 2017

It's well past menu planning time, yet there seems to be no Turkey thread for this year?

Who is deviating from convention with new recipes?

Exciting experiments?

We are smoking a turkey for the first time!

And I'm working on a crunchy refreshing salad concept, probably celery-fennel-citrus.

Hi,

My family loves their Thanksgiving very traditional. I have to be careful about introducing new dishes, because if they like them it is expected the next year. The problem is trying to remove any dish deemed traditional.

I am not a big fan of appetizers, because I want people to eat the dinner I put time and thought into making. I will include a Wisconsin relish platter to give their mouths something to do.

My relish tray will include:
- Marinated mushrooms
- Seasoned green olives from the Wisconsin Supper Club Cookbook by Mary Bergin. If you ever see this book, check out the endorsements on the back page.
- A feta based cheese spread from The Bakery, which I might make with hot paprika instead of mild.
- Green onions
- Radish roses
- Celery sticks.

I am adding a cheese platter at the end of dinner with Maytag Blue bought at the factory on Labor Day. I was very impressed to find people working including the company president. A brie and some imported cheddar. Crackers, fruit and fig jam.

I want people to linger.

There will be one vegetarian present this time around. I hope my offer of providing a tofurkey will be declined. This same person years ago came because she wanted my stuffing. Everything was going smoothly until she inquired what was in the stuffing: turkey liver, pork sausage and ham is what set her off. She dropped a fork onto her plate which reverberated around the room. It's the same darn stuffing she begged me to make.

A relatively recent addition to the traditions surrounding turkey dinners: Every turkey I now buy they want to know how old it is. Several years ago, I served one which had been in cold storage since the Bush Administration. The turkey was fine, what was wrong was my handling. So it was a little dry, which was really my error not the turkey's extended storage!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Regards,
Cathy

I can echo cathy2 as to our family loving their traditional Thanksgiving!
Turkeys are being processed today by local farmer and will pick up tomorrow.
The turkey will spend Tuesday thru Thursday morning in a cooler with ice in the garage.
Then traditional herb stuffing, butter rub, herb crust ala Jacques Pepin, my wife’s homemade cranberry sauce and gravy with smashed potatoes-(Real), sweet potato, daughter #2 making green bean casserole with dried onions(what else?) and pumpkin pie. I think they have given up the green jello thing my mother-in-law used to make, not because they don’t like it but because of the complexity of preparing and transporting.
Daughter # 1 bringing stuff.
Brother-in-law always good for hard to get cheeses, sausages and beers/wine.
Turkey will be somewhere in the 20-30 # range.
Picked up eggs last Sunday and observed a 30# estimated dressed weight gobbler shepherding his flock around the front of the house.
My friend just lets them walk around much of the day and shoos them back into the roost at night.
#1 son does the heavy lifting during the day on Thanksgiving.
I will try to get to Kopps for pumpkin praline and cranberry custards!
Hofbrau draft beer, Frexinet and various other wines, cheese, relish tray will complete the meal.-Richard

budrichard wrote:Turkey will be somewhere in the 20-30 # range.

How do you get a bird that big cooked inside without the outside totally dried out?

spatchcock^

Things were a little dicey this year because I got called to jury duty today and had no idea whether I'd be called back again tomorrow... so we got all the shopping done yesterday. The stores were all madhouses but everyone was cheerful and the only thing they were out of was the kosher salt (but it turns out I had enough for the dry brine, so all's well that ends well). I waited too long to phone in my order for a HoKa turkey, but managed to waltz into Fresh Farms in Niles and get one of the butchers to dig out a nice 17-pounder out of the back storage! And I was dismissed from jury duty after spending a day holding down a chair in the Daley Center, so it's now All Thanksgiving, All Day, Everyday this week!

We are also staying very traditional:

• Deviled eggs, hot artichoke dip, shrimp cocktail, a cheese assortment, and a variety of olives will be out for nibbling in the early afternoon.
• Dry brined and roasted turkey (the Judy Bird, currently resting in a cooler on the back porch)
• A gallon of gravy (I'm making the stock as I type, using info gleaned from the infamous Good Gravy thread on this very site)
• Sausage-apple dressing
• A vat of mashed potatoes (and some slightly pathetic mashed cauliflower for borderline-diabetic me)
• Ree Drummond's yummy green beans (featuring grease and some bits from Chouxfly's home-smoked bacon)
• Crushed kale salad (with kale from our community garden)
• Cranberry sauce (spiced with the yummy orange liqueur we got from North Shore Distillery a few years back)
• Rolls (probably sacaduros from the Rose Levy Berenbaum Bread Bible, made by Chouxfly)
• Pumpkin pie (with an almond meal crust) and homemade vanilla ice cream for dessert, with an eggnog chaser

I hope you all have smooth sailing this week... and if you don't, I hope you get a great story out of it (and you rush right back here to tell us all about it!)

The last thing I want to do this weekend is carve shit. We've been there and done it with the traditional meal; we're having it on Friday for sure with the father-in-law. Thursday we're meeting my parents at Buca di Beppo, then going to the sister-in-law's for "coffee". However, her dinner starts when ours ends, so I think we're eating all the things twice over. Which is fine by me. 'Murica!

But it just ain't the same without a decadent meal at home. So I'm making venison loin (went to Gepperth's today, be still my heart), corn pudding, biscuits, Brussels sprouts for me and roasted peppers/carrots for him. Also, pie. Because, well.

I also picked up an alligator tail, which leads me to another post.

lougord99 wrote:

budrichard wrote:Turkey will be somewhere in the 20-30 # range.

How do you get a bird that big cooked inside without the outside totally dried out?

Skin is rubbed with butter and then herbs, legs and wings are tented with foil.
Cook at 350F using the 15 min/# rule until a Thermopen reads about 150F at the bones and stuffing.
Remove foil and turn up oven to crisp if required.
Continue until bird reads 165F per USDA, or per my wife 175F, whichever you can get by with!
A fresh turkey is quite a different bird than a frozen turkey or even a fresh turkey help at 30F until sale.
It is not water laden and I have no problem.
BTW, the reason for the obiquitous ‘Butterball’ turkey or other brands using a chemical/water ‘enhancement’, is to make a frozen turkey palatable.-Richard

Thanks for replying with those helpful details, budrichard.

I like spatchcocking chickens; haven't tried spatchcocking a turkey yet. I presume that with both types of birds, the only difference (versus not spatchcocking) would be some shorter time per pound versus 15 minutes per pound. Anyone have a good idea what that shorter time per pound would be? I think I'll experiment with a few chickens and try to figure it out. My oven (which I dislike) always runs hot, so I'll have to figure out the best timing for it, until I can get a new oven.

I don't trust timing my roasts anymore... if you can get your hands on a cheap thermometer (either instant read or a wired external type), you will never have to worry whether your meat is done ever again.

Here's the super cheap one I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0198473E4/re ... fAb3FP0A5Q

mamagotcha wrote:I don't trust timing my roasts anymore... if you can get your hands on a cheap thermometer (either instant read or a wired external type), you will never have to worry whether your meat is done ever again.

Here's the super cheap one I use: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0198473E4/re ... fAb3FP0A5Q

To this, get yourself on the ThermoWorks email list, maker of the Thermapen. They run regular specials to email subscribers, sometimes at great discounts. Well worth the sign up.

We have bread duty for the meal we share with friends who hosts "big-ly".

I am bring one bread, maybe 2 I usually bring including a decadent cornbread that has the corn soaked overnight in buttermilk. The other breads will be new to the table.
I started a sourdough starter last month and it has been reliable. So I have been feeding starters since last night to get them ready to start doughs tomorrow and bake on Thursday.

I tend to do extra credit/l'angiappe in addition to what we said we would do so buttermilk ice cream ( I have also brought it the last few years) is done and in the freezer. I have other thoughts for other new additions but I know I need to stop now. So I will decide as I go.

We're going to a massive family feast, and I have been asked to bring a veggie side that is not green beans. I'm making roast butternut squash per this Ottolenghi recipe: (I am not making the stuffed quince) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... ce-recipes

Traveling out of town to my parents so my pre-Thanksgiving work is minimal. I'm baking a challah tonight. I'll arrive tomorrow, pick up the turkey, dry brine it for 24 hours and cook it (spatchcocked). I'll also do the gravy using my mom's chicken stock, the reserved turkey back, neck and giblets, herbs, vegetables, a roux and probably a little white wine. My mom will have done the rest-matzoh ball soup, green bean casserole, her usual (and my favorite) herb & chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.

Katie wrote:Thanks for replying with those helpful details, budrichard.

I like spatchcocking chickens; haven't tried spatchcocking a turkey yet. I presume that with both types of birds, the only difference (versus not spatchcocking) would be some shorter time per pound versus 15 minutes per pound. Anyone have a good idea what that shorter time per pound would be? I think I'll experiment with a few chickens and try to figure it out. My oven (which I dislike) always runs hot, so I'll have to figure out the best timing for it, until I can get a new oven.

Spathcocking a turkey is very different than-a chicken due to the much heavier bones. I have done it using a meat saw for the bones. I can usually do a chicken with a poultry shears.
As to time, I would guess about half the time for a whole unstuffed bird.
A Thermopen takes the guess work out of “when is the turkey done?”-Richard

Interesting find! November 21st, 1946 issue of the weekly River Forest newspaper 'Oak Leaves'. Ad in the lower left corner for Wilson Foods has a roast turkey recipe- cook the bird upside down!

http://riverforest.advantage-preservation.com/Viewer/?by=1946&bdd=1940&bm=11&bd=21&lnsm=between&fn=forest_leaves_usa_illinois_oak_park_19461121_english_58&df=1&dt=10&tc=79&pn=Forest%20Leaves

budrichard wrote:

Katie wrote:Thanks for replying with those helpful details, budrichard.

I like spatchcocking chickens; haven't tried spatchcocking a turkey yet. I presume that with both types of birds, the only difference (versus not spatchcocking) would be some shorter time per pound versus 15 minutes per pound. Anyone have a good idea what that shorter time per pound would be? I think I'll experiment with a few chickens and try to figure it out. My oven (which I dislike) always runs hot, so I'll have to figure out the best timing for it, until I can get a new oven.

Spathcocking a turkey is very different than-a chicken due to the much heavier bones. I have done it using a meat saw for the bones. I can usually do a chicken with a poultry shears.
As to time, I would guess about half the time for a whole unstuffed bird.
A Thermopen takes the guess work out of “when is the turkey done?”-Richard

First time Spatchcocker here (wanted to post just to be able to write that)—used heavy duty poultry shears and a boning knife but it wasn’t easy.

The recipe has us roasting our 15lb Gunthorp bird (recipe said it was good for 12-16lb) on 450 for 80 mins. My plan is to have a bottom layer of evenly sliced carrot, celery and onion to function as the rack, with a layer of stuffing on top of that, then the bird. Bird is dry brined ala Judy, with the addition of baking powder, black pepper and some dried herbs. Will baste with butter if needed.

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out!

I'm doing my 15# bird according to kenji's recipe, which is quite similar to the way boudreaulicious describes. Thermopen oven thermometer, natch!

I'm a grape guy, so I have some very professional pruners, which I've found make pretty easy work of spatchcocking the bird. Any decent pair of cheap hardware store anvil-type pruners would work (I've used 'em before); they're much tougher than poultry shears.

Geo

Two hits at our Thanksgiving yesterday:
Mashed potato casserole from Cook's Country was delicious and easy to make ahead. Essentially you beat in eggs to potatoes mashed with half-and-half, chicken broth, and lots of butter. Flavor is added with a bit of Dijon mustard and garlic. Recipe repeated here.

I made this cranberry port gelée last year and happily made it again this year. It really is rather reminiscent of the canned stuff in consistency but is so much tastier. The recipe has you push the pulp through a strainer, which is some work, but I think a food mill would work too (maybe I'll try that next year).

T-Day, Count me a Fan!