Share Your Thanksgiving Recipes: The Turkey!

[3113]

Well, by the time most of you read this, it will be November. And for those of us in the U.S. of A., we know exactly what that means....

Time to hide away the Halloween candy, toss out the carved pumpkin, get out the good china and grandma's lace tablecloth, polish up the old silverware, and start planning the Thanksgiving Feast. (November 23rd folks! That's twenty-two days and counting!).

I figured we could help each other out by sharing our best and most favorite recipes.

For this thread:

http://a444.g.akamai.net/7/444/703/20061016185937/www.marthastewart.com/images/content/feature/LA102051_1106_twmroast_l.jpg

All Turkey recipes--or recipes for whatever you serve as the star of the show, be it a vegetarian dish or some other meat dish like Ham.

Don't forget to include stuffing and gravy recipes! Yum!

P.S. To non-U.S. folk...any one of us would love to have you over for Thanksgiving Dinner. So feel free to contribute and have a seat at the table. There's more than enough for everyone.

 

[Tegan_Rourke]

Oh my, my Halloween isn't even over yet!

 

[3113]

Oh my, my Halloween isn't even over yet!

Hey, it will be by morning. Might as well get a running start at Turkey day....

 

[Tegan_Rourke]

Hey, it will be by morning. Might as well get a running start at Turkey day....

I don't have to cook. I'm happy.

 

[TheeGoatPig]

My brother does the salt water brining the day or two before baking. It gets great reviews, but I don't eat turkey, so I wouldn't know if they are bieng truthful or not

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Hmmm... Turkey, eh? Me sister always goes to Seattle for Thanksgiving and I haven't done a turkey for years since it's just me. Maybe I will this year. You fry them, right?

 

[3113]

My brother does the salt water brining the day or two before baking. It gets great reviews, but I don't eat turkey, so I wouldn't know if they are bieng truthful or not

There's a great deal of controversy about brining. It's become something of a given and most people swear by it...but there are those who feel that it leaves the turkey salty. I have never brined a turkey myself, but I've had turkey that was brined vs. turkey not brined. The brined won out hands down. The turkey was not salty, it was delicious--flavorful, moist...all those things my mother's turkey, God love her, never were.

I say, Brine! It does, however, take planning to do so, as you have to do it a day ahead of time. And it takes a big refrigerator or ice chest as you have to submerge the turkey (more or less) in the mixture and keep it refrigerated for those 24 hours.

 

[Stella_Omega]

My brother does the salt water brining the day or two before baking. It gets great reviews, but I don't eat turkey, so I wouldn't know if they are bieng truthful or not

I hate that. It makes the turkey taste like a ham.

It get great reviews from hot-dog eaters, no offense...

I make a turkey that has become famous as the "Green Turkey;

I take handsfuls of fresh herbs; Rosemary, Oregano, Sage (not too much of that, it's incredibly strong) LOTS of Basil, Arugula, an onion, a head of garlic, and a half-head of Romaine lettuce, and (after peeling, washing, chopping) i whirl it all into a puree in a food processor, along with some olive oil and the juice of at least one lemon.

Then I get under the skin of the turkey, and slide this green goo into every part that I can. This can be done the day before, and it will act like a marinade. What's left gets rubbed into the cavity.

You can stuff your turkey like usual, and if there were still goo left over, add it to the stuffing mix.
This makes a flavorful moist turkey, that tastes like a game bird should, with a low sodium count.
It will even help those "prebasted" birds taste fresh.

 

[English Lady]

I';ve got to do the turkey for our Christmas this year -so I'll be watching his thread avidly

I am not a turkey fan myself, I find it too dry. I do prefer the dark meat I must admit.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I do prefer the dark meat I must admit.

Ummmm... never mind

 

[3113]

I';ve got to do the turkey for our Christmas this year -so I'll be watching his thread avidly

I am not a turkey fan myself, I find it too dry. I do prefer the dark meat I must admit.

Dark meat fan, myself

If you don't want to try the brining (here I'm in disagreement w/Stella--but then perhaps there was too much salt in the brined turkey she had, or they didn't rince it well), you can avoid dry Turkey by draping it with cheese cloth soaked in butter. Or so I've been told, never tried it myself.

Another way is to do as Stella does with stuffing instead of herb goo. You put stuffing moistened with plenty of butter and broth under the skin across the breast and this insulates it--keeps it from drying out.

I've also heard about putting Turkey in a roasting pan and keeping the lid on--steaming/poaching the bird rather than roasting it dry.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

The best stuffing ever:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
2 14.5-ounce loaves country-style white sourdough bread, crusts trimmed, bread cut into 3/4-inch pieces (about 16 cups)
8 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese (about 4 1/2 ounces)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
2 very large red onions, coarsely chopped (about 1 1/2 pounds)
3 1/2 cups coarsely chopped celery
2 large red bell peppers, coarsely chopped
8 garlic cloves, chopped
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
4 teaspoons dried oregano
3/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1/2 to 3/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
4 large eggs, beaten to blend

Canned low-salt chicken broth

Preheat oven to 400°F. Spray 2 large rimmed baking sheets with nonstick spray. Place half of bread pieces in large bowl. Add 3 tablespoons oil and toss to coat, then add 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, and toss. Spread bread in single layer on 1 prepared sheet. Repeat with remaining bread, 3 tablespoons oil, and 1/2 cup cheese; spread on second sheet. Bake bread until golden, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Cool on sheets. Transfer to very large bowl.
Melt 1/4 cup butter with remaining 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery, and bell peppers; sauté until vegetables begin to brown and are almost tender, about 15 minutes. Add chopped garlic, rosemary, and oregano; stir 1 minute. Add raisins and pine nuts; stir 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl with bread. Stir 1/2 cup basil and remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan into stuffing. Season generously with salt and pepper. Mix eggs into stuffing.

To bake stuffing in turkey:
Loosely fill neck and main cavities of turkey with stuffing. Add enough broth to remaining stuffing to moisten slightly (1/4 to 3/4 cup, depending on amount of remaining stuffing). Generously butter baking dish. Spoon remaining stuffing into prepared dish. Cover with buttered foil, buttered side down. Bake stuffing in dish along side turkey until heated through, about 25 minutes. Uncover stuffing. Bake until top of stuffing is slightly crisp and golden, about 15 minutes longer.

To bake all of stuffing in baking dish:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Generously butter 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish, depending on recipe. Add enough extra broth to stuffing to moisten (3/4 cup to 1 1/4 cups). Transfer stuffing to prepared dish. Cover with buttered foil, buttered side down. Bake until heated through, about 40 minutes. Uncover and bake until top is slightly crisp and golden, about 20 minutes longer.

Sprinkle remaining 1/4 cup basil over stuffing and serve.



Makes 10 to 12 servings.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I brine. I held out for a long time, being a conservative and a curmudgeon, but we've done it for the last 3 years and it's just superb. I don't know why yours tastes salty oir like ham.

Brining: Got a big plastic bucket from Home Depot and I throw in a couple handfuls (okay, handsful) of kosher salt (has to be kosher. Kosher salt is un-iodized (whereas table salt contains iodine) and doesn't contain any anti-caking chemicals. You can find it anywhere.) What you're doing is actually kind of tricky. If you add too much salt you'll actually draw moisture out of the bird and dry him out. Too little and he just gets loggy. It's an osmosis thing.(Maybe you should check a brining recipe on line, but you don't need all this fancy stuff they use like cloves and crap)

Hardest part about brining is finding room in the fridge for bird and bucket for the 12-20 hours or so it needs to soak. We just put it out on our back porch, which is unheated, or even the backyard with a cover on it.

Take him out, wash him off with fresh water and pat him dry.

Seasoning the Inside: Used to drive me crazy trying to sprinkle stuff in that turkey hole and get it spread around. Now I just chop up some apples and onions and mix them with a bunch of black pepper and rosemary and lots of sage and pour that inside and give him a good shake. Cook hm with the fruit inside. (I've heard of people using organged too, but I'm afraid of the bitterness from the peel)

I oil him all over and really lay on the pepper. Surprisingly, I dont much get off on turkey bondage where you tie her little wings behind her back (maybe if I sould find some black fishnet stockings for the drumsticks...) so I just cover the tips of the wings with foil. I like the wing tips kind of crunchy anyhow.

Firm, succulent breasts: The secret to having moist breast meat is simple and elegant and obvious once you think about it: Cook the turkey breast side down! Think about it: all the greasiest (okay, "juiciest") meat is on the bottom when you cook the bird right-side up and so it just melts and drips into the pan. But if you do your turkey face down, the grease runs into the breast and keeps the meat moist. Just put the bird down doggy style into a roasting rack, toss it into a red hot oven (500 dF) and immeidately turn the heat down to whatever they say in the cookbooks (I forget). That';s supposed to sear the bird. I don;t know if it really works but they always tell you that.

The one catch to this is that upside-down method is that the skin will be flabby, so you're going to have to flip your bird for the last like 20-30 minutes of cooking to crisp up the skin. This In-Process Turkey Inversion Maneuver is tricky - no way around it - especially since the chef is usually fairly sloshed by this time and the bird is screaming hot and kind of stuck to the roasting rack and there's grease on the floor and dogs and kids and maybe a guest or two. I wish there were some slick and easy way to do it, but I usually end up using a a new dishtowel as a turkey-holder and ,manhandling it, then just throwing the towel away and usually changing my shirt as well.

But after 20-30 minutes or whatever, the skin is crip (some oil and paprika brushed on will make it shine like a magazine pohotograph) and now you just let it rest for 20 minutes or so (and that's really important. They're not lying about that. If you try to cut it right out of the oven you'll end up just ripping off chunks of meat and there'll be juice all over the place.

Anyhow, after many and many a bird, that's what I've learned about cooking turkeys.