Hi, /ck/. On Sunday this week, I am going to be hosting a "friendsgiving" Thanksgiving dinner. This will be my first time ever doing a turkey without my parents or other members of the family.
My family can cook a badass turkey for Thanksgiving, but I am curious to see what y'all are used to. What kinds of tips, tricks, family secrets, etc do y'all bring to the table for prepping a Thanksgiving turkey?
I know I could just Google it, but you know how hit or miss that can be for a recipe as delicate as this.
Inb4 some food hipster starts insulting me. Just what do you guys think about Thanksgiving turkeys and their preparation? Brining?
FYI - I can't fry it this year.
TL;DR - General Thanksgiving Turkey thread
>>7084291
Self bump. I will be going to bed soon so I will check back on this thread in a few hours unless I wake up in the middle of the night with insomnia. Either way, I'll be back. Please bump with turkey preparation ideas, bros.
Thanks,
Anon
Also doing friendsgiving this thursday. Looking at doing a drybrine of the bird since kitchen space is small. Looking to do some season combination of kosher salt, pepper, paprika, garlic, thyme, rosemary, and parsley.
imo it's not worth trying to go nuts seasoning the bird, there's not a lot of fat there to taste anyway. My big focus will be making a kickass redwine gracy out of the drippings and giblets.
Everyone else at the dinner is borderline retarded in the kitchen, so I'm not too worried about making an ass out of myself trying to cook the bird.
>>7085158
>red win gravy out of the drippings and giblets
Care to elaborate on your method?
>>7085725
red wine* gravy
kinda following alton brown's recipe[0], except I want to use a roux
- Thinking of making a roux (not sure how much), combine roux wih turkey stock (planning making that from scratch w/ the giblets)
- scrape drippings up and deglaze pan with red wine and add to mixture
- reduce, and separate some fat
I'm honestly not sure how it will go, I've got some gravy mix as a backup if things go tits up. I've made coq au vin before, the red wine makes the sauce amazing.
[0]http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/best-gravy-ever-recipe.html
>>7086087
White roux melt equal parts butter & flour
Brown roux, put flour in over to brown, equal parts butter and browned flour.
>>7086087
OP here. Thank you. A roux sounds interesting and would definitely thicken up the "pan sauce" created by the drippings. Are you planning on using that same red wine roux sauce on the cornbread stuffing or mashed potatoes?
I have been researching and it seems like the key is basting butter/herbs UNDERNEATH the skin and then replacing the skin before you cook the turkey.
I think I'm going to try a salt/sugar brine with some cut up oranges and lemons as well as rosemary, thyme, parsley.
I fucking love Thanksgiving holy shit.
Our current menu is:
>turkey and turkey gravey
>Mashed potatoes
>roasted green beans
>some kind of veggie casserole
>Corn bread stuffing
>homemade macaroni and cheese
>yeast rolls
>Pecan pie
>pumpkin cheesecake
What else should we include? what are you guys having for Friendsgiving/Thanksgiving dinner?
>>7086524
>cornbread stuffing
Holy shit how have I never had that before, it sounds delicious
Tasty/10 menu OP
>>7084291
make sure you let it thaw on the counter for a few days before cooking. If you're hosting this Sunday I would go ahead and set it out now. turkey that meets Kashrut (Kosher)requirements always tastes better
Some would think that this would lead to salmonella but this is why you rinse the legs and wings with bleach; germs really don't live elsewhere on the bird. don't rinse otherwise you're inviting bacteria
the best stuffing is based on hot dog buns. my family likes to go all out and include the hot dogs, plenty of ketchup and some chicago style relish. put it all in a blender until a fine paste then pour in the body cavity
preheat the oven to 160. once the oven is good and hot place the turkey directly on the lower rack and cook for a maximum of 45 minutes. no one likes an overdone turkey!
serve with some homemade EasyMac casserole. This pairs well with Franzia White Zinfandel or Manischewitz
>>7086766
top fucking kek
>>7086766
lel
get a meat injector.
>>7086766
>this is why you rinse the legs and wings with bleach
I lost it.
Turkey is difficult to fuck up. Do not try and cook stuffing in the bird. Make stuffing on the side as a casserole.
Empty your bird of its former organs, cover those with water in a large saucepan and let them simmer for an hour. Put a cube of butter in there when they come off the heat and leave them alone.
Once they've cooled enough to handle, remove the giblets (see useful photo), chop everything up fine, strip all the meat you can get off the neck and chop it fine, too. My mother used to discard the heart but I don't see any reason to as long as you chop it fine.
Buy some Mrs. Cubbison's cordbread stuffing mix, get some celery, finely chop the celery, finely chop a large onion and mix those with as much of the butter-giblet liquid as necessary to make it "gloppy but not drippy". Set that aside.
I'd loosely stuff the turkey cavity with coarsely chopped onion and maybe some shallots and some rosemary. Salt the cavity, too, but don't overdo it if you want to make gravy. Cook your bird low and slow, keep its butt covered with foil paper up until the final hour or so of oven time. Use a decent thermometer -- 180 thigh, 165 breast. I'd cut at least 10 degrees off those figures.
A smart idea is to prepare a turkey the day before, roast it, then strip the meat off and arrange it on platters. Roast a second showboat turkey on Thanksgiving Day and feast off that carcass for leftovers later on. Serve the turkey you prepared the day before.
Mashed potatoes: get a BIG pot, peel the potatoes, chop them into more or less the same size chunks, bring them to a boil. When they're done, drain the water, add at least a cube of butter (use duck fat if you can get it, it's fucking awesome) and some salt and some dill weed. Dill weed goes great with potatoes. Mash them with a hand masher. Cover the pot with a dishtowel and then the lid to control dripping.
You have a decent roasting pan, right?
