No "Happy Thanksgiving!" Thread this Year??!!

I used ice in my brine mixture in a large cooler.*

putting it in a fridge seems a monumental undertaking...

(please pardon my typing I seem to be channeling mr llib)

*in the past. this year I had BBQ hot dogs and a salad.

My method is solely based on Alton Brown, but I don't follow his brine recipe completely. Just the salt.

We did the overnight ride this year, but in years past when I haven't been on top of things, I know a minimum 1 hour brine soak will be sufficient.

wait a minit Did I juss see Spiderman tossin Uncle Sams salad?


Now,back to brining. You brine yours too Rocky?

Do you then cook at really high temp ?

A cooler seems like it may work if the outside temps are in the 40s or so. I suppose Ill have to brine a turkey for Christmas next.

not as high as you.

400ish 425 at the end mebbe.

as long as you keep the brine mixture at about 40, a cooler works wonderfully. I add garlic and herbs to the brine along with brown sugar.

I use coarse kosher salt.

(uncle sam seems to be smiling and giving a sneaky thumbs up)

then when I cook the bird, I stuff the cavity with onion, apple, celery, garlic, etc...

the gravy rocks.

So, some clown is coming along voting down posts in this thread. What a total wiener.

Many, many years ago, i had a friend who was in Animal Science at the university, concentrating on Meat Science (from livestock production through finished goods). One Thanksgiving, he got a live turkey from a farmer, who then allowed him to use his (the farmer's) facilities to butcher the bird. He followed all the proper procedures. That was on Wednesday evening. When that bird went into the oven, it was less than twelve hours after it had been butchered. I've never had anything to compare to that. It reminded me of when i was a little boy and my grandfather would butcher a goose--but not as oily.

He called me at work on Wednesday to ask how to make the stuffing. I figured, what the hell, so i told him what to get, and then i went over there early on Turkey Day morning, baked bread, made the stuffing, made a great mash with potatoes and turnips, while of couple of women folk came over later to handle the rest of it. Had there been time, i'd have made a pumpkin pie from scratch--but ya gotta bake the sucker, scrape it out and then put it through a ricer, and his little kitchen was already pretty well bespoke.

Best turkey i've ever tasted.

We used to buy a turkey at a turkey farm. At that farm noone was concerned with "Heritage breeds or organic grss fed turkies" They just allowed the turkeys to gorge themselves on grains .
We always had our turkey killed the day before Thanksgiving (They would never freeze their fresh killed, they would only chill them and the customers would religiously pick them up at an assigned date.
It was kinda like the GUM department store in Moscow where everyone waited in line for sweaters

Fresh killed birds are great, as long as they are "Gently killed" and not allowed to excrete a ot of Lactic acid into their muscles.
Chasing a chicken to kill it was always a source of the gamy iron like flavor that isnt present if the butchery is done almost kosher

I was watching a show on PBS last night titled "Alaska" and they were fresh killing their turkey. He mentioned the same thing about gently killing <jeesh> the birds for the best flavor. I get fresh kosher birds. I never knew why they tasted so much better.

thats why I cannot even get near deer meat. Usually deer hunters shoot a deer and it takes off to run itself to death and the muscles re loaded with lactic acid and the meat tastes like **** (not that I am familiar with the taste of ****)

On a slightly related note:

"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving-that's one sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year."

"Furthermore, American per capita consumption of turkeys has soared from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds in 1997. Ten years later, the number dropped in 2007 to 13.8 pounds."

•Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
•Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.
•Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
•Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
•Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets

kosher or halal-prepared meats if you can get them are the best

I know the animal cruelty people get whacked out about the slow kill - but the birds taste better.

killing a turkey by a shock wave would be a gentle way to kill them. Of course, my butcher costs would be astronomical

Vegetarianism has it's plusses. Slow or fast, I like to think veggies still smile when they go.

FWIW, I have red meat hardly at all (once per year I love a good tender rib-eye on the grill)...and turkey 2x-3x per year on avg. Love me some of that tender kosher organically raised turkey (at about $100 per lb). Who knows if it's healthier...but it tastes good and these Turkey are said to volunteer themselves willingly.

How do they get their volunteers? Do thye promise money to their families?

Yes, I understand they even feather the nests of the relatives. Of course, the next year they put them on the chopping block, too.

I'm increasingly happy that I live somewhere with ready access to affordable Halal meats.

Yes you did you said no Thanksgiving thread then commented that the community was getting weaker and weaker.... pretty ******* hard to miss the point of that comment unless of course you weren't inferring this is an indicator the community is getting weaker and weaker in which case they were two totally unrelated thoughts which should have have been two separate posts
.

My brine was water, salt, a few tablespoons of liquid smoke, parsley, sage and thyme. It was REALLY good. I must say though , the most essential key to it's success was that squinney did it.

Haven't you heard? weakness is a positive thing



(not in martinis, I'm pretty sure about that)

For some bizarre, sadistic reason, I laughed myself silly over that.