Thanksgiving Dinner

Actually Eva, butter is better than its reputation.
I always prefer butter to any other substitute and the
Europeans do as well, while having less health problems
than their american friends

Piffka - yes they do! And all without Silicon. I just
found a new great butcher shop here that has great
meats, even venison, which we'll have for christmas then.

I nearly dropped the brining turkey taking it out of the refrigerator - that is one heavy pot. If I had, I would have had a brined floor and a dog licking it up and then getting sick from the brine..

It's sitting en pot in the sink now while I drink my coffee and cogitate.

SO you baked turkeys all by yourself? (aside from Cavfancier)

our turkey, a narragansett heritage bird, was pretty good. I was ready to dismiss this as just another "yuppie" fixation .
We cooked the 20 poundr at 475 at about 10 min per pound. We cooked it on either side for half the time , which browned it nicely.

Some differences we noted
1 The taste was richer. It had a distinct "turkey" flavor that everyone liked.

2The skin was thicker and, unlike the paper thin skins on a butterball, this one had skin that everybody (cept my wife0 was reaching over and tearing hunks to gnosh like chitlins

3Loads a dark meat that was firmer but not tough

4 juicy as hell. The cornbread stuffing and chestnut stuffings were perfect with tthis bird

5 There was very little left because, even a 20 pound bird, has a lot of frame. These are working birds, not some ptuitary freak/

I reccomend this to those who want to try something that doesnt taste like a big chicken, more like a big pheasant.

Theyre a bit pricey now but , I think these will become a popular food and so the prices will become competitive. ORR, (I think we will do this) raise some yourself, there are breeders who will sell poults. My only worry is that theyll become pets and then the idea of having them "as" dinner , may remove itself as an option.

We decided that ten years of over the river and through the woods to my brother's house was enough and that we would stay home.

In Tulsa, I cooked a lot and we ate out seldom if ever, unless you count Friday nights at Chimi's dining out. Here in New York we order in -- a lot-- or eat out --- a lot---so for the past ten years, all we've done is make a pie or two and bring home some leftovers, so my culinary skills being a bit rusty, no---- corroded with lack of practice, I was a little on edge.

So I did what any other New Yorker would have done. I punched up Fresh Direct on my computer and ordered in.

Cranberry Sauce

Rolls (semi-baked)
Green Beans with Almonds
Yukon Mashed Potatos
Corn on the Cob
Cranberry Stuffing
New England Apple Pie (my mother would die of shame)

All of these were pre-cooked and ready to re-heat.
Yumm as my brother would say "home de-frosted."

They sent a trussed up eight pound chicken which I roasted in a rosemary and garlic butter sauce I've been using for years. I made the best pan gravy I've ever tasted.......

We nibbled at shrimp cocktail while the hen rested and the lovely fat rolls finished baking in the oven with the reheating stuffing and potatos.

Very little effort on my part, luckily because I've been down with some kind of bleeech for about three days. I started feeling better during Survivor when they booted LeeAnn off and I punched a spoon into the Vanilla Ice Creamed Apple Pie.

I slept belly up.

Joe

I baked my own 27 pound bad boy. It was a thing of beauty when it came out of the oven and yummy too!

Prior to dinner, I laid out a cheese and cracker tray. Then served dinner. Along with the turkey, I stuffed it with traditional bread stuffing, made gravy from the drippings. About 8 pounds of potatoes, 5 pounds of sweet potatoes, 3 pounds of carrots, 3 pounds of squash, 3 pounds of green beans and a couple packages of frozen corn - all the above made with butter and the squash also had a little brown sugar, add to that some fresh dinner rolls and cranberry sauce and we had a feast!

Of course lots of desserts, but I didn't make those, the guests brought them.

Farmerman
Farmerman, when I was growing up, we always had pheasant for thanksgiving dinner. My older brother was a archer-hunter. He always brought a pheasant home for our holiday that was free of buckshot. He was a champion archer.

BBB

Well, the brined turkey was easy, no big deal since it was a 12 lb turkey and fit in my biggest spaghetti cooking type pot. (I suppose it is a bouillabaise pot.) It was juicy. Not as much flavor as I'd like.. I'll add some more juniper berries and allspice and thyme and garlic to the brine next time.

I'd like to find a heritage bird like farmerman did, but I haven't seen them in our markets here.

I used to ride bikes with a guy named Bob who hunted turkey with a bow.
A man of greater patience I have yet to come across.

Joe
My brother used to hunt pheasants in the corn fields in California's central valley.

Why hunt pheasants in a corn field? Because that's where the pheasants are.

BBB

Went for a 15 pounder, fresh, not frozen. But it was in the oven a little too long because it just wasn't real moist. The big hit was the Piffy shrimp-cream cheese appy...that disappeared pronto.

pheasants are an artificial bird that, wherever they are, theyve been released by some Game Commission. Theyve adaapted to our old ways of farming , BUT there is a problem now. Too few farmers leave hedge rows any more and pheasants like hedge rows for nesting. In Pa, even with yearly release, these birds are almost gone because the previous years releases have all been wiped out and havent bred.

I love pheasant, im thinkiing of raising some but, the goldens and spotted and Mongolians are so expensive .(tthey can cost thousands for a pair) A normal ringneck tthat is released by the GAme Commission is a diff story. You have to get a "gamehandlers" license, because they think youre gonna raise em for hunting and only the state can do that. As*holes.

Hunting turkey with a bow takes a real good shot arrows are easily deflected in brush. here in LAncaster County, we can get wild turkeys with a CHEVY.

Farmerman
My North Dakota friends tell me the best way to hunt pheasants is to leave your garage door open when you go to bed. Then get up before sunrise and shut the door. You've got yourself a bunch of pheasants, who overnighted in your garage to keep warm.

Sounds reasonable to me.

BBB

Alright, who's going out to the garage with me to help strangle dinner?

BBB, tthatts the way, no mess, no wittnesses

My sister moved to Seattle and married a guy from Minnesota. He made us all switch back to butter ten years ago. The margarine habit wasn't hard to break, but keeping the butter in a covered dish in the cabinet instead of the refrigerator took some getting used to! (Mom never did adjust. After a lifetime of using margarine, she just couldn't believe it wouldn't spoil.)

Nowadays we only buy margarine for a couple of recipes that just don't taste the same with butter. We use butter every day.

same here

Did he ever catch one, Joe? I know several guys here who claim to hunt wild turkey, but the only kind they ever catch is about 100 proof.

Turkey hunting with a bow is largely considered the most challenging of all hunts. The 100-proof stuff is considerably easier to track down.

Gee, I missed a2k this weekend!

Venison for Christmas, Jane? Oh, start a thread... start a thread!!!

Glad the shrimp-cream cheese thing worked for you, Panzade. My son made ours and then said we needed a smoked salmon-cream cheese thing, as well. Both were nearly gone before dinner. We had some good eaters over.

I saw some pheasants when we were in Eastern Oregon last month. It seems a shame to eat such beautiful birds, however, if I ever get a chance to eat some of those little Mexican doves... I'm not passing 'em up.

It sounds like your brother had some impressive turkey shooting skills, BBB. (Since you didn't have a garage in N. Dakota! )


TURKEYS COOKING TURKEYS
I fell asleep and left our turkey in plain water overnight. (sigh) However, it turned out to be amazingly moist, and this was a 20.5 pound bird. Next time I will definitely plan on brining - I imagine it giving a big infusion of flavor. Luckily, the stuffing I use is so full of sausage & fruits & piquant veggies that everything was very tasty. Other than that, we basted it with butter to start and then with pan juices.

Osso -- Did you follow the brining recipe that cjhsa offered? That's the one I was all set to make... before exhaustion crept in.

Farmerman -- You cooked your bird the entire time at 450? Eyikes. I sear it for the first 20 minutes at that, then bump the temperature down to 350. My 20 pounder was exactly right in 7 hours and way more moist than expected. I thought I had one of those little automatic timers in it, and then when I finally started poking at it, realized it was a bit of errant stuffing.

JELLO Alert!!!
We had fresh cranberry sauce - a very tart & simple one I made plus a cranberry jelly with mandarins from The Mariner's Cookbook brought by a guest. It was good, but melts in the microwave.

PIE Report -- I made a mincemeat pie (no meat though) after thinking about Jjorge's plans, using a couple of Nonesuch boxes. It made the kitchen smell wonderful. I also made a cinnamon-y apple pie with Braeburn apples and my daughter made a pumpkin-pecan pie that was excellent.