I couldn’t disagree more. Sure, a drunk anyone ruins the dinner; however, some of my best memories revolve around me and my Dad cooking together (our favorite activity) and sharing some wine. We have a blast.
In my single days, I used this as a pickup line in bars. “I am extremely impressed with your moist and delicious breast meat!”
Just so you know, it never worked.
[quote=“fifty-six, post:1, topic:474172”]
I have been a professional cook for about 20 years. I own a restaurant and I have hosted Thanksgiving on a number of occasions. I rarely post about food and cooking on the boards but I decided that this year I would share a few tips on Thanksgiving day entertaining.
Criticism is welcome as well as other tips.
Thanks for the great tips!
I can only add that the host (him or her, but I’ll use her for convenience) should take the attitude that she’s doing everyone a favor by having them to her house. Everyone should be thankful for whatever she does, no matter how bad it turns out or how little they like it. To have good friends and kind family together for just one evening is a blessing, even if we’re having turkey sandwiches!
If things do go bad, laugh it off. Mistakes happen. However, as the OP noted, an in-bird thermometer is nearly fool-proof. Get one of those new-fangled remote ones: the probe goes in the “bird” in the oven, with a cable going out to the display sitting on the stove. Works every time.. Everything else should be simple. Buy a chocolate cake; by the time people reach dessert, their taste buds will be overwhelmed anyway.
Criticisms are tougher. Depending on the family dynamics (especially in married couples), somebody may show up with several axes to grind sharp against the helpless soul of the host/hostess. If you’re the target, do not become a victim. Fight back mercilessly. The world at large will take your side. Family ties are not a sufficient to forget politeness!
Of course, if your spouse sides with the critics, you have some important decisions to make. If you’re female, though, sticking your feet in ice before bed or a month’s worth of persistent headaches can go a long way! This in turn points out that you’re always marrying not only the person but his or her family as well.
While the lovely and talented Shayna may disagree on which end of the turkey goes up, I doubt we would disagree on the temps to cook it to.
The breast is done at 160-163F, and the thighs are done at 180F.
If you cook the bird right side up to 160 in the breast the dark meat is under done. You could carve the dark meat off and stick it in the microwave to finish it off.
If you cook it to 180F in the thigh, The dark meat is fine, the white meat is turkey jerky. You are screwed.
You can do it Shayna’s way (cook the bird upside down and flip it partway though if you want a nice presentation, or my way. My way is take the bird out of the fridge a couple of hours before you intend to start cooking it. Place a zip lock bag with ice cubes and a bit of water over the breast. When you are ready to put the bird on, remove the bag season the bird and throw it in the oven. By chilling the breast it starts out about 20 degrees colder than the thigh, and they finish at the same time. Now Shayna (who I love and respect) maintains that I am nuts, and I think she is loony tunes for trying to flip a 20lb turkey that is very damn hot.
You call it, I have given you three ways you can wind up with a great tasting turkey.
BTW you might want to check out this thread from 2006 on T-day recipes. I give you the rundown on exactly how I cook a turkey, plus lots from other dopers.
Wow, my family never went all out for Thanksgiving, and reading this makes me kind of glad . . . it seems so stressful . . . I mean, written schedules of when to put things in the oven? I’m glad I don’t need a Dayrunner to do Thanksgiving!
When I start doing Thanksgiving for my family, it’s going to be a potluck. And my contribution will be a veggie plate, cause I hates cooking.
Then you probably should not start “doing” Thanks giving for your family. Good luck getting someone to bring a huge turkey to your “potluck!”
That’s the thing - if you write out a schedule, it isn’t stressful at all. In fact, Thanksgiving is probably the easiest “big dinner” to prepare, because none of the traditional dishes require much skill or experience to execute. Also, most of it can be done in advance - the only thing I have to do on Thursday is cook the turkey, finish the gravy with drippings, and shove the green bean casserole in the oven. My mom does the potatoes. Everything else will be done beforehand, very stress-free. Tonight I’m making cranberry sauce and soup.
We are not doing Thanksgiving this year til Saturday, are there any dishes I can start making today? What are the best dishes to make ahead?
Corn Pudding
Dressing
Green Bean Casserole
Rice
Black Eyed Peas
Sweet Potato Casserole
Mashed Potatoes
Noodle Kugel
Cornbread
Pumpkin Pie
ApplePie
Out of everything on that list, it can all be made ahead at some point except the mashed potatoes. (I don’t know what noodle kugel is though so it could be 2 things.)
The blackeyed peas can be cooked now, refrigerated and then warmed up on T-Day. Same with the pies. Go ahead and get them out of the way.
QFT. You start with the menu. From that, you generate the shopping list and the schedule.
Do as much as you can ahead of time. I have already chopped all the onions and celery I am going to use. The hors d’œuvre are awaiting deployment. All my glassware and china are washed. I am setting the table tonight.
Tomorrow I debone and butterfly the turkey, and make the stock, the sweet potatoes, and the green beans.
Thanksgiving, everyone arrives at 4:00, and we eat at 5:00. At 2:30, I brown the turkey. While it is browning, I make the stuffing. At 3:00, put the stuffing in the pan, arrange the turkey on top, and let it roast for 90 minutes.
4:30 - take out the turkey, remove the stuffing to a preheated container, and let the turkey rest before carving. Start the potatoes boiling. Make the gravy.
4:45 - Start reheating the vegetables in the microwave. Carve the turkey.
4:50 - mash the potatoes.
5:00 - EAT!
More of a general party rule, but for heaven’s sake if you are going to anything involving a buffet where people line up and fill their plates, put all of the utensils and napkins at the END. Only the plate / bowl / trough should be at the start for the guest to collect. Having to stock up with all that stuff and move it about while trying to balance the plate and get a slice of this and cut a chunk of that is nuts! Especially when you are trying to simultaneously serve a child who can only hold a plate. Some people will wise up and only grab the plate at the start, and then circling round and cutting back into the line to grab the spoons or forks or napkins, slowing down the line.
Consider having a buffet for serving up Thanksgiving (and desserts later). Putting all that stuff on a table sure looks awfully Normal Rockwell but then you end up playing one big round of “could you pass the <fill in the blank>” (and no other conversation) and the people in the middle never get to eat for all the passing around they have to do while the people on the ends never get all the food. In this case, where all guest will be sitting in a known location, have all the utensils etc. on the table. They pick up the plate at the buffet and fill it with their choices. Should they want more at a later point, they can get up and help themselves.
Great idea about the utensils at the end.
FYI, shortly after we arrived at my folks’ house, they were flipping the bird right side up. It’s different than what Shayna advised (just a different order), but my dad read it in Cooks Illustrated which is his personal cooking bible. It was a kosher turkey and came out moist and delicious in both the dark and white meat categories.
ShibbOleth, my dad fought me for years over cooking the bird upside down. And for years he made mediocre to crappy turkeys. One year it was so undercooked by the time we were ready to eat, that he carved it up and put it in the microwave! :eek:
Last year we finally got a chance to host them at our house for Thanksgiving, and he even helped my husband flip the bird over towards the end. Both he and my step-mother couldn’t stop raving about how delicious it was. Carla was so impressed that she insisted on taking the recipe home with her to try herself the next year.
Well this year they stayed in St. Louis and we stayed in Redondo Beach, so we each did our own thing, and they did, in fact, try my recipe, with one exception. Since my father never presents the bird and always does all the carving in the kitchen, they elected not to bother flipping the bird over.
Not only did they get absolute rave reviews, but my dad and Carla were stunned by the fact that they cooked a 15 lb bird in 2 hours! At first they thought the newfangled “remote control” thermometer must be broken, so they put in the old-fashioned one and got the same results – the turkey was done. I think I can say pretty confidently that my father will never be stubbornly opposed to cooking the turkey upside down again. 
Glad your turkey turned out great, too!