as you AB fans know: Stuffing is EVIL!!!
Has anybody used the Cook’s Illustrated butterflied technique? It’s a variation on high-heat roasting. You brine the sucker, then saw out the back bone and break the breastbone. Fill a disposable roasting pan with stuffing, then place a rack over the pan, and the bird on the rack, splayed out flat. Roast at 500. The juices from the bird soak the stuffing, and that prevents smoking.
I’ve used a version of the technique on chickens - works like a charm. But I don’t host Thanksgiving so I haven’t tried it for a turkey.
(I got that in reverse order: butterfly, then brine - much easier.)
I don’t even know how to cook a turkey. Sad, I know. Bubba prepares all the “Big” Food. Our 14-18lb fresh bird will go into The Big Green Egg. After that I have no clue. I’m not allowed to touch the Egg, well partly because I can’t even lift up the lid.
The bird is rounded out with the basic sides. Mashed Potatoes n Gravy (haven’t the heart to tell him his gravy sucks), green beens (cooked with hamhocks), ordinary ol stuffing, fresh hot bread, n s few different pies for dessert.
Leftovers? There’s supposed to be leftovers??? I’m lucky if I get one turkey sandwich later on.
I used that method. Got raves even from Ms. D_Odds, who ‘doesn’t like turkey’. First turkey I had ever made (for same reason). This season, I’m supplying an oversized beef roast, but I’m still brining it (brining helps meat resist drying out from overcooking).
I’ve been dying to give it a try. I might be able to do it this year, as I’ve basically taken over cooking most of the meal. I know for sure that I’ll be brining the turkey. My only thing is that I like having all those drippings for the gravy (and the rest gets poured onto the stuffing, anyways).
Oh, and even with my super-sharp Global knife and my mad culinary skillz, I’m terrified to butterfly a 22 lb. turkey. I can already see that thing shooting across the counter as I slice my left hand clean off. 
Stuffing!
My brother, who hosted Thanksgiving dinner up until last year, had brined his turkeys for the past three or four years. I took over the family dinner duties last year and followed his instructions for the turkey (I’m a vegetarian, what do I know about cooking largish animals?). It was apparently just wonderful. The key, according to my brother, is to brine the bird overnight, cook it breast DOWN for a certain amount of time, then flip it over and cook it breast up for the remaining hours. I can’t remember right now just how long that was.
We’ll have only 11 people to dinner this year instead of the crowd of 20-25 we usually serve, so I’m actually looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving.
For the first time, I’ll be having another vegetarian to dinner (a relative’s boyfriend, who I’ve never met). My mother suggested I get one of the turkey-substitute products, just in case he might like it (“What, no turkey? What will you eat, aside from the beans and the stuffing and the posole and the sweet potatoes and the bread and the vegetables and salad and pie and…”). Has anyone here ever tried Tofurkey or Quorn roasts (the two I’ve seen in the health-food stores here)? Would you recommend either of them?
I’ve tried tofurkey. It’s suprisingly good.
We cooked our “practice” turkey last night, the one we got free from the supermarket. Traditional easy baked method, no stuffing, with a can of chicken broth poured in the body cavity to keep it moist. When it was done I cut off all the meat for dinner and leftovers, and today the carcass is going into the stew pot to make turkey soup. Next week we get our second turkey, the one I get free from work. It’s getting the same treatment, since we always spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s parents and aren’t asked to actually cook anything for the main meal.
I’ll be eating turkey sandwiches and turkey soup for weeks.
ummmmm, ya know, some people make turkey at other times of the year. It’s not like there’s a law saying you can only eat it on the 4th Thursday in November!
When I make it, I use the low, slow method. Start at 300 degrees for an hour, then drop the temp to 185 and leave it there till the internal bird temp is 185 - this coud take 12 hours more or less. Never dried out, always amazingly tender.
Good point, say, if I was gonna do my own turkey am I better off getting it during the Thanksgiving rush, or right after its over?