I feel the same way about “barbecue” when people use it as a synonym for “grill” or, even worse, “cooked in an oven and doused with BBQ sauce.” Actually, it’s the latter that peeves me, as I’ve come to accept “barbecue” and “grilling” to be synonyms around here, and ask for further clarification if there’s any ambiguity and it’s useful for me to know (rather than just nit picking for the sake of nit picking.) However, if you cook it in a crock pot and smother it with barbecue sauce, don’t call it barbecue, please.
No, dressing is something that is made to “dress” something else. So, the same etymological nitpick you are using against “stuffing” can be used against “dressing” since I don’t “dress” the turkey with “dressing.”
I don’t want to call the dish “savory bread side-dish with turkey flavors.” I’ll generally call it stuffing since that’s what it’s called where I live.
That one used to bug me too, but I gave it up for the additional reason that once you start into barbecue there are all sorts of schisms and sects even within the “all grillin’ ain’t barbecue” crowd - dry v wet, pork v beef, smoke v no-smoke, and don’t even start on charcoal v gas.
My personal opinion is that if it’s cooked outside on a grate directly over heat it’s grilled. If it’s cooked slowly over indirect heat and a smoking agent is used, it’s smoked. In either case, if you put a wet sugar-based sauce on it, it’s barbecued, otherwise it’s dry rubbed.
As for the meatballs (or whatever) in a crock pot, those are barbecue meatballs (i.e., meatballs in barbecue sauce) as opposed to barbecued meatballs (meatballs cooked with the barbecue method).
But I’m perfectly willing to admit that these are not orthodox definitions and could potentially put me in danger of physical harm in certain parts of the country. 
jsgoddess, okay fair enough. I did say it was a personal nit since I prefer one and not the other and the ambiguity causes unneeded disappointment on occasion. You did cause me to poke around a little bit and it appears that “dressing” only came into vogue during Victorian times and appears to have been used exclusively in reference to a food preparation placed inside another food. The only defense (other than regional) that I can offer for my preference of terminology is that you rarely hear of any other “stuffing” preparation called dressing (think stuffed peppers), it’s called stuffing or a completely generic term (mixture, preparation, etc). My original post was somewhat tongue-in-cheek and I obviously don’t really care what you call it since I probably won’t ever be at your house for dinner anyway.
Around here, most of the time if you would say dressing someone might ask if it’s ranch. 
Heh.
It never occured to me that people could confuse it with salad dressing. Silly Yankees.
Yeah, my definition is different. Barbecue is a cooking method: low and slow with wood, almost always involving some amount of smoke (this is the flavor of barbecue). Sauce doesn’t have anything to do with calling it barbecue. Barbecue can be made with a dry rub, it can be made with no rub, it can be made with any type of meat, with sauce, sans sauce, mopped, not mopped, etc. “Dry-rubbed” doesn’t describe anything except for the fact the meat was rubbed with a liberal amount of salt and spices. You can roast something dry-rubbed, you can grill it, you can barbecue it, etc.
The problem with this is, you’re assuming people pay as much attention to grammar as you and I do. I really doubt most menu writers or diners will pay attention to that “d.” Also likely, it will simply be rendered as “BBQ” on the menu, still leaving it ambiguous. Besides, I don’t think most people make that distinction. You’re far more likely to hear “barbecue ribs” referring to the real deal than “barbecued ribs” around here.
Your definition is probably closer to the “official” definition than mine is, but just seems overly pedantic to me (and yes, I see the hypocrisy here given where this conversation started). You also have the potential issue that it seems to me most people equate barbecue (or BBQ! ;)) more with the sauce and less with the method.
Either way, your barbecue is probably delicious - Thursday around 7 sound good for you? I’ll bring beer (and bourbon)! 
It depends on the part of the US you’re in. Here, anything goes, and for most people, it’s probably sauce that they equate with barbecue. Go to Texas or Memphis and call meat slathered in sauce, cooked in an oven, barbecue and it’s pistols at dawn.
As for pedantry, once again, it’s know your audience and local dialect. I personally don’t think the definition of barbecue is any more pedantic than the definitions of roasting, braising, broiling, cold-smoking, etc. I mean, if you order a roasted chicken at a restaurant, you don’t expect it to come out poached, do you? However, for whatever reason, barbecue’s definition has expanded in a lot of parts of the US, hence I’m mildly peeved about what was a useful definition to me becoming less precise and describing very different products, but I can’t fight language. Which brings us back to “dressing” and my reason for capitulating to using the word “stuffing,” since “dressing” will meet you with blank stares from many people around here.
edit: Oh, yeah, and anyone who brings beer and/or bourbon is automatically invited to participate in any dinners I may have.
Apparently (as jsgoddess has been gently educating me to recognize). Fortunately as I will never leave this region voluntarily it probably won’t ever affect me to any great degree. I will, however, strive to be more open-minded whenever my poor Northern brethren and sistren use “stuffing” incorrectly.
Dude, you don’t know the half of it, I just had my 40th a few months back and since I have a bad habit of buying stuff I fancy regardless of upcoming gift-giving events (a habit my wife may actually kill me for one day), most everyone just got me bourbon. I currently have a fantastic liquor cabinet!
Speaking of which, I simply cannot tell you how jealous I am that you have local access to a Whiskey Fest! I am hoping, one of these years, to make the Chi-Town show (but it won’t be 2009 probably :mad:).
What? I never heard of such a thing. I just looked it up online, and it looks like we’re up to the 9th annual. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for when the 2009 tickets go on sale. edit: Oh, looks like they are on sale. Hmmm…I think I know what I want for Christmas.
Sounds GREAT!
This sounds like it would be a great solution that wouldn’t really work for us. We have a detached garage that is actually a converted shed, so it’s not immune to critter invasion. Plus, remember we’re in Southern California where we do have some chilly nights, but nothing I would ever describe as cold enough to keep food out in without concern. And ice would melt too quickly to be of much, if any, help in that regard.
Sure, rub it in. Rub it in.
Seriously, glad I could point you toward it. I have a buddy who used to live in Chicago and he said it’s spectacular (and that the “premium” tickets are totally worth it. He also mentioned that if you join the “clubs” online (I know Maker’s Mark has one, there are probably others), then they often have special events/gifts at the show.
We will have to schedule a turkey throw down for after the holidays.
Maybe we could make it a dopefest (otherwise we are gonna have a lot of leftovers)
If anyone is interested, here is the link to my mods to Alton’s recipe (which I couldn’t find on the Food Network site today)
After a simple brine (kosher salt, dark brown sugar, peppercorns), I just put a little olive oil on the skin and cook according to the time & temp instructions given, taking the lid off the roasting pan about 30 minutes before done. It works great and is even moist the next day for sandwiches.
This is very close to how I do my bird. No brine, no turning it upside down, no oven bags. I make a butter-herb-salt & pepper paste that I put under the breast skin, and give the bird a good rubdown of oil/salt/pepper all over the skin. I don’t stuff the bird, but will fill the cavity with aromatics–a few branches each of rosemary, thyme, sage and oregano (all which grow in my garden), along with a half an onion and half a lemon. I stick a probe thermometer deep into the thigh. I preheat my oven to 500, and before the turkey goes in, I fashion a foil ‘shield’ that will fit the breast (if you’ve seen the *Good Eats *episode about turkey, you know what I’m talking about). The turkey goes in (sans foil), and I let it roast for 20 minutes at 500 to sear the skin. Then, I drop the temperature to 400, cover the breast with the foil, and leave it alone until the thermometer goes off at 161 degrees. Bird comes out, gets immediately transferred to a platter, and then covered well with foil–and it stays covered and left alone for at least 30 minutes before I even think of carving into it. Roasted meats need time to rest so the heat and the juices can redistribute.
I’ve done this for years, and my turkey has always been moist, well-seasoned, and looking picture-perfect. I did try brining before, but Chefguy’s is right–it ruins the drippings, IMHO. And, since I don’t cook my stuffing in the bird, and make gravy from scratch, drippings are liquid gold.
I do the ultra-traditional roasted turkey, uncovered, in a deep roasting pan.
Stuffed of course, although we also do baked dressing in a dish. Bread stuffing with sage.
Some water in the bottom of the pan to start with, and baste it every so often until done. I like the crispy bits of browned skin!
Looks good, Rick, and this is the way I’m gonna do it, but I was just in Kroger today and I couldn’t find vegetable stock. Plenty of chicken stock. Either they didn’t have it, I was looking in the wrong place or I’m missing something. Is vegetable stock pre-packaged like chicken stock is?
Also, Alton’s (and Rick’s) brine recipe looks like it’s about 2 gallons of liquid. Is this enough to completely cover a large turkey?
It is usually in the aisle with the soups and other stocks. I find it comes in quart packages just like other stocks.
Yes 2 gallons is enough to cover a big bird, especially if you use a bag to brine it in.