The turkey cooked in the oven bag does NOT take a long time, it cooks really fast (relatively speaking,) and is very juicy and falling-apart tender. Read the instructions on the oven bag box, you’d be surprised. My parents got the brilliant idea one year to roast the thing the night before, carve up, refrigerate, and resurrect in the oven the next day. Tasted like ass, with that re-warmed taste, but YMMV. Put enough gravy on it, lotsa side dishes, no one notices. (But I think turkey tastes lousy anyway, no matter how you cook it.)
This is where slow cookers can help a LOT. And they don’t have to be in the kitchen, even. Ask every group to bring a slow cooker (or two) and tell the group that they are in charge of the dish in the cooker, and packing up the leftovers from that cooker, and taking the cooker home.
Thank you, everyone.
This reminds me of the first Thanksgiving dinner my mother gave for her new inlaws. It was the first time she ever attempted baked alaska. :eek:
Stick with what you know.
Here’s a sample letter you can write to your guests asking them to bring some side dishes.
My dad’s family has pre-cooked the turkey for ages. My aunt who always hosts used to live in a house with a double wall oven, and between the smaller oven size and the other stuff she had going on, it was generally easier for someone else to do the turkey. You ever try to transport a hot turkey? It works for shit. So it got done the night before, broken down into large cuts, kept overnight, reheated at Aunt Barb’s next day, and then sliced and put on a serving plate. I’ve never noticed it being dry or icky or “tasting reheated” or in any other way worse than the turkeys my husband has roasted (well, aside from the differences that come with actually seasoning the damn thing.)
Sure, you lose out of that Norman Rockwell presentation in the dining room and having everything fresh-carved to order doing it this way. But when you’re doing a buffet in the kitchen and then retiring to folding tables, you worry far less about that sort of thing. And besides, it’s Thanksgiving. It’s not about the food. It’s about being with people you love and being grateful for what you have.
I say the same thing I say about changing any other holiday practice: if it’s going to make your holiday easier and less stressful, go for it. If you’re clinging to a tradition that makes you stressed and cranky and sucks the joy out of the celebration, you’re doing it wrong.
That statement is wrong on so many levels.
Food is the reason I prefer to host (despite the work) or attend Thanksgiving on my family’s side versus at my in-laws. I really don’t care which family I spend time with (as long as there is one room to watch football), but Thanksgiving especially has a host of home-made foods that just aren’t prepared other times of the year. And my side of the family, with it’s Italian (father) and southern-soul plus native American (mother) roots cooks so much better than my wife’s (Filipino) family, especially when preparing traditional American dishes.
What’s funny is while the letter is thoroughly ridiculous, I can easily imagine having conversations like this when doling out who’s bringing what. When my mom does thanksgiving, there’s always a call or two regarding who is going to bring their “favorite” recipe/dish. I tend to do pies, my sister sweet potatoes, etc. and someone has to be the clearing house of who brings what, so you don’t get 3 trays of green beans and no shrimp cocktail.
Being a poor deprived Brit we don’t have Thanksgiving but we do have turkey (and roast gammon) for Christmas dinner and for years I’ve been pre-cooking the meat. I can’t say I like it - mostly it works but I agree, visually it’s not the same and there is a danger of it being dry - but I’ve not found an alternative for our situation.
The problem is that the family gathering (14 people) and Christmas Dinner are at my SIL’s who has the biggest house but only has a single - smallish oven. For various reasons we don’t actually join them until Christmas Day. Net result there is neither the necessary oven(s) nor the time to cook a large turkey. I might look into the butterflied 45 minute roast mentioned up thread but I doubt that would work with the size of bird we need :dubious:
As to how to do it, I’ve tried covering with stock but - to me - this just tasted like a TV dinner- yuk! These day what I do is cut off the whole breast in one piece, carve it in thick slices, reassemble it and wrap in aluminium foil. The red meat I carve and make up into packs with scraps on the top and bottom. The scraps dry out but the slices stay moist and tender. Not saying this is perfect, I’d rather cook it fresh, but it does work.
I advocated for doing as the OP suggested in DiosaBellisma’s thread last week. My re-warmed turkey is AWESOME. So there. 
But anyway, reading through this thread reminds me of one the times I made the turkey at my home and transported it to my brother’s. He, in his own kitchen, roasted a duck. A duck! It was so exciting! Duck! And we got that cooking-bird smell.
So bring your turkey cut up and roast a duck on site. Tell 'em I sent ya.
How is the skin if you soak it in broth? The meat I can take or leave, but my favorite part is crispy skin.
StG
We never soaked it in broth, so I don’t know. We always just cut the breast meat off in two big hunks and the legs off, then put them in a foil-covered pan with a touch of broth to reheat.
Actually I am a super-taster for bitter and I find roast turkey to be bitter, like coffee or brussell sprouts. Yech.
My mom is actually a really good cook.
We’ve been using covered standalone electric roasters for years. Plug em in anywhere, temperature controlled, and leaves the oven free.
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Is that you, John? Since when did my brother move to Ohio?
That depends on the chef and how much time is put into the preparation.
The problem with a turkey is that it is huge, and if you are cooking more than just the turkey, it will be hard to fit in a refrigerator. But, if you have the facilities, you can brine the bird for 12-18 hours, then let air dry uncovered in the refrigerator for a similar amount of time. To help enhance the crispiness, rub with a small bit of baking powder (do NOT overdo it).
If you don’t have room for that, dry thoroughly with paper towels…lots and lots of paper towels. Then place in a roasting pan, breast side down and on ice (to cool the breast relative to the rest of the bird) and place in front of a fan for ~30 minutes before roasting. A little oil (or butter, but I prefer oil) will go a long way to helping obtain a decent skin.
Turkeys can also be dry-brined, but I have never tried that.
Note that I am talking about a brine, not simply a broth bath. I don’t soak in broth, though I guess that regular versions of broth may be saturated with enough salt to achieve the same result.
My electrologist is originally from England and we got to talking about holidays one day. I asked if she celebrated Thanksgiving, since she came to the US as an adult and doesn’t have the childhood memories and traditions. Boy, does she EVER. Apparently Turkey Day is her favoritest day of the year.