Here’s our omnibus Thanksgiving thread. Got a question about how to roast a turkey? Ask here, and the teeming millions will answer.
OK, you asked about how to roast a turkey? Yeah you did. The answer is high-roast. 450 degrees F. You don’t need to brine. Brining leaves the turkey tasting like deli lunchmeat which is fine but not the way Thanksgiving turkey is supposed to taste. Just roast at very high heat for a short time.
I usually stuff compound butter under the breast skin–butter, salt, pepper, chopped fresh sage and garlic. Just carefully loosen the skin allllllll the way up and stuff a layer up in there. I also throw some chopped onion and sage in the cavity, because I don’t stuff the bird. I usually protect the breast meat with some aluminum foil for half the baking time, then remove the foil to brown the skin. This is the age old problem of roast turkey, the breast meat is done before the thigh meat.
Cook for about 12 minutes per pound, so a ten pound turkey will take about 2 hours. But of course you can’t go strictly by time, you’ve got to pay attention. Wiggle the leg and when the leg gets loose then it’s done.
OK, next question. What’s the best dessert to serve?
And the answer is pumpkin cheesecake. Except pumpkin cheesecake is much better when you use roasted sweet potatoes instead of pumpkin. 3 8-oz packages of cream cheese, 1 cup sugar. Mix together. Add spices–cinnamon, clove, nutmeg. Mash 2 roasted sweet potatoes, and mix in. Add 3 eggs and mix in–gently this time so you don’t incorporate too much air which will make the cake puff up in the oven and then fall. Pour into springform pan, or any pan. You can have a crust or not. Bake for about an hour until set, at 350F.
Turkey should be at room temperature before going into the oven
Dry bird inside and out
Salt inside the bird as well as outside
Use roasting rack
475 for 30 minutes, then 350
Don’t turn down the oven if bird gets too brown – put foil on it
Don’t baste, don’t open the oven to look at the bird
Thermometer goes between the leg and the breast
For a 14- to 16-pound turkey, check the temperature after 2.5 hours. For an 18- to 20-pound turkey, check the temperature after three hours. If it isn’t done, check again every 15 minutes.
Roast to 160 or 165
Let bird rest 15 minutes before carving
Carve half at a time – half the breast, one leg and one thigh
No, that’s a part of the answer. I’ve never had your pumpkin cheesecake, and I’m sure it’s quite good, but you also need apple pie, and cherry pie, and rhubarb pie, and non-cheesecake pumpkin pie, and non-pumpkin cheesecake, and pecan pie, and peach pie, and lemon meringue pie, and chocolate cream pie, and strawberry pie, and blackberry pie, and blueberry pie, and…
For the main course, putting the turkey in an oven bag really does work wonders. Also remember that gravy covereth for a multitude of sins: Almost any mistake in cooking Thanksgiving dinner can be fixed by covering it with gravy.
I agree with Chronos Johnson. Thanksgiving is all about the pie. As has become the tradition, this year Ma will make the pumpkin pie, per Grandmother’s recipe. I’ll make the pecan pie, because my recipe has been voted the family favorite. My aunt will bring the apple pie. I always make one new dessert, and it will likely be something like another pie.
Mmm. Pie.
In other news, we’re forgoing the rest of tradition this year. My brother decided, after four and a half decades of letting everyone else do the leg work, he’s cooking the main course. We’re having a Lowcountry boil, and my cousin will man the grill. I have no idea what he plans to cook. I just have to make bread and pie.
I agree with Lacunae Johnson about agreeing with Chronos Johnson. This year we’ll have pumpkin pie (of course), and pecan pie, and apple pie. There may be a cherry pie or two, and a sugar cream pie as well.
My family except for my husband insists that NO holiday meal is complete unless I make The Sweet Potatoes. It’s a recipe I got literally decades ago while we were visiting Williamsburg VA. It involves mixing cooked sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter, milk, and the same spices you’d put on pumpkin pie, baking the whole thing with a generous sprinkling of brown sugar on top.
I will make pies; haven’t decided what kind in addition to pumpkin.
There are other requirements: Cranberry sauce slipped out of the can so you can still see the ridges, turkey stuffed with Pepperidge Farm cubed stuffing. The year I tried a new stuffing recipe from scratch I really caught holy heck.
They will not complain too much if I add a new item, but the essentials have to be there.
I always smoke the turkey in the grill, despite the sometimes freezing weather. It comes out wonderful! However, this year, we’re having a debate – we use a kosher turkey, so it’s already salted and we’ve never had to brine. However, we’ve recently heard that even a kosher turkey can be improved by brining (without salt. I know, seems a oxymoron.) Any opinions here?
I could use some advice. I’m bringing the family over to my dad’s house for the clan gathering, and I’ve been kinda dragooned into making a Waldorf salad. Except I’ve never made a Waldorf Salad. I suppose I could join Netflix and watch all of the episodes of Fawlty Towers until I get to the one where Basil has to try to figure out how to make one for the irritable American guest at the hotel. But I’m going to ask here first.
Diced apples, okay.
Toasted walnut pieces, okay.
Lemon juice to prevent the apples browning, okay
Mayonnaise as the dressing, okay.
Grapes or raisins?
Is it permissible to add some craisins (dried cranberries) to the salad, or is that just showing off?
This dish has been a family staple for decades. As I’ve related elsewhere on the Dope in the past, the one time it wasn’t served there was a near riot at the dinner table.
**Note: **with the exception of the spinach, buy brand name for sour cream and soup mix. Non or low-fat sour cream doesn’t cook well, and generic onion soup is gawdawful.
SCUBAQUEEN’S FABULOUS SPINACH CASSEROLE
[SIZE=“1”](okay, so it’s not really mine, but with grandmother and mother having passed on, sis and I get to claim it for ourselves)[/SIZE]
3 pkgs frozen chopped spinach
One container of sour cream - 14-16 oz
2 pkgs Lipton Onion Soup Mix.
Thaw the spinach in the microwave for about 20 minutes. Thoroughly drain off any water, then dump in a large mixing bowl. Add sour cream, blend, then add the two pkgs of soup mix and blend well.
I make it anywhere from two to four days in advance so the ingredients can set, then bake the night before.
The key to this dish is long and low: three to four hours uncovered at 275 to 300 degrees.
It’ll serve six to eight peeps, depending upon the spinach love.
Crap. I didn’t notice that we’re in Cafe Society, not MPSIMS.
ScubaQueen, that recipe sounds really interesting. I’m now wondering whether the Knorr soup spinach dip ingredients could be adapted to that technique…
On pie: if you’re making pumpkin pie with caramelized praline topping, when the instructions say to place under the broiler for only one minute, THEY MEAN IT. Ask me how I know.
(We went out and bought fire extinguishers the next day.)