The title says it all. I think regular, oven-cooked, Thanksgiving turkey is about the most boring, bland meat imaginable. It tends to be dry and tasteless and looks disgusting as people tear at it like wild dogs. People always tell me that their XXXX cooks a great one. I don’t think that is possible based on what you start with. It wouldn’t bother me much if people just cooked it as a regular dish. Instead, turkey is THE centerpiece for a major holiday.
I know there are people out there that agree with me. What do you say?
Too many people (including my mom in past years) just dry it out. Because it’s such a huge piece of meat, it takes forever to thaw properly, and it’s so hard to tell exactly when it’s done. It’s basically a tradition at this point, but I’ve greatly preferred years where my family got a spiral-cut honey ham, grilled steaks and sausages in the back yard, or even ordered a feast of Cuban food for Thanksgiving.
I used to dislike it because it was too dry and flavorless but then realized my parents just don’t know how to cook turkey, nor, most likely, do the people preparing yours. Cooked right, it’s even better than chicken although still not as tasty as some of the other animals we eat.
Oven cooked, brined, fried, grilled, whatever, I’ve come to the conclusion that I really don’t like turkey very much. I don’t dislike it, because that seems like too strong an emotion to attach to something as bland as turkey. I’m voting “eh” on turkey.
We’re having pork roast for Thanksgiving dinner this year.
Sorry, I like it, twice a year. I must be lucky, I come from people who don’t know how to wreck a roast turkey. What I don’t like is whatever that is they call turkey that is served in restaurants. It’s an off-white, circular, rubbery, flavorless Mystery Meat. I don’t know what it’s made of, but it couldn’t have been a Butterball in any stage of its existence.
We’re not turkey fans at the brown household, either. I always buy a rack of lamb and roast it smeared with a mashed garlic/mustard/olive oil/rosemary rub. It’s our special ocasion roast.
I love turkey. My local supermarket sells turkey breasts along with their roasted chickens and there’s no comparison. Properly-cooked and flavored turkey is one of the best sandwich materials ever invented.
Well, all potentially conflicting imagery aside, why not Christmas? Yeah, a ham is more traditional, but you’ve still got Easter for ham. Or maybe get in on a seder.
If you mind is set like two week old concrete, I will not be able to change it. But if you think that just maybe there might be a way to good a turkey that is not dry and has flavor may I suggest You consult the other perfect master
The only change I make is instead of the oven I cook the bird on a Weber charcoal grill .
Year before last I did 2 20 pounders on two webers for 35 people at my sisters house. Most of these people said they were not wild about turkey. None of them had ever heard of doing a turkey on a charcoal grill. All of them now think I am a cooking god.
Trust me, do a turkey on a Weber and you will never put one in the oven again.
Ha! I could have written that OP. I don’t hate turkey; it’s tolerable but hardly the orgasmic taste sensation so many people make it out to be. My SO and I get ours pre-cooked from Whole Foods every year, so I’m reasonably certain it’s being done right, but it’s still about as tasty as your basic rice cake.
Incidentally, I feel the same way about steak. Pass the ketchup, please.
