Although Thanksgiving is a meal where changes are not allowed according to my family, this year I did the heritage turkey. I brined it and roasted it in the Nesco, because the oven was busy with other things.

The turkey was delicious, moist, juicy. However, because the heritage birds cook more quickly and evenly without those overblown breasts, I was reluctant to stuff the bird like I usually do. So, for the first time ever, I made dressing and baked it in a separate pan in the oven. I made stock with the necks and giblets to moisten the bread, started with butter, celery, onion, fresh sage.

In spite of the broth it didn't taste like turkey, it tasted like greasy bread with onions and celery. It wasn't moist, like my family likes, and the edges were particularly dry and crunchy.

To add insult to injury, the aromatics in the turkey cavity included fresh rosemary from the herb garden. The gravy was made with the juices from the turkey and tasted more like rosemary than turkey. I should have known better, I don't even like to add carrots, onions, etc. to the pan because I want the gravy to taste like turkey and not vegetables.

So, instead of moistening the stuffing with the gravy no one ate the stuffing or the gravy. It all went into the pig bucket and the pigs ate well and the mashed potatoes were topped with butter instead of gravy.

Oh, and I scorched the sweet potatoes because I wasn't paying attention to them, I was focused on trying to make the stuffing edible. Ugh. Failed on both counts, and the pigs got the sweet potatoes too. Sigh.

Never again. From now on I'm stuffing the turkey.

On the upside, I made a cranberry apple relish that Madi loved, she called it "applesauce".

Oh, and I put too much cinnamon in the pumpkin pie too.

Annie

Duplicate post deleted.

This post was edited by annie1992 on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 0:43

Linda, it has more to do with the bird that you cooked than the air drying. Air drying just dries the skin,making it crisp up more. It doesn't cause lack of pan drippings.

I've had turkeys that give off a lot of juice for drippings and some that give almost nothing.

The most expensive turkey I ever bought, was a Heritage bird and it had so little fat and gave off almost no drippings for making gravy. Big disappointment.

Annie regardless of what didn't go quite right, I bet everyone enjoyed your dinner.

~Ann

I presalted my first turkey this year.....we celebrated today and it was probably the best turkey I have ever cooked......been married for 51 years.
Along with CSA vegetables......Brussels's sprouts, carrots and leeks, mashed potatoes, rutabegas and great stuffing our meal was wonderful.
Lots of pan juices, too.
Sorry yours didn't turn out better.

Actually, you had succeeded in making a great turkey.

Spatchcocked and air dried turkey requires much less time to cook, therefore no drippings.

Guess where the drippings come from? They come from the meat. Meat shrinks when cooked at high temperature and long cooking time, giving you the drippings. The more drippings, the drier the meat.

Don't make the turkey give out drippings. They sell lots of turkey necks and wings at TG time for you to make all the gravy you need.

Speaking of stuffing, I see this mistake make by famous chefs all the time:

What to do if you stuff a turkey to have the stuffing cooked without overcooking the bird? You precook the stuffing first before stuffing the bird.

Wrong!!!

The stuffing may be cooked, but it will soak up raw turkey juicy inside, and the juice will not be cooked in the stuffing.

dcarch

This post was edited by dcarch on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 8:51

My sister always makes extra stuffing in the oven, which is never nearly as tasty as what comes out of the bird. I told her about the crock pot idea - this time she put the extra stuffing in the crockpot, with an extra turkey leg on top. It came out moist & tasty - mixed all the stuffing together & it was much better than usual. We bring the mashed potatoes, so this year we transported them in a crock pot & kept them warm until we ate. I also used the crock pot to make cranberry sauce a day ahead. To summarize, the crock pot idea was great, and freed up room in my sister's oven.

Annie, when things start going down hill ....... So sorry you had such a bad cooking day. Bet no one went away hungry.

Annie, I'm so sorry some things didn't go well for you. Don't feel bad. I scorched my pumpkin pie. I was baking it the night before and DH decided he wanted a mini pizza. I though, hum, I can put the pumpkin pie in the new roaster to finish up. Well, it was a great idea, but I left it in too long. That roaster works really well. Anyway, the pie had deep brown, almost black spots all over the top, but later DH cut a piece of it and declared it really good. I baked another pumpkin pie the next morning which turned out great. The turkey turned out so much better done in the roaster. It was so moist and really did have crispy skin which surprised me.

Oh, and by the way, we don't have children, but always have Thanksgiving here. Got a turn down from my sister because she had already accepted another invitation, but didn't hear from the niece or her father, who is a very good friend. When I saw my niece (sister's daughter) on a chat, I asked if she'd gotten my email inviting them. Well, she'd planned on having a dinner at her house, but we could come if we wanted to. Needless to say, I cried for two days. After trying to keep family together for so many years, we were not invited.

I pre-salted a little Costco organic turkey for the first time, and like Carol, it was probably the best turkey we've ever had. I roasted it on a rack of celery stalks and onion quarters and tossed some garlic cloves and half-frozen rosemary, sage and thyme from the yard inside. There wasn't a lot of pan juices until it was nearly done, then there was enough for some great gravy, even if I did break tradition and thicken with cornstarch.

In deference to The Kid's gluten-freeness and BF's food intolerances I cooked the stuffing outside the bird...not great, but ok. I had some broth from the neck and giblets and also used homemade chicken broth, but still too dry. Next year I'll plan ahead...if there's enough broth from the carcass after turkey croquettes and tetrazzini, I'll freeze some. Otherwise I'll find some parts and make a rich broth ahead of time. I like Elba's turkey leg on top/crockpot idea.

Oh, and no pie...Liana made GF pumpkin pie cupcakes...sort of like pumpkin pie filling, but not, lol. They were good but needed more spice.

When did that debate start? To 'stuff' or not. Probably back in the 70's. My mother would stuff
her mushy mess, turkeys were always overdone. Take the stuffing out of the bird, casserole it, and bake it while dad made the white gravy with all that juice.
A turkey pumped with water from the get go and way too big, etc.
And over stuffed. Messing up the cooking time and 'stuffing' had raw egg, bla bla.
Being stuffed it took forever to cook. Over cooked meat, under cooked stuffing....

This year we even did the 'duck, duck, goose' discussion that started two weeks ago...do we travel, have friends over, wait for the weather report, stay home and not do turkey?
Stayed home, got a small turkey and did it our way... also have a duck to rotis tomorrow. No stress. Turkey was 130 after 2 hours, turned it down to 220. Perfect?
Who cares. It was good, gravy was fantastic as were the sides. The way we like it and DH will get his duck...no complaints.
Never understood the up-at-5am and get the bird in the oven. Cook for hours...

We just stuck with our tradition. No fuss, no butter soaked and draped cheesecloth. No basting...I prepped ahead and was a bit bored for a while and made seed suet for the yard birds, lol. I did not have the usual yack-attack with family/friends (non cooks) resting in front of the sink, clogging the cooking triangle with a glass of wine...just when we need the peace and focus to get it all on the table. Just the two of us for the first time in years, so it was easy and perfect. I prepped ahead like i always have. A shallow brine overnight, breast exposed and salted...

My 'stuffing' /dressing, is cooked by the nature of the recipe and just put in about two cups for DH. I don't like it that way, but it does 'cook'. I get a good bird no bigger that 12lbs. If a crowd is coming, i do something on the rotis, a couple ducks or a goose.

I was tempted to try other methods and have a bit of fun with it, but needed some traditional calm this year.

I did miss the social chaos, but we had a family reunion a few weeks ago, so we are content and warmed by that nice visit.

I don't like hearing about minor failures or disappointments i suppose. Or any stress, as it is often enough with a crowd of family/friends, and can be socially deformed by personality conflict.

I think sticking with simplicity and known recipes that are easy and comforting, making minor adjustments, and as much prep ahead as possible is the best way. I made two new apps that were fun, since everything else is a well known tried and true/tested.

I think sticking with simplicity and known recipes that are easy and comforting, making minor adjustments, and as much prep ahead as possible is the best way.

Amen. For a holiday that is so focused on food, I can say that the quality of the food is the last thing on my mind. I've attended the same Thanksgiving meal my whole life. Thoughout this 44 year experience the venue has moved from my grandmother's house to my aunts', and finally to my cousin's. She's a wonderful and experimental cook but learned early on that making adjustments to the menu is just not worth it. Over the years we've added to the group with marriages and babies, and lost from the group with relocations, divorces, deaths and estrangements. But the end result is about the same, a low to mid twenties count, for many of whom this is the only time of year they see their extended family. At 22 this year was no exception.

I stopped by my cousin's house an hour before invited to drop off beer as I was heading to my wife's family for a couple hours before dinner. My intention was a quick fly-by but we arrived at a very relaxed house where we were invited to hang out for a bit. We sat down and chatted with my cousin while her husband took my kids out to toss a football around.

Did I wonder or care about the food? No. I knew what was in store, a turkey that was either dry or drier, depending on luck, and predictable sides. We left to spend a couple great hours with my wife's family, came back for dinner and were the last to leave. Wife and I agreed it was one of the best Thanksgivings we've had together.

How was the food? I honestly can't recall.

Bravo, Bravo, FOAS (wishing I could stand up to applaud you!)

I've been terribly ill for the last two months. Family gathering. Whole nine yards. Our T-day dinner? Mashed potatoes with gravy made from chix stock. That's all that could be mustered. It was wonderful. T-day is not about food.

/tricia

This post was edited by triciae on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 15:35

We brined our bird (the Alton Brown method)as we have for many years but this year I had a Butterball turkey. I heard on the radio and interview by a Butterball expert and she said never to brine a butterball because they are pre-salted/moistened and brinning would make it too salty.

Well, I brined anyway and just made sure to soak it in several changes of clean water. It wasn't at all salty and we had the best turkey I think we ever had. BUT - it only took 3 hrs. to cook! We cooked it at 500 deg. for 30 minutes then covered it and turned the heat down to 325 for 2 1/2 hrs. It was a 22# turkey and we were surprised it got done so quickly!

I have always said that the food is secondary and the company primary, but you'd think I could pull together a meal for 9 people without letting one change throw off that much of the meal, geez.

Now I'm baking Madi's birthday cake. It took me all darned day to bake and decorate one cake and 2 dozen cupcakes.

My "new" kitchen looks much better but it's nearly impossible to actually do anything in. Removing that big orange built in table also removed about half of my counter space and I'm just not adjusting well.

Madonna, it's funny about family. Dad seemed to be the "glue" that held family together, and with his death and all the family contention, it's difficult to get anyone together, let alone everyone. I try to get everyone together for a Christmas Eve meal, that means my sister and her kids and my brother and his kids and me and my kids. That way my mother who is 78 only has to drive to one function, instead of making numerous trips all over this part of the state, so you'd think we could all cooperate because of that. But no. My sister has pretty much everyone in the family angry at her. My brother recently had a stroke and it's hard for him to drive. His daughters both work at the same place and only one of them can get off. My sister's daughter is in jail and won't be out, her son doesn't have a car. Sigh. I'll be there, with my girls and grandkids but I can't count on anyone else.

Mother didn't make it to Thanksgiving either. We got 5 inches of snow and I knew she wouldn't drive in it, and she shouldn't have. She called and said she had a sore throat and thought she was contagious, she's too vain to say that she doesn't like to drive in snow any more, because someone will say "at her age", LOL.

So, my brother is 60 and my sister is 56 and they don't appear interested in keeping family functions going either. Maybe you should just come here for Thanksgiving. I promise next time I'll make edible gravy and you can bake the pie. (grin) At least the roaster works well.

Annie

This post was edited by annie1992 on Sat, Nov 30, 13 at 20:33

Oh bcskye, I am feeling for you. I'm so sorry - please know that it certainly was not because of all your yearly efforts. I just read in an advice column of a similar incident. The column author commented out that people in their earlier (20s - 40s, at least) stages are not particularly interested in family until they become middle-aged themselves.

Hugs to you, Kathleen

We don't like turkey and so had a pork crown roast made-up at the butcher. I've never made one before, but was a bit surprised at how it looked. When I got home I checked the weight only to find that it was less than 5 lbs .... 3 lbs less than minimum needed. I was able to take it back and have them do it correctly. At just under 10 lbs it was a beautiful 'crown', roasted perfectly, and everyone ate their fill with only a few leftovers.

This year I spent the night before Thanksgiving sick and wasn't feeling much better when I got up. We were expecting 5 for a sit down noon meal and 15 for leftovers in the evening (DH was in charge of plans!). I had tried many (mostly unsuccessful) methods with the turkey. This year, I put some vegetable oil on it, programmed the "recipe" function on the oven and let it go. It was great. Nicely browned and moist. I'm a believer.

Thank you, Annie and Kathleen. In the last two days I've heard more about the younger people not giving two hoops in.....well, you know, about family traditions and getting together with the elders. My sister is 9 years younger than me and I expected a little more from her. There are just her, her daughter with her two kids and her ex-husband left in this area.

You better watch it, Annie, 'cause I'd be very tempted to take you up on your offer. I do usually cook very good pies and other things, too, but we deserve to slide every so often. Seriously, next year we very well might be in a warmer state which would make my husband extremely happy.

I did burn the rolls, but that seems to have become a tradition. :) I also didn't think I put enough sage in the dressing. Oh well, such is life. We had a great time and those who wanted to do so spent the afternoon and evening around a fire shooting clay birds.

In lieu of poultry (son-in-law has severe allergies), we had ham with a cherry glaze that turned out well.

I've come to the conclusion that we all need to mess up at least one dish for each special dinner in order to be human. cooking2day, you are welcome to the crowd. I really would like to fix a ham with a cherry glaze for Christmas. I've had enough turkey for a while.

Madonna