Questions about "The Bird"

[jennyema]

IIf you want a poultry taste, you can use poultry seasoning - depends on the recipe. .

Poultry seasoning doesn't make the stuffing taste like poultry though. I make my stuffing with unsalted turkey broth, which gives it a great turkey flavor.

 

[west coast smoker]

one more cook for the soup


Looks like there is a million ideas on this so I will add my turkey to the conversation. I do the brining, using an ice chest left outside in the shed overnight. Then I stuff the bird, old family recipe that is cooked before stuffing. Then I fire up my Weber and cook it indirectly. I have found that covering the turkey with cheesecloth and keeping that moist with a white wine/butter concoction helps to keep the skin from turning black and the breast moist. For the last 40 minutes or so take the cheesecloth off and let the skin brown. YUMMY, my wife won''t even let me cook one in the oven anymore.

 

[paddfoot]

I have to disagree with this. I've been stuffing my turkeys for many, many years and my mother and grandmother before me and my turkey does not dry out. The breast meat is always juicy. I make up my stuffing the night before and don't stuff it until right before I put it in the oven. There is nothing in my stuffing to deem it unsafe. Putting the stuffing in the turkey does give it a better flavor than just putting it in a casserole. I always have some leftover that I just bake and it does lack the turkey flavor. My turkeys are usually 20 to 24 pounders.

Barb

ok, i'll sacrifice the aded turkey flavor (which i will get from the TURKEY and lessen my chances of sending my consumers to the JOHN for the next 48 hours,

finesse is nothing more than science not understood.

 

[homecook]

ok, i'll sacrifice the aded turkey flavor (which i will get from the TURKEY and lessen my chances of sending my consumers to the JOHN for the next 48 hours,

finesse is nothing more than science not understood.

To each his own.....I've never sent anyone to the JOHN after my turkey dinners and I've been doing it well over 20 years! Do what you want.

Barb

 

[GB]

To each his own.....I've never sent anyone to the JOHN after my turkey dinners and I've been doing it well over 20 years! Do what you want.

Barb

Not to belabor the point, but how do you know? Do your guests tell you when they go to the John? They could be affected up to 72 hours after eating. Are they telling you 3 days later what their bathroom habits are?

I am not trying to be a jerk. I am just trying to point out that we do not always know if our cooking habits are negatively affecting people. The only way to really know if someone got food poisoning is for a doctor to do a blood test. Short of that, we are all just guessing.

Edited to add: I am not saying you have ever made anyone sick. It is very possible and even very probable that you have not. I am just saying that none of us can really know that for sure without a blood test.

 

[Laury]

Although I haven't seen this subject discussed, but I HATE the practice of injecting a salt solution into meats and poultry. It changes the whole character of the meat and takes away my control of how much salt there is in the drippings. I much prefer to have the meat flavor in its natural state. I find this in pork roasts and turkey and in store roasted rotisserie chickens. I have not tried brining and probably won't. My turkeys, stuffed and unstuffed have all turned out moist and flavorful. AND the drippings make wonderful gravy, which is food of the gods!

 

[Robo410]

I haven't cooked anything but a fresh bird for years. Recently got into the free range thing and won't go back to caged critters...the taste is quite different.

Brining is great, but so is dry seasoning the day before. Injecting should also work fine. An herb butter or broth would be nice.

Your stuffing creation is your imagination and your likes. Some like fruit like apples in their stuffing. Sausage is great. I add leftover wild rice and chopped pecans, and also do an oyster one for those of us who like it.

I always stuffed the bird until last year. My stuffing was fine baked in a caserole, and my bird was awesome (cavity filled with onion garlic celerey etc).. you can cook the turkey a little less when unstuffed (it comes to safe temp more quickly and you don't have to wait for the middle of the stuffing to get there.)

Anyway...sounds like you got good ideas there so enjoy the day and the feast!

 

[jennyema]

Although I haven't seen this subject discussed, but I HATE the practice of injecting a salt solution into meats and poultry. It changes the whole character of the meat and takes away my control of how much salt there is in the drippings. I much prefer to have the meat flavor in its natural state. I find this in pork roasts and turkey and in store roasted rotisserie chickens. I have not tried brining and probably won't. My turkeys, stuffed and unstuffed have all turned out moist and flavorful. AND the drippings make wonderful gravy, which is food of the gods!

I don't like it either. But if you check the labels, you can choose meats that haven't had sodium added.

I always brine my Thanksgiving turkeys. Brined turkeys give you great gravy, too.

 

[PieSusan]

I am extremely concerned about food safety as well but this thread seems to be getting a bit heated for my taste. I have even had food poisoning after eating over at someone's house so you don't have to tell me about proper prepping and cooking techniques. However, even Alton Brown has changed his mind about stuffing a bird. Stuffing is no longer evil.

And by the way, what is called "brining" is nothing more than what is done during the koshering process unless you are adding aromatics and other flavorings. In fact, Shirley O'Corriher explains the science of osmosis.

However you choose to make you Thanksgiving turkey, let's not forget what the holiday is truly about. May you have more blessings than you can count and close friends and family to share the day with.

 

[jennyema]

I am extremely concerned about food safety as well but this thread seems to be getting a bit heated for my taste. I have even had food poisoning after eating over at someone's house so you don't have to tell me about proper prepping and cooking techniques. However, even Alton Brown has changed his mind about stuffing a bird. Stuffing is no longer evil.

And by the way, what is called "brining" is nothing more than what is done during the koshering process unless you are adding aromatics and other flavorings. In fact, Shirley O'Corriher explains the science of osmosis.

However you choose to make you Thanksgiving turkey, let's not forget what the holiday is truly about. May you have more blessings than you can count and close friends and family to share the day with.

Stuffing a turkey is perfectly safe as long as you cook the stuffing to a temp of 165. If the stuffing doesn't reach that temperature, it's a potential source of food poisoning.

Depending on how you stuff the turkey and what you stuff it with, it sometimes takes longer to get the stuffing to 165 than it takes to fully cook the breast meat. This can result in an overcooked bird. What many people do is take the turkey out when its done, remove the stuffing and put it back in the oven to fully cook.

Brining a turkey is a different than koshering, as the bird stays in the brine for a lot longer than it does in the koshering process.

Corriher, McGee and other food scientists who have studied brining suggest that it involves a process much more complex than osmosis. The process draws in moisture, holds it in the cells and relaxes the protein strands.

IMO it's a great way to ensure a juicy, flavorful bird.

 

[homecook]

Not to belabor the point, but how do you know? Do your guests tell you when they go to the John? They could be affected up to 72 hours after eating. Are they telling you 3 days later what their bathroom habits are?

I am not trying to be a jerk. I am just trying to point out that we do not always know if our cooking habits are negatively affecting people. The only way to really know if someone got food poisoning is for a doctor to do a blood test. Short of that, we are all just guessing.

Edited to add: I am not saying you have ever made anyone sick. It is very possible and even very probable that you have not. I am just saying that none of us can really know that for sure without a blood test.

GB, I understand exactly what you're saying and I appreciate the comments.
No I don't ask my friends or family 3 days later if they happened to get sick after eating at my house. But, if anyone did get sick I know my family and friends well enough that they would have called me to ask if any one else had gotten sick because they themselves must have "picked up something". Thinking it was the flu or something. That has never happened. I'm not saying it couldn't but to date it hasn't. My mom has a compromised immune system so I know I have to really watch things.
I don't want to belabor the point either............some people stuff and some don't. lol It's your choice. I'm not taking your comments lightly.

Barb

 

[DramaQueen]

Not to belabor the point, but how do you know? Do your guests tell you when they go to the John? They could be affected up to 72 hours after eating. Are they telling you 3 days later what their bathroom habits are?

I am not trying to be a jerk. I am just trying to point out that we do not always know if our cooking habits are negatively affecting people. The only way to really know if someone got food poisoning is for a doctor to do a blood test. Short of that, we are all just guessing.

Edited to add: I am not saying you have ever made anyone sick. It is very possible and even very probable that you have not. I am just saying that none of us can really know that for sure without a blood test.

I have to agree with everything you said here. With the tons of food presented at anyone's Thanksgiving table, it would be difficult to pinpoint what exactly made someone, or everyone sick. Food poisoning comes in varying degrees, some severe, some cases very light, but very few people will tell you thier bathroom habits and yes, it takes up to 72 hours for symptoms to appear.


On the up side to this, my mother in law, back in the 40's 50's, 60s and 70's stuffed her turkey with meat stuffing, THE DAY BEFORE, SO THE WORK WOULD BE DONE BY THKGVG MORnING WHEN SHE PUT THE TURKEY IN THE ROASTER. SHE PUT THE TURKEY ON HER SUNPORCH OVER NIGHT. Now granted in Michigan the sunporch IS cool, but the temp never got below 50 degrees because it was totally enclosed with glass. I don't know how we didn't all die but we survived. No one would do such a thing today. AND I have to admit that even with a ton of stuffing in her 22-25 lb. birds they all came out juicy.


She made a lot of stuffing because we all loved it so much, and she would wrap the extra in a clean piece of bedsheet (she bought one just for this purpose thank you ) and layed the bundle next to the turkey in the roaster so it would soak up the juices.

 

[SunnyFL]

Frozen turkey?

I plan on making about a 12-14 turkey and am wondering -- if I buy one frozen solid how long does it take to thaw in the refrigerator. I mean, today is Friday, if I buy one over the weekend and put it in the refrig -- will it be okay to cook on Thanksgiving Day? I know it will be thawed out by then, but will it still be good? The last few years I've picked up a "fresh" turkey from a local market, but am getting a frozen one this year.

Thanks!

 

[Laury]

Oh yes, it will be just fine. I've done it that way many times and it will be delicious. It takes a good couple or three days for it to thaw, so it won't be sitting there completely thawed for very long at all.

 

[DramaQueen]

I plan on making about a 12-14 turkey and am wondering -- if I buy one frozen solid how long does it take to thaw in the refrigerator. I mean, today is Friday, if I buy one over the weekend and put it in the refrig -- will it be okay to cook on Thanksgiving Day? I know it will be thawed out by then, but will it still be good? The last few years I've picked up a "fresh" turkey from a local market, but am getting a frozen one this year.

Thanks!

I've always bought 2 12 lb. turkeys and it always took 5 days to defrost. There were still ice crystals deep inside on T'giving Day. This year I bought a 22 lb. (it was only 6.00 and I couldn't pass up the bargain). I put it in my fridge last night and I'll be lucky if it's completely thawed by next Thursday. Give it enough time. My fridge is set at 38 degrees.

 

[paddfoot]

Not to belabor the point, but how do you know? Do your guests tell you when they go to the John? They could be affected up to 72 hours after eating. Are they telling you 3 days later what their bathroom habits are?

I am not trying to be a jerk. I am just trying to point out that we do not always know if our cooking habits are negatively affecting people. The only way to really know if someone got food poisoning is for a doctor to do a blood test. Short of that, we are all just guessing.

Edited to add: I am not saying you have ever made anyone sick. It is very possible and even very probable that you have not. I am just saying that none of us can really know that for sure without a blood test.

good point

 

[deelady]

I grew up with my parents always stuffing our turkey before putting it into the oven, but since I have been doing my own Thanksgivings (a mere 14 yrs...a babe I know!) I prefer to make my stuffing and keep in seperate and stuff my turkey with aromatics instead i.e. onion or shallots, fresh herbs, a lemon, sometimes an apple and seasoning as well as placing the turkey on a bed of root veggies to help with aromatics and flavoring the gravey. I can honestly say my turkeys have ALWAYS turned out much more moist than my family's and I always asumed it was as was said before due to the stuffing drawing out the juices and adding to the cooking time! My turkeys always only cook aprox 3 4 hrs the most depending on weight but I remember my parents cooking theirs for at least 6 hrs!! Yeah, they were pretty dry....the turkeys as well as my parents!

Last year I made a Miso Rubbed turkey for the first time and it was wonderful...super moist! Have recipe if anyone is interested!

 

[deelady]

I've always bought 2 12 lb. turkeys and it always took 5 days to defrost. There were still ice crystals deep inside on T'giving Day. This year I bought a 22 lb. (it was only 6.00 and I couldn't pass up the bargain). I put it in my fridge last night and I'll be lucky if it's completely thawed by next Thursday. Give it enough time. My fridge is set at 38 degrees.

I saw a wonderful tip the other day from Alton Brown on quickly thawing a turkey (about 4 hrs) by placing it in a bucket and allowing cold water from a tub or sink to SLOWLY trickle onto the bird....I forgot the term he used but the slow trickle creates some sort of reaction causing it to thaw faster.

 

[GB]

You don't even need the trickle. Thawing in cold water is the quickest safest way to thaw food aside from microwaving which can give undesirable results.

 

[Michelemarie]

I use this recipe for the turkey and make my own stuffing in a pan. It always produces a terrific turkey. Juicy and delicious.

You can add turkey flavor to the stuffing by using turkey broth when making the stuffing.

Injecting can add great flavors too. I wouldn't do both injecting and brining.

I think I am going to try this brine this year - I have one question - the recipe says to brine for 6 hours -- last year I brined over night - I really don't want to get up at the crack of dawn and I really don't want to stay up too late the night before - has anyone used this recipe and left the bird in longer than 6 hours?