Today was another prep day for Thursday's dinner. From my checklist for Tuesday:

- Finish turkey thawing and clean it. (It was thawed). Check.
- Boil turkey neck and gizzard in turkey stock. Check.
- Roast sweet potatoes for pie. Check.
- Chop celery and onions for dressing. Check.
- Take homemade bread for stuffing out of freezer and slice up when thawed. Check.
- Tip, tail, blanch green beans. Check.
- Prep mushrooms for casserole. (chop into 1/2" pieces). Check.
- Make pie dough for both sweet potato pie and apple galette. Check

Tomorrow's list includes assembling the green bean casserole, cutting the stuffing bread into cubes and mixing in the dry herbs (I like to let that season up overnight), baking the pies and getting out the dishes, serving bowls, silverware etc for Thursday.

I thaw the turkey in its original unopened bag in a cooler of ice water with the temp maintained between 4o-45F. A 16lb turkey takes four days with this method. It went into the cooler last Friday afternoon and by this morning it was ready. That way it doesn't hog up space in the refrigerator!

Chewing on my grilled chicken and the last of the rice.

The turkey was put in the refrigerator last week on Friday I think to thaw.
Took it out of the bag removed neck and goodies.
Added 1.5 ounces of insta cure and 4.5 ounces of salt to two gallons of water and dropped the turkey in.
It will brine until Thursday.
The 1.5 ounces of insta cure is 1/4 the normal amount used to cure meat.
Which is 3 ounces per gallon.
So basically I used 6 ounces of salt to two gallons of water.
Not a lot but you can taste the salt.
The turkey weight was 14.91 pounds.
Allrecipes called for a cup of kosher salt per gallon of water.
To me that's an incredible amount of salt even for just a 24 hour soak.

Haven't bought a turkey yet.

I prepared the apple/orange cranberry sauce today, let it cool and refrigerated it...my wife says the taste improves with age.

Cut up bread cubes for stuffing and put them in the dehydrator to dry.

In another post, someone mentioned using a buttermilk based brine and so after looking it up, I figured it was worth a try. So I heated up the water, added the spices and salt, and set it aside to cool. Later I stirred the buttermilk into the spice/salt mixture, poured it into a brining bag inside of a large cooking pot, added the 15# turkey and sealed the bag. Then I cleared out enough space in the refrigerator for the pot which will stay until Thursday morning.

Tonight I am triple checking all the recipes to make sure that I have all the ingredients before the big day arrives...

Tri-tip. Scalloped potatoes, asparagus, bochet mead.

Going to eat the last of the roasting hen I grilled this weekend.
Yes it's poultry right before Thanksgiving but not flavored like Thanksgiving
Going the Indian Asian curry route for supper.
Been purposely staying away from traditional American flavored food for a week.

I always like to eat non poultry meals right before Thanksgiving. Last night was chili and tonight was chili left overs for him and ratatouille from the freezer for me.

We also tried the cranberry relish that we made ahead for tomorrow and it was good.

I'll be cooking my turkey in a cast iron skillet.
How am I going to pull that off?

Chicken Tikka Masala.
No recipe followed but I know the players and the rules.
And I have the spices no need for store run.

Boudin and Prasek’s Beef/pork with Jalapeño sausage. Daughter the cowgirl made sausage balls. Surprise visit! Sausage balls have bisquick, fresh ground pork, seasonings like ground ginger, ground coriander, rubbed sage, brown sugar, and shredded cheddar cheese. Kind of addictive. These sausage balls are evidently the preferred snack for bachelorette weekends floating on a river. Works well for pre-Thanksgiving stomach stretching.

Finally bought a turkey, just brought it home. Small one, just 10 lbs. Cost me about 9.00, and it's fresh, not frozen, so I can cook it on Friday. I won't makek a full Thanksgiving feast, its just me here, but I do love Turkey sandwiches with leftover Turkey. Shoot forgot to pick up some fresh thyme. I am used to having it in the herb garden and I forgot there won't be any there now because it has finally gotten really winter cold here in the last 2 days, in the 20's. Bummer. We will see if I decide it is worth it to make a trip out to get it on Friday before I cook it. Have to cook it Friday since I am working Sat-Sun-Mon. My absolutely favorite way to cook a turkey is to make a compound butter with thyme and lemon and loosen up the skin and smear it between the skin and the meat before cooking it so the meat gets basted in butter, lemon and thyme while it cooks. Making myself hungry now, lol.

@brownrexx
As promised cooking in skillet.
A 17 inch cast iron skillet.
Using scrap ceiling grid wire from work for roasting rack/turkey hammock.
Doing the final fit and finish
Don't want the bird swimming in its own juices on the bottom.

I don't know @worth1 How is the top of that bird going to get hot enough to cook?

I found the pickled okra at my local store yesterday. It is not the Texas brand. Surprisingly it is a PA Dutch brand but Walmart is about 15 miles away so I bought this one.

Hubby liked it but I didn't like the texture of such large okra myself.

brownrexx wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 7:56 am I don't know @worth1 How is the top of that bird going to get hot enough to cook?

I found the pickled okra at my local store yesterday. It is not the Texas brand. Surprisingly it is a PA Dutch brand but Walmart is about 15 miles away so I bought this one.

Hubby liked it but I didn't like the texture of such large okra myself.

It's going in the oven.
I'm not frying it in a skillet.
I purposely bought the large skillet to replace the aluminum roasting pans because they are weak even with wire bracing.
Plus it's hard to suspend above the bottom.
An additional bonus is the cast iron gets hot and stays hot and reduces energy consumption plus helps cook the bottom.
Every chicken l roast is in a skillet with a roasting rack on top.
Now I have one for larger items.
Breaking all the rules and baking at 250F not the recommended 350F at least recommended temperature.
More even cooking at lower temperature.
Whatever was on the turkey died in the brine with insta cure in it.

I cooked the perfect turkey but it took hours including a nap.
The breast was juicy and fork tender across grain cooked to perfection never getting above 158F.
Turned oven off let cool took nap flipped over and cooked the bottom side at 350F until the temperature reached 158 in thigh.
Temperature got to 165 and started dropping.
Keeping eye on breast temperature it got back up to about 135 at most.
It's a time consuming process and complicated.
But it was worth it.

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:27 am

brownrexx wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 7:56 am I don't know @worth1 How is the top of that bird going to get hot enough to cook?

I found the pickled okra at my local store yesterday. It is not the Texas brand. Surprisingly it is a PA Dutch brand but Walmart is about 15 miles away so I bought this one.

Hubby liked it but I didn't like the texture of such large okra myself.

It's going in the oven.
I'm not frying it in a skillet.
I purposely bought the large skillet to replace the aluminum roasting pans because they are weak even with wire bracing.
Plus it's hard to suspend above the bottom.
An additional bonus is the cast iron gets hot and stays hot and reduces energy consumption plus helps cook the bottom.
Every chicken l roast is in a skillet with a roasting rack on top.
Now I have one for larger items.
Breaking all the rules and baking at 250F not the recommended 350F at least recommended temperature.
More even cooking at lower temperature.
Whatever was on the turkey died in the brine with insta cure in it.
20211125_082057.jpg

You don't duck and tuck the wings?

Tormato wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 9:11 pm

worth1 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 8:27 am

brownrexx wrote: ↑Thu Nov 25, 2021 7:56 am I don't know @worth1 How is the top of that bird going to get hot enough to cook?

I found the pickled okra at my local store yesterday. It is not the Texas brand. Surprisingly it is a PA Dutch brand but Walmart is about 15 miles away so I bought this one.

Hubby liked it but I didn't like the texture of such large okra myself.

It's going in the oven.
I'm not frying it in a skillet.
I purposely bought the large skillet to replace the aluminum roasting pans because they are weak even with wire bracing.
Plus it's hard to suspend above the bottom.
An additional bonus is the cast iron gets hot and stays hot and reduces energy consumption plus helps cook the bottom.
Every chicken l roast is in a skillet with a roasting rack on top.
Now I have one for larger items.
Breaking all the rules and baking at 250F not the recommended 350F at least recommended temperature.
More even cooking at lower temperature.
Whatever was on the turkey died in the brine with insta cure in it.
20211125_082057.jpg

You don't duck and tuck the wings?

Not this time, I wanted all surfaces exposed.

I bought a real roasting pan with a rack several years ago after one of the cheap aluminum ones had a pinhole and leaked juices onto the bottom of my oven. We didn't notice it until the kitchen started to stink. It was a big mess and a very unpleasant smell instead of that delicious smell of roasting turkey!

I would recommend cooking all poultry to a temperature of 165° for safety. I don't take chances with Campylobacter or Salmonella.

Allowing the turkey to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving really keeps the white meat juicy. Our turkey breast was wonderful yesterday and we cooked it to 170° before removing it from the oven. I like just cooking a breast because I don't have to worry about the temperature of the dark meat which we don't like anyway.

Not wanting to get into a food safety argument but.
I follow food safety guidelines as well.
Mine are more scientific.
I follow the time and temperature charts to kill harmful pathogens.
What the food safety people have done is dumb it down to the lowest common denominator to cover the greatest amount of people.
https://www.yourdoctorsorders.com/2013/ ... y-cooking/

I generally roast a turkey that is between 27 and 29 pounds, every year, with no stuffing inside. Outside gets rubbed with veg shortening, then sprinkled with sage. The timer always gets pulled, and sometimes I have to pull some skin down over exposed breast meat and pin with a toothpick (food porn?). I use a large metal roasting pan with rack, set on the lowest oven rack. Oven preheated to 450 degrees, insert bird, lower temp to 325 after about ONE MINUTE. I start basting after about the first two hours, and continue doing so every 20 minutes. At about the 3 hour mark I check for browning. When sufficiently brown, I tent with aluminum foil. The bird is always done at between 4 hour and 45 minutes (27 pounder), and 5 hours (29 pounder).

The next day, the carcass is simmered for turkey stock. Stock with white and dark meat is frozen. When I want soup, I thaw the frozen and add veggies and noodles or rice. Turkey tetrazzini is up next, white meat only. When done, the casserole is frozen. White meat for sandwiches. Thigh and wing meat for leftovers with all of yesterday's sides.