Im talking TURKEY

Crushed

My daughter has a turkey recipe  It goes like this

1) call my Dad
2)Tell  him I need a turkey 
 3) Tell him how many people
4) Tell him when the Turkey needs to be on the table sliced
5)  Wait till the doorbell rings open the door
6) there will be a perfect turkey 

 I have been the family Turkey cook for over 50 years  
 I am currently cooking my third turkey of the season

This one is for a local church doing a "Thanksgiving lunch" for the homeless
19 pounds 10 oz  so a medium to large turkey  
This is the biggest turkey I can handle with my forks
Turkey was thawed for 5 days in the refrigerator. 
Fast thawing ruins turkeys. if you can pull the neck out and there is a little ice on it it is perfect . 
Almost all frozen turkeys are injected with salt so forget brining  
 I have a brand new electric convection oven so I did a test turkey last week
 This is my SIMPLE recipe I use when I am sending a turkey
Do not rinse the turkey  that just ads water
  remove neck and giblets  I save these
 Big roasting pan with   flat V shaped rack   (V with the point cut off)
 Convection oven at 350,  bottom of  roasting pan is oiled  canola is fine
spray or brush olive or canola all over turkey  
Salt all over the turkey  
Do not stuff   Turkey 
one  cup of water in bottom of pan
First hour Roast turkey "upside down"  if you can turn a hot turkey
if not just roast it breast side up  
 after one hour I turn the turkey and put in the meat thermometers  
 I use 4, two electric and two mechanical  ignore the little plastic button its useless 
 Roast turkey until all thermometers hit 160 f
Turn off oven. let  turkey sit. 
after 20 minutes take turkey out of oven 
I transport the turkey in a flexible cooler bag
turkey is wrapped in large heavy duty aluminum foil
metal baking tray goes in cooler bag 
large bath towel is folded and the middle is put in the cooler bag
Turkey goes in towel is folded across the top  
great use for the crummiest oldest towels you own
Turkey does not care
Zip up bag
Turkey should sit in oven and bag for one hour  
Open take out carve and eat.

If you are not transporting the turkey Pull after 10 minutes in oven cover with Aluminum foil and wait another 50 minutes  

   
  

MaryG123

My mouth is watering Crushed!

ImMaggieMae

I like that the first step on the list is to Call Dad. Lol! 

Thanksgiving menus have changed little over the years. But I was reminded of one dish that I never see anymore, Jello Salad. I don’t think my mom made it, but one of my aunts always brought it. It was made with Jello with whipped cream and mayonnaise whipped in, along with fruit (likely a can of fruit cocktail which was popular back then) and I think finely chopped lettuce or maybe cabbage. Later, when Cool Whip became popular, some of that was plopped in the middle if it was made in a ring mold. 

White Crane

Crushed, your turkey recipe made me hungry for Thanksgiving Dinner!

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ImMaggieMae

Victoria, re that first link, what a terrible thing to do to potato salad.

I think I stopped thinking Cool Whip was cool about 20 years ago when I had the not so bright idea of putting it on Irish Coffees because it didn’t melt in right away like real whipped cream. I remember dumping some in the sink and not washing it down at the end of a long night and the next morning, many hours later, it was perfectly intact. I could almost imagine little streams of it floating through my veins. Ugh!

Stuck in the middle

ImMaggieMae wrote:

I like that the first step on the list is to Call Dad. Lol! 

Thanksgiving menus have changed little over the years. But I was reminded of one dish that I never see anymore, Jello Salad. I don’t think my mom made it, but one of my aunts always brought it. It was made with Jello with whipped cream and mayonnaise whipped in, along with fruit (likely a can of fruit cocktail which was popular back then) and I think finely chopped lettuce or maybe cabbage. Later, when Cool Whip became popular, some of that was plopped in the middle if it was made in a ring mold. 

Finely chopped celery and nuts improve Jello a lot, gives it some texture.  Add it to peach Jello and a can of peaches, and it's not too bad.  

Jeff Foxworthy says "If you have a matched set of salad bowls, that all say "Cool Whip" on the side, you might be a redneck."  My MIL had one.

Crushed

Cooking a REally big Turkey  
Cooking a big turkey is hard  but it can be done

I always used cotton cooking cord to make a  holder for the turkey
I'll add a picture when the cook the next one
But it is double cord wrapped and tied so you can lift the turkey
when it is hot hot
 the bigger the turkey the better it cooks "breast side down "
 for at least an hour.  lift the turkey with the cord  and rotate it by moving your
hands long the cord I often put it down twice in the process 
When you get it breast side up you put the thermometers in   They should  
read about 100 degrees F Cook till they reach 160  and then shut off the oven
if you are using pan juices transfer it to another pan  and ;leave it in the oven

Crushed

All kinds of technical problems with posting
Here is a 20 pound turkey I cooked this morning in a string lifting harness

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