T-daydisaster

Our first thanksgiving was a total bust. While the turkey came out great, the stuffing was horribly salty and gooey, the mashed potatoes were clumpy and gluey, the cranberry relish was ignored, the green beans were undercooked and the sweet potatoe casarole came out way too sweet. The gravy wsa so-so, but my mom needed to doctor it up.

Even the apps did bad. The shrimp were a huge hit, but the procuitta used for the prociutta wrapped asparagus was too salty and the crab-spinach-and artichoke dip was awful.

Suffice to say, no one will be begging us to make thanksgiving dinner again.

Congrats on getting off the hook for at least another 5 years.

Stuffing; two words, Stove Top
Potatoes; Don't overcook, just until they break apart when you twist a fork in them. Warm up your milk in a separate pot cuz cold milk crashes the starch and makes a potato glue.

Better luck next time? Hey, at least you justified having that long stem thermometer to test the turkey temp right?

Well done! Perfectly timing a dinner like that is a skill I have carefully avoided learning.

Stove Top, yes! I never stuff a bird. It cooks faster & more evenly without stuffing. I make a huge pot of broth and use part of it for the stuffing, part for gravy and the rest goes in freezer bags with leftover turkey. Keeps the turkey moist & you always have broth for gravy.

Hummm, gravy.

Sorry to hear about it Cheeze. At least you had the HB to fall back on.

Thanksgiving was at my parent's place this year. We had a pretty good turnout with 27 heads there for dinner. I think I sucessfully converted about 3 of my family members from coors light with my hoppyhefe. My cousin (just found out he HBs as well) brought a bunch of Troughs (sp?) beer out of Harrisburg PA and I was enjoying the pale ale and wheat. They make some good beer, but don't distribute it in NY .

I was actually too stuffed to consider drinking a beer. I had a couple of Woodford Reserve bourbons, but ended up going to bed around 10:00.

On a good note, yesterday my son decided to give up crawling and start walking more often.

Cheesefood said:

I was actually too stuffed to consider drinking a beer. I had a couple of Woodford Reserve bourbons, but ended up going to bed around 10:00.

On a good note, yesterday my son decided to give up crawling and start walking more often.

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Hey congrats! When my son first started walking is when I developed my spider sense!

"Hey! Get away from that outlet!"

"Hey! Get away from the stairs!"

"Hey! Put that knife down!"

When they are mobile, you will die a little inside!

But on a serious note, sorry to hear about the Turkey Day. I went to the mother in-laws, so all I had to make was pumpkin pie. Luckily for me, I had some leftover pumpkin from my Pumpkin Ale and had bought all the spices just for the brewing! I only had whole cloves and the pie recipe called for crushed. If you're ever in a bind, know that you can use a coffee grinder to grind up those whole cloves into a fine powder. Whole cloves are much cheaper than ground, too.:rockin:

It was fun to cook it all. The turkey was amazing - way better than my mom's.

I did Thanksgiving last year, and it came out awesome; little does everyone know that the turkey was undercooked by a good amount (oops).

"So how did you get the turkey so INCRDEDIBLY moist?"
"Uh, must have been the brine... yeah, the brine!"

Our dinner wasn't the best, either. The turkey and stuffing (NOT stove top!) were excellent, but everything else was just so-so. the cheesy hashbrowns were undercooked, the green beans were overcooked, and the rolls didn't rise enough and were basically bricks. We didn't have guests, though, so it was OK.

Well, not rubbing anybody's noses in it, but ours came out really excellent. The bird was great, the gravy was almost drinkable, and I was smart enough to leave all the sides to my Mom. Of course, she prepared way too much but that's what they do. The only bummer was our daughter being fussy pretty much the whole time which means my wife and I were rarely in the same place at the same time, but that's life.

Ours was sub-par also. We're calling it "Twice Cooked Thanksgiving." For some reason, nothing was cooked all the way through.

My thermometer lied to me and told me the turkey was done. I carved into the breast, and it was still raw in the center. Back to the fryer.

For some reason, 45 minutes was not long enough for broccoli to get tender in a casserole...back to the oven with that.

Never turn your back on the broiler - the cliche sweet potato casserole with marshmallows burned the first time. Off with the charmallows, on with a new topping, back into the broiler.

Even the dinner rolls were a bit gooey in the middle! A few more minutes in the oven for those, too!

Oddly enough, if anything, we tend to overcook things a bit when making timing mistakes in our kitchen. Apparently, not anymore!!!

We did a fresh turkey for the first time this year. When I say fresh, I mean I watched it get slaughtered on Wednesday. The flavor was different, not sure if it's better or worse, but definitely different.
They warned us that the turkey will cook fast. It was 27 lbs., so we shaved a bit of time off and figured maybe six hours of cooking time.

It was done in 4 hours.

Consequently, turkey was served as soon as guests started to arrive. An hour long rest time probably helped, that bird was moist.

Vermicous said:

It was 27 lbs., so we shaved a bit of time off and figured maybe six hours of cooking time.

It was done in 4 hours.

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I've gotten fresh turkeys the last couple years (well, not quite as fresh as yours, but not frozen let's say) and while they cook a bit faster than frozen I usually do 10-12 min/lb before hitting 165-170 in the breast. So your 4 hrs seems about right to me. My 16lb'er took right at 3. I do love the moistness and flavor of these turkeys. In fact, I think it's time for a plate of leftovers.

We had our first Thanksgiving this year as well. Both sides of the family. Absolutely no problems and all the food was great.

We just cooked the turkey & stuffing then everyone brought a dish with them, cassarole, potatoes, etc. For 20 people we have 8 pies.

The two turkeys I smoked came out very juicy and moist, but they were definitely not as pretty as the ones I typically fry every year.

beer4breakfast said:

The two turkeys I smoked came out very juicy and moist, but they were definitely not as pretty as the ones I typically fry every year.

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A friend nearly burned his house down last year frying a turkey. I did one 2 years ago and the clean-up was a total pain. I use a lot of the equipment for brewing and it took hours of scrubbing to get all that oil and grease off everything.
I am now retired from turkey frying. The oven works quite well thank you.

Sorry to hear T-Giving was a drag Cheese. "E" for effort tho.

Ours turned out fine, SIL and BIL cooked the turkey and stuffing, everyone else brought a dish. SWMBO made 2 homemade pumpkin pies that turned out AWESOME. A portion of one still is in the fridge. :cross:

One HUGE negative tho.

No beer. I mean NO one had one. By the time food was done, everyone was too stuffed and the BIL and I just didn't even have the energy.

So tonight, I'm nibbling at the beer fridge. And the Bell's Pale Ale is going down nicely TYVM.

Ize

We just polished off a batch of turkey chilaquiles. I love the 2-3 days following Thanksgiving as much as the day itself. Still plenty of turkey and gruyere for sandwiches tomorrow!

BVB, I went for the traditional turkey sandwiches for dinner last night. Combine that with a plate full over leftover green bean casserole, scalloped corn, dressing, mashed potatoes and broccoli cassrole...

I was too tired for beer last night as well.


Ize

I had Turkey Day at my parents house. All I had to do was move furniture and eat. My cousin tried my 65-65-65-6.5 and my porter. His favorite beer is Coors Light. He said they were good but something tells me he didn't like him.