This is is a sauerkraut>kimchi level bad take.
Cranberry sauce has always confounded me. We’ve got it on the table for the weirdos. My wife has some family recipe that she makes from scratch. It’s actually not bad by itself. Sometimes when I’m done with everything else, I’ll have some for pre-dessert. But there is no way it is contaminating my plate before that.
It’s good on the day-after sandwiches.
I’ve never understood the cranberry, or sweet potato pie which was a thing in my southern family. Marshmallow and all.
Still a no for me.
With very few exceptions, I dislike sweet and savory flavors mixed together. Things like sweet and sour chicken are almost inedible to me.
The whole melon-prosciutto thing mystifies me, and my grandfather used to salt his watermelon which is basically the same thing but takes the most perfect food and renders it inedible.
We’re just doing a small Thanksgiving with my parents. I’m smoking ribs, possibly doing mashed potatoes and we’ll be bringing a corn pie that is amazing. Mom will do stuffing, gravy and maybe a couple other random sides. All I really care about for Thanksgiving is stuffing and gravy, she makes some kind of corn bread stuffing that i love.
Turkey can pound sand, I see no reason to ever cook a turkey. If I had to make a protein for a large group of people I’d rather do ham, prime rib, any smoked meat (ribs, pork butt, brisket etc), crown roast, pork tenderloin. Duck too but that’s small and you’d have to make a few of them to feed a group
I can do sweet and salty, but not sweet and savory.
So, melon and prosciutto would make me vomit. I actually kind of like salted watermelon as a change of pace. It makes a perfect watermelon worse, but if you have one that is not perfectly fresh, I think it helps it out a little bit.
Agreed. Few years back we made the move to a ham and roasting a whole chicken or two. Local grocer gives a turkey away when you spend $100 in groceries so we’ve been lured back once and still debate it every year tho.
We made steaks once but it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving. Prime Rib is Xmas meal.
Doesn’t stuffing have to be cooked inside a bird to be proper?
I don’t think so. We put some in there, but most of it is cooked separately.
Maybe there is some sort of stuffing/dressing distinction here that I’m not aware of.
My ex’s family did some weird Wisconsin ground beef stuffing concoction.
Looked like a pile of tiny deer droppings.
I think this is a terrible idea because your top priority when cooking turkey is to avoid drying it out, and you don’t want side project concerns (like making sure the stuffing is cooked) to interfere with that.
Any chance you can put the bird on rack and in a pan in your smoker? Might be hard to fit, but it won’t hurt the cooking if you can. But if you really can’t get any drippings, or even if you can but want to increase the amount of gravy you make, the answer is a good stock. Take your turkey neck, non-liver giblets, spine if you’re spatchcocking, and maybe supplement with some collagen-rich chicken parts if you want (backs, wings, even feet) and brown them in a large pot. Add an onion or two, some carrots and celery, garlic cloves, a couple bay leaves, some black peppercorns, and some herbs (usually some subset of the Scarborough Fair: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme). Cover with water, or even a high protein store-bought chicken stock if your really want a lot of flavor and protein content in there, and let simmer for 3ish hours and strain. This can obviously be done even days in advance.
With stock + drippings (run the drippings through a gravy separator to skim off fat) in hand, make a roux of 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup flour per quart of the liquids you’ll add later. Usually I only cook the roux for a few minutes to a golden color, but if you want to go darker, that’s your call. But once that’s done, add your liquids gradually while mixing, and you’re basically done when it’s thick and bubbly. Oh, season with salt and pepper to taste, of course, especially if you don’t have drippings from a brined bird. Wondra is good to have on hand if you think you need to add a bit more thickener (you can add it directly without it being lumpy, unlike flour). I like to mince some fresh herbs (usually the same as in the stock) to add to the gravy at the end, too. You can also experiment with adding small amounts of umami bombs like soy sauce or fish sauce to further increase the savoriness of your gravy.
Yeah, this. Cooking stuffing inside the bird is a losing proposition, because it’s not usually up to a safe eating temperature by the time the breast meat is cooked, so you either overcook your breast meat or give everyone salmonella. Both are pretty big disasters. Just use a really rich stock to make your stuffing.
Perfect, thanks. I might be able to get some drippings. I can put one of the turkeys on the upper rack and put a pan underneath it.
I’m making the gravy a few days in advanced so will go light on the salt in the gravy until after I add the drippings before serving. I suspect the drippings will be salty from the bird.
Thanks!
Oh hey, how much water would you use if you’re using two turkeys for this, so there will be two necks, 2 sets of giblets, and 2 spines. A couple of quarts? more?
Not thanksgiving related but cooked a tasty simple dinner yestersay.
Bought some decent looking thinly sliced sirloin or something to that extent. Marinated them in the patent pending “anything i can reach while holding a baby” marinade. It was soy, mirin, white wine vinegar, fish sauce, maggie, oyster sauce, sesame oil, honey, ginger, garlic and beef broth.
Grilled them a minute on each side super hot, cut them and mixed into a big simple salad of greens, arugula, tomatoes, cucumbers, serrano chillies and s&p evoo.
Cooked a frozen stir fry vegetable bag with the rest of the marinade.
Was super good and felt kinda healthy
Just enough water to cover the parts and vegetables is fine. I wouldn’t go all the way to gravy in advance if I can help it at all, as reheated gravy can be a little odd. I’d make the stock (which will have little to no salt) in advance, and then make the gravy at the last minute. Day of, add stock to the drippings until you have enough total liquid for the amount of gravy you want, or until it no longer tastes too salty. Then make your roux, add the combined liquids, and any finishings like S&P and optional herbs.
I was thinking about this myself, were I to be in charge. You put anything in the bag with your carrots? Temperature?
Got it, thanks!