Turkey-ingredient of the day--11/28

[greyhoundgirl]

Surprise, right?  Thought I'd put it up tonight because we may not have much time tomorrow.

So, for starters, how do you generally cook a whole turkey?  I do mine in an oven bag in the oven or my big electric roaster, upside down, of course.

Second part is what do you you do with the leftovers?  For me, that's turkey potpie, turkey croquettes, turkey broccoli casserole, turkey soup, pretty much anything I'd use chicken in.  And then just plain as leftovers.  I don't expect to have a ton of leftovers this year with 6 extra people coming over and only a 21 lb turkey.  Oh, and I've frozen sliced turkey in gravy using the vacuum sealer and it heats up very nicely in boiling water to serve over mashed potatoes later.

[jrejhkids]

Sometimes we smoke our turkey the day before and then heat it up in the electric roaster.  The other times I will just cook it in the electric roaster.  My husband has to work tomorrow, so we will be postponing our Thanksgiving until Saturday this year.

As a kid, I grew up going to the desert for Thanksgiving.  The adults would dig a big pit while the kids brought rocks back.  The adults lined the pit with the rocks and then we had a big bonfire on Thanksgiving evening.  The next day the adults dug the ashes out, lined the rocks with wet straw, buried the turkey and all the other food that had been prepared and wrapped in a lot of foil.  They would layer more straw and then put the ashed on top.  We would go on a long hike.  Finally after a long time they uncovered the food, and we all had a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.  We would have several families from our church go out with us so there was a lot of people.  I can only remember a few Thanksgivings spent at home as a kid.

We do turkey a la king, turkey soup, turkey potpie, and finally I will cook the carcass down and can the broth.

[Proudmama]

I haven't cooked Thanksgiving for quite some time but usually cook a turkey once a year.  I cook it in the oven in a large roasting pan.  Before I put it in the oven, I melt butter and place cheesecloth in the butter to soak it up.  I cover the turkey with the cheesecloth and then baste the turkey every twenty minutes.  I take off the cheesecloth at some point but can't remember right now when I do that!!!  😄

For leftovers, Doug loves turkey sandwiches on a roll so I always put some aside for that.  I make the usual with the rest and have also made turkey tetrazzini as well.

Denise