Ok, so you think I really cook all those recipes I post huh well I am a decent cook but when it comes to turkey I seam to have a problem. Under done for the past few tries......... I just don't know whats wrong, well I'm doing a test run of sorts, I have one in the oven and have the timer set. No Alton Brown brine, no gizzards in the stuffing....... stuffing comes from a box!!--Stove top! Anyway if it get cooked all the way we are having open faced turkey sandwiches for dinner or just a regular thanksgiving plate.....what ever comes with the turkey. So post you truths about your thanksgiving blunders here!! By the way the Butter bal hotline is here! http://www.butterball.com/ 1-800-butterball
My biggest Thanksgiving blunder--throwing fresh veggies (carrots, celery, onions, etc.) into my stuffing without cooking them first. My biggest Thanksgiving tip--cook the turkey unstuffed in a roaster oven. It takes less energy than running the oven for hours, comes out moist and juicy, and leaves the oven free for side dishes and pumpkin pie.
ok... this isn't my blunder but rather my dh's! He did a homemade turkey stock for the dressing and it smelled and tasted wonderful. It porbably simmered on the stove for five hours, fresh veggies and herbs YUM! So anyways he goes to strain out the veggies and stuff and I'm standing in the kitchen talking to him...........all of the sudden something dawns on me and I look at him and ask, "Honey shouldn't you have a bowl under the strainer?" Yup, the whole pot of stock literally down the drain! He was so mad and all I could do was laugh! :twisted: Luckily we had bought some gravy mix in case of an emergancy or if we needed more gravy for leftovers.....We (I) bring it up every Thanksgiving and now we both laugh about it.
I haven't done many Thanksgivings, I am usually the guest. But I did once leave the innards bag in the turkey while it was being cooked. Thankfully someone asked where the bag was only moments after, so the day was saved (From me!) hahaha
First time I ever cooked a turkey, i was single and had conviced my parents and all my siblings, their spouses and children to come to my little apartment for Thanksgiving. It was great. However, when unstuffing the turkey after cooking it - I discovered I cooked the turkey with the giblets bag enclosed inside! LOL I was embarrassed! Everyone ate the turkey anyway....but I have to relive the humiliation every holiday (not just Thanksgiving, either). I've made many successful turkeys since, but they won't let me forget the one! Oh well.... My greatest discovery was the Reynolds Turkey Roasting Bags. Last year's Christmas Turkey was the best I ever made and I didn't have to dang thing but stuff it and shove it in the oven!
Both the roaster and the oven bags are wonderful!! I haven't cooked lots of turkeys, but a few. Once while in college, my roomies and I decided to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Our dorm mom taught us a wonderful trick for telling if the turkey is done-- take a fork, insert into the breast and twist. If it pulls away easily, it's done. I don't have any Thanksgiving turkey disasters, but I've burned my share of things! Once I put eggs on to boil and forgot them-- until I heard a loud POP! My eggs exploded.
We have Thanksgiving at my MIL's, but still do a turkey every year to take to a ministry to the homeless/street people. We've been doing that for 16 years now. My biggest advice is to make sure you give it PLENTY of time to thaw!!! We don't stuff it, since someone makes the stuffing seperate. I think Carl puts butter on it, and that's it. We cook it late the night before, then slice it and warm it up in the oven in the morning.
I use the Reynold's bags and have for years. My mother has used them as long as they have been on the market. My mother in law wrapped her turkey in tons of foil to cook it in the oven. One year she decided to try the browning bags and when we got to her house she was so upset. The bag had exploded in her oven and made a huge mess. She was fussing about it and telling us how she had to take the turkey out and wrap it in foil and what a mess she had to clean up. Freddy looked at her and said, "Mama you did poke holes in the bag like the directions say didn't you?" You could have heard a pin drop in that room. She hadn't even read the directions. She is no longer with us, but our older kids still laugh about Grandma's exploding turkey bag.
My first thanksgiving I was thrust into the roll of chef because I went to my grandma's early to help her she had alzhimers and I realized on that day she was a bit to far into it and didn't remember how to cook anything......... So I had to cook everything the way I had watched my mom in my early years, I did use one of those roasting bags but It didn't get the bottom brown. Everything did turn out.
