Fun Playing With Thanksgiving Food

As the Thanksgiving Weekend draws to a close - a few thoughts. As usual - Bob and I were guests rather than chefs on Turkey Day proper. All of my family is east and south, and for years, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Bob's family. Sadly, since his mom decided to "retire" (as in - not go anyplace - she's going to be 95 years old shortly, and gosh dang, if she doesn't want to go anyplace, I say, "you [don't] go girl!"), his other family members have scattered more and more each year. The last three years, we've  been fortunate to share Thanksgiving dinner with wonderful friends (the photos from this year's feast are here). 

Still, we always roast our own turkey on Black (or in our house, Gobble) Friday. We started this tradition as we became immersed in the local and sustainable food movements, and because we missed having our own leftovers for sandwiches and the like. This year's guest bird came again through the tender auspices of Breychak's Farm. Every year, Kathy Breychak says she is done raising turkeys, and so far, every year she's relented. I hope we get to enjoy another of her pasture-raised birds next year!

Our 14 pound bird prepares for the Symon treatment - a generous Kosher salt rub a day before cooking.



Twenty-four hours later - a double layer of cheesecloth is soaked in warm oil and aromatics, then draped over the bird. Sorry Michael - we love the flavor of our locally raised turkey so - we prefer a neutrally flavored oil to your recommended butter only for that reason.



Michael's "high temp" method is pretty similar to how we've always roasted - and we were rewarded with crispy skin and succulent, moist meat.





Organic cranberries, organic Florida cane sugar, filtered water. Looks, feels and tastes a lot like the canned product - only better! I actually make this more to grace turkey sandwiches than the turkey dinners - but this year, it got a little late on Friday, and Bob decided for forgo the gravy until Saturday. Good thing we had cranberry sauce - and yes Mom, we remembered to put it on the table. (In my house, the term "Cranberry Sauce" means that something that was supposed to be on the table is still in the fridge.)



I improvised this vegetable side dish from a couple of on-line recipes - roasted cubes of local winter squash, local onion, our last Richter's Orchard (LI) apple, Pumpkin Pie Spice/Pepito butter (Ohio City Pasta), toasted pecans and garden parsley.



Here's the stock Bob made several days ago from extra turkey necks and giblets Kathy Breychak bestowed on us. Thick with gelatin - perfect for gravy-making.


Turkey with Crisp Skin - 20 or so minutes out of the oven


Garden Purple Viking Mashed Potatoes with Garden Parsley


Turkey Slice with Gravy - Saturday night


Garden Purple Viking Mashed Potatoes with Gravy - Saturday night


Our first leftovers meal:


Bob's Potato Bread





Breychak Turkey Breast, Trader Joe's Organic Mayo, Cranberry Sauce, Skin Crackling, Purple Viking Potato Bread = yum. Another Thanksgiving in the books - we had great fun playing with food and fabulous company at Linda and Fred's place, and lots more fun playing with our own food the rest of the weekend! And I've got about 8 lunches worth of turkey breast sandwich makings already resting in the freezer, for me to play with later! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours - hope you had fun playing with your food this weekend!

Fun Playing With Thanksgiving Food

This is the obligatory Thanksgiving post. We enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner at friends'; Bob made lots of brown-and-serve dinner rolls, so we'd have plenty for sandwiches later.

 
Batter

 
 Rolls Risen and Formed into Rolls


 




On Thanksgiving Day, I prepped our cranberry sauce so it could chill overnight:

Bob and I have created our own tradition of our own roasted turkey on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year, as last, our bird came from the Breychak Farm. This was our first year roasting a heritage bird - a Bourbon Red - and we may never go back to a broad breasted white!

  

Our 17# Bourbon Red

 

We learned this year that a heritage bird changes everything. We generally eschew stuffing because, well, stuffing is evil. Actually - my mom never stuffed her turkey. And the one year that my sister decided to make stuffing for the family feast - it had nuts in it, and my poor boyfriend at the time, who was violently allergic to nuts, reacted, well with violent allergy.

Aromatics for the turkey cavity

Bob had already stuffed the rosemary into the bird by the time I snapped this. Note the cassia bark; much better flavored than cheap "cinnamon" sticks that really aren't. And our garden Garlic Chives.


Turkey Porn

A "between the legs" shot of the aromatics - yummy farmers' market apple!



We decided to use the above pictured rub instead of making our own. Delicious!




Rubbed Up and Ready for Action

We started the bird at about 450 degrees - but I turned it down when I smelled something burning. After an hour around 400 - we turned it down to 325 and let the instant read thermometer do its thing!



Delightful Dinner Libation

 
Fully Rested and Ready for Love

 
The Heck With Love - Dinner is Served!

 
Drumstick


Slices of Breast Meat

OMG! We've enjoyed non-heritage, locally raised birds before, but nothing like this. Just like our Berkshire Hog - this birdie featured a built-in basting system. Beneath the layer of crispy skin was a layer of beautiful fat, which kept the breast meat (which was of course proportional to the rest of the bird) incredibly moist. Yum!



 


Marvelous. Simply Marvelous.

 This was the best turkey we've ever tasted. A touch of gaminess. Huge hits of flavor and mouthfeel, from both the white and dark meat. Moist, delicious meat. Crispy skin. Creamy fat. Here's a photo from the next dinner, when Bob made gravy:



And what's the only thing better than a turkey dinner? Leftovers made into sandwiches!





 

We had much fun playing with our Thanksgiving food this year! An amazing heritage turkey from Kathy Breychak; wonderful friends and food for the holiday proper.

We are truly blessed, and thankful for all of the good things we have. 

Fun Playing With Turkey

When last we left Kathy Breychak's farm, the turkeys were restless and demanding to be fed!





Well, Kathy definitely did something right in the feeding process, because our bird weighed in at 32 pounds, dressed (or undressed, depending on how you look at it).



Turkey pick up day was Saturday, 11/22. Usually, because we go to family or friends for Thanksgiving, we make our own turkey the Friday after. Since we had to get our bird this far in advance, however, it made sense to just cook it right up on Sunday, and that was what we planned to do.

Kathy gave Bob some extra turkey innards and chicken feet, and he used them to make stock. He planned to use the fat that rose out of it for basting the bird, and the stock itself for gravy.

Figuring it might take as long as 7 hours to cook this monster, we set to it early Sunday afternoon. It did not take us long to ascertain that the bird would not fit whole into either of our ovens with any kind of pan under it.







So - we split it in half. Bob used a technique we learned from Alton Brown. This is how he splits winter squash - we used it to split a turkey!



Bob snipped as far as he could with kitchen shears, then brought out the Henkels Cleaver and a rubber mallet.



Tap the mallet onto the back of the cleaver and - presto!





In no time at all, we had two 16 pound turkey halves instead of one behemoth.



After being rinsed and dried, each turkey half was rubbed with the same seasonings my mother always used - sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper and kosher salt. Bob's plan was to use the rendered fat from the top of the stock pot to lube the bird - but he'd stirred it at a bad time the day before such that it didn't render purely. So, he reheated the stock and skimmed the fat off hot, to lube our bird.


Bob Thought This Was Fat When He Pulled it From the Fridge


Seasoned Birdie Half Ready for the Pan - But What Pan?

Each turkey half was still too big to fit into any of our roasting pans. What to do? Well - we have a pan for at least half of the job:



Mom's Magnalite Turkey Roaster to the rescue! I used to love the birds she cooked in this thing! However, tall roasters have gone out of favor, especially among those who prize crispy skin. Well, we didn't have much choice - so into the pan went half of our turkey.



With the cover, this pot would completely fill our top oven. So - how to roast the other half of the bird at the same time?



Stroke of genius - the broiler pan that "comes" with the oven - the one we never use for anything - it became "turkey roaster #2".

We cooked each half covered (the second half with aluminum foil) for about 2 hours at 325 degrees. When we checked the half #1 in the top oven (the Magnalite) the thigh meat was over 150 degrees, so Bob basted it and removed the lid, so the skin could crisp. As might be expected, the second half did not cook nearly as quickly, so we waited longer to remove the foil top. Once we did, Bob basted it periodically, even as Roaster #1 finished with the thigh meat at 175 degrees. #2 came out when it also reached 175 degrees in the thigh. Perfect!







We let #1 cool down in anticipation of evisceration and freezing. #2 would provide our dinner, as soon as the gravy was ready!



Dinner!


Bob Prefers the Dark Meat


I'm a White Meat Kinda Girl

The skin and flesh were exquisite - best turkey I've ever tasted in my life. We did take a bite out of #1, to compare - it was a little juicier and more tender - but ever so little more, since #2 was also moist, tender and delicious.

So - we spent the Sunday before Thanksgiving playing with turkey (and watching a turkey of a Cleveland Browns football game). After eating meat that is this fresh, I just can't imagine eating mass produced frozen poultry - but I also realized that if everyone in America wanted this type of turkey, there would be no way to supply that demand. A puzzlement. In the meantime, however, I wish all who read this Blog a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope that you all play with some food this holiday season - make homemade cranberry sauce instead of opening that can, or maybe try gravy from scratch. Food tastes so much better when you play with it first!