How do you cook your turkey and dressing?

liz stevens

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Personally for Thanksgiving I have to admit we are rather lazy, but our favorite way to cook the big bird is in the bag. Meaning we prepare it by washing it good, add seasoning an onion and celery inside, spray on butter on the outside and dust with flour, place it in a roasting bag, poke a few vent holes in the top, and then place it breast up in the roaster, set the time based on weight and forget about it.

We have tried frying it and cooking it without the bag, but for the past 34 years its been in the bag for us on Thanksgiving. We can always count on it browning perfectly and being moist inside without any fuss or extra work. The bag also helps with draining off the broth for dressing making the roaster easier to clean after the the meal is over. We find the cooking bags in the grocery store along side the food storage bags.

We also always take advantage of the turkey sales before Thanksgiving and purchase two turkeys. It doesn't take much to have someone stand in line with $20 of items to get the second one for the advertised low seasonal price. The extra turkey goes in the freezer for the outdoor smoker, which is our favorite for a summer Holiday meal.

Just in the past few years we have also discovered that we had been missing out on the wonderful turkey noodle soup, in fact talk about making things easy, we now just break up the carcass remove the most fatty skin and put everything it in a zip lock bag and then place in the freezer. When things get cold outside we pull it out add vegetables and cook up a big pot of soup adding our Amish homemade noodles towards the end. Doing it later in the season doesn't turkey us out after going through left over's.

On the dressing, we really love dressing; so much we pull out the large broiler pan that comes with ovens, and even cook a little extra. Bread dressing is our favorite. Now that we really have to have a low salt diet we use additional low salt broth to make it moist, and now add fresh sliced mushrooms to take the place of oysters.

What is your favorite way to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving meal?
 

moolie

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Canadian Thanksgiving was the 2nd Monday of October, but...

We whip up a simple bread (usually rye) stuffing with onions and celery with a sagey poultry seasoning mixture and celery salt, stuff the bird, butter the skin and sprinkle with salt & pepper, and roast it in a covered roaster breast down for 20 minutes per pound plus 20 minutes to half an hour right-side up with the lid off (sometimes with bacon slices laid over).

Traditional sides for us are carrots roasted with the bird (last two hours), mashed potatoes with lots of gravy, steamed or roasted Brussels Sprouts, and home made cranberry sauce. We'll also add a salad or corn on the cob if we feel like it.

We always simmer the carcass for soup after the turkey has been carved, and love hot turkey sandwiches on thick home made bread with stuffing and cranberries the next day for dinner :)

Other leftover dinners include Turkey Pot Pie, Turkey Enchiladas, and (meat and potatoes with gravy stew-style) Turkey Casserole.


eta: forgot to add that we usually have home made Lemon Meringue Pie, Apple Pie, and Pumpkin Pie with home made ice cream for dessert.
 

THEFAN

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We are old New England traditionalist. :) Wake up at 5 and start prepping stuff. We have cheese and veggie platter for day long snacking. Deviled eggs is a must. Rolls and a loaf of bread is baked the night before. The 18-22 lb turkey takes up a lot of room in the oven. Everything is made from scratch and 80% is local. Even the stuffing is homemade. YUMMMM.. now I want stuffing. We take our Thanks serious :woot

We have our daughter read some paragraghs in books I have about the meaning of Thanksgiving and why. This yr we will read Timothy before we eat. :)

GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!
 

FarmerChick

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Holy cow reading this is just absolute torture. I want turkey now sooooooo bad!


We are basic. We do not go overboard anymore.

Delish turkey rubbed down and placed in covered roasting pan for cooking. Stuffed with bread stuffing with plenty of sausage and celery.
Sides are definitely mashed taters and gravy and sweet potatoes (without nasty marshmellows lol), along with what we are in the mood for at the time. Could be corn, green beans, sprouts, carrots? maybe 1 or maybe 2 or 3.

Not a pie fan, but Mom always makes pumpkin and apple. So I just skip dessert, but who needs it right, after a giant Thanskgiving Dinner.

Good food, good fun with family and a relaxing great day!
 

bambi

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We roast our turkey, and make stuffing balls (bread/cornbread) use the turkey carcass for soup, also we take the left over stuffing balls and serve it in the soup YUM!!!
 

justusnak

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We make the bread stuffing as well...however...I save the heals from the bread we use all year long, and use those for the stuffing. saute' the celery and onions in butter with sage, salt and pepper....while the kids ( used to ) break the bread into small pieces. ( Now I have to do it myself, darned them for growing up! ) :p Pour the onion and celery over the bread, add a few eggs, maybe a little milk...and smoosh the heck out of it. LOL Stuff it into a big turkey, give the turkey a butter rub, and in the roaster it goes. This all happens about 6 am...so we can eat by noon. Mashed taters,yams, gravy, corn, home made clover leaf rolls, cranberry sauce, ( TONS of that!) and a cheese and veggie tray. After dinner is inhaled...and cleaned up, we all go outside ( weather permitting) and walk it off in the woods. Then come inside and put up the family Christmas tree with pie and coffee for everyone. ( hot chocolate for the kids, LOL) By then, most everyone is ready to leave, so once they are all gone, hubby and I settle in by the tree, cuddle, and talk about " the good old days" When the kids were all young. ..and life was harder, but we were all happy and content.
 

Chefmom

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Aaahhh, Thanksgiving is a week long affair.

On Monday I bake two large loaves of bread, one white and one wheat. I make a double batch of pie crust and I set the turkey to thaw in the fridge. The bread is cubed or shredded.

On Tuesday I make a 3 pound batch of homemade noodles and set them on sheet pans to dry.

Wednesday morning I brine the turkey, first I remove the wings and use the neck and wings to make stock, that afternoon I make dill rolls and pies. Classics like apple and pumpkin. I have also made pumpkin cheesecakes and my favorite is chocolate cream pie.

Thursday morning I start the stuffing on the stove top (that was the way my Grandmother made it and it's my tradition) and I prep the inside the bird stuffing the way my husband's Aunt made it (his tradition), and that one goes in the bird. When the bird goes in the oven I peel the potatoes and make the mashed potatoes, roast the corn, steam the sweet potatoes, then finish in brown sugar and butter, cook the noodles in stock and make gravy.

If all goes well we eat around 2 pm, and always have our apple cider with dinner.

My favorite day is Saturday. You pull all the leftovers out and have dinner all over again with NO work!! :)

Tami
 

Marianne

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This year I would like to try the brine. I have been a cooking bag gal for a lot of years. One year we almost set our daughter's place on fire by dropping WET turkey into TOO HOT oil. Duh. Then we all stood around watching, nothing could be done. Turkey was too brown in a flash...more like turkey jerky, I think. :lol:

I still stuff the bird, extra dressing goes into a baking dish. But it's bread dressing (half cornbread, half white bread), sweet potato casserole, crockpot corn, veggies, mashed spuds and gravy, homemade rolls, salads, apple crisp, pumpkin pie...too much food.

Everyone brings their own refrigerator dishes so they have something to cart leftovers home. I get the bones, and the next day it's turkey pot pie in the making.
 

THEFAN

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Chefmom said:
Aaahhh, Thanksgiving is a week long affair.

On Monday I bake two large loaves of bread, one white and one wheat. I make a double batch of pie crust and I set the turkey to thaw in the fridge. The bread is cubed or shredded.

On Tuesday I make a 3 pound batch of homemade noodles and set them on sheet pans to dry.

Wednesday morning I brine the turkey, first I remove the wings and use the neck and wings to make stock, that afternoon I make dill rolls and pies. Classics like apple and pumpkin. I have also made pumpkin cheesecakes and my favorite is chocolate cream pie.

Thursday morning I start the stuffing on the stove top (that was the way my Grandmother made it and it's my tradition) and I prep the inside the bird stuffing the way my husband's Aunt made it (his tradition), and that one goes in the bird. When the bird goes in the oven I peel the potatoes and make the mashed potatoes, roast the corn, steam the sweet potatoes, then finish in brown sugar and butter, cook the noodles in stock and make gravy.

If all goes well we eat around 2 pm, and always have our apple cider with dinner.

My favorite day is Saturday. You pull all the leftovers out and have dinner all over again with NO work!! :)



Week long love affair. :love You got that right. :thumbsup

Tami
 

BirdBrain

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Wait a minute...you mean I have to cook? :barnie

I think we'll just throw some steaks on the grill and call it good. :hide
 
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