[Sca-cooks] OOP - Turkey, again!

[Carol Eskesen Smith]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
On brining- it looks interesting, but I'm cooking for poeple on salt-restricted diets, so I'll probably just rinse the bird out with plain water, make my usual stuffing, and go frm there.  Turkey, brussels sprouts (Menagier recipe for small caboges), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, salad, green beans (asparagus is $2.99/lb, and looks awfully thick), pickles, olives, and artichoke hearts, cranberry sauce, apple pie, and pumpkin pie.  (We skip the creamed onions and succotash, since they were traditionally on the table, and - equally traditionally - remained there, untouched, throughout the feast.)  This is a more-or-less traditional feast.
This does not include the vegetables and dip, crackers, sheeses, and preserved (i.e., not homemade) sausages which are not part of the meal but are available before we start the serious eating.   Oh, yes.  I'm cooking for four.
TRegards,
Brekke

----- Original Message -----
From: Olwen the Odd
Sent: Monday, November 25, 2002 1:58 PM
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] OOP - Turkey, again!

>    Does anyone know how to cook it _not too much_? Every year, my turkey
>falls apart when my husband tries to lift it out of the pan. Meat falls off
>the bone. I know, I know, that's a weird thing to be aggrivated about - but
>it looks wonderfully golden and oh so "picture perfect Norman Rockwell"
>when
>I take it out of the oven - then falls to pieces as soon as it's touched.
>(Watching him lift the breast, ribs and all, off the rest of the bird as
>he's trying to transfer it to the dish, then the rest of bird just
>separates
>and divides down the middle, laying out like it's collapsing in exhaustion.
>It's, well, embarrassing. Even if it does make scooping out the dressing
>fairly easy.)
>    *What* am I doing wrong? I'm following the temp/hour/pound scale
>suggested by the company and only buttering it enough for a good golden
>skin. The stuffing is plain (well, sage w/raisins and dates)... it baffles
>me.
>
>Rosine

I don't know about this butter under the skin thing.  I do sometimes brine
mine, especially if I am putting it on the smoker or outdoors.  I just stuff
mine, sometimes with two different kinds of stuffing at each end, lay some
whole carrot and celery sticks in a brown paper bag laying on its side in a
shallow roasting pan, plop the turkey on top of the veggie sticks (so the
bird doesn't stick to the paper), pour a can of chicken broth over the
thing, seal up the end of the bag and pop it in the 340 degree oven for 20
minutes a pound (25 minutes a pound for unstuffed).  I never open the bag,
never have to baste, never have it underdone, never have it overdone, always
perfect.  Leave the whole rest of the day for me to do all the rest of the
stuff, plus have plenty of time to visit an relax with company.  Also, I
always used to set part of my table the night before.  I would put out the
place name tags, and if I knew I would not be seeing the person at the
christmas season, I would lay their gift in their chair for them to take
with them.
Olwen

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