November 24, 2011 Happy USA Thanksgiving Day
 

http://cellar.org/2011/11-_November--_Turkey_Day40.jpg

Anyone else going to dismantle the turkey before cooking it ...

Photo credit and source unknown: link

Heee!

Great shot!

Dismantle? Yes actually I did. I had to fry two 22lb turkeys and since I was running out of time I sawed the second one in half before frying it. Looked weird but it worked great.

Never had a fried turkey.

Why fry?

OMG OMG OMG - YOU MUST TRY - so tender and juicy and and and ....

I'm going to brine it and fry it and love it and call it George.

They're much juicier. The dark meat tastes considerably better while the white meat just tastes noticeably better fried.

Time: 3 minutes a pound plus 5 more. Compare that to baking...

My 22lbers took 70 minutes. Roasted it would be something like 6-1/2 ~ 7Hrs.

What I learned, this being my first time, is that next time I'd cut them into pieces to fit my pot better and to allow a LOT less oil to be used. I needed 4 gallons of canola oil which cost me more than the two turkeys. When frying it just doesn't make any difference if the bird is sectioned up or not whereas even a break in the skin while roasting can result in 'Melba turkey'.

Everyone thought it was the best turkey in memory. Next time I'd do the injection thing and put in some interesting and mildly spicy seasoning to take the turkeys to a new level. :D

Nothing was greasy at all.
The most surprising thing to me was that when I drained the oil back into the same bottles I got it in, they all were filled back up. It appeared that not even a 1/2 cup left on the turkeys and none drained off them as they post cooked/drained.

We high-temp roast. Our 20 lb turkey took 3 hours. No basting required. We picked a good bird this time. It was so juicy that when I cut a bite from my slice of turkey, juices squirted everywhere!

We didn't stuff and ended up with over 2 cups of juice, half of that was fat. Even after doubling it with broth, the flavor was so intense, I have to double it again.

I was trying to made a reduction gravy, something I have never done before.

Amazing about the amount of oil used. Some of what went back in the bottle is probably the melted fat from the bird itself.

Attack of the quoter...?


Yes Cali I bet you're tight because checking again I actually had more oil than I started with.

High temp? I cooked the turkey in a kiln last time around but it wasn't high temp.

High temp for us was 500 degrees.

Kiln? That's different . . .