Posted on 11/22/2017 9:32:25 AM PST by mairdie
Thanksgiving is the time for family and friends to sit around a table and enjoy some really good food.
But everything doesn't always go plan, as these photos show.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It looks like my very first turkey.
It’s called alcohol.
There’s also the Adele Davis slow meat cooking approach where you cook the meat at the temperature you want it to finish at.
The turkey ain’t done til the fire department shows up!
Worst food disaster I ever had was weapons-grade cookies, BUT a female relative-years ago- cooked her first turkey WITHOUT removing the bag with neck and giblets.She didn’t even know there was one. Then she PACKED the bird with bread stuffing. All looked ok until we heard a ‘BOOF’ and opened the oven to see a bony carcass with ALL turkey meat and stuffing stuck to the oven walls. That thing exploded like there was C4 in it. Hysterical.
That would be fine with dark meat, which is fattier and has a lot of connective tissue which needs to dissolve, but white meat is generally juicier when cooked at a higher temperature.
Also, it is important heat poultry quick enough to get it past the lower, more dangerous temperatures.
Cooking low and slow normally entails cooking temps around 225-250F, way beyond the target temps: white meat:165F dark meat:175F.
I've since been retired from anything more intricate than potato peeling at family gatherings.
The technique requires one hour at 350 degrees to kill off anything bad, then 1 hr per pound, as I remember at the final temp - maybe 170. The technique was most impressive on rare roast beef. The outside was black and the inside was a perfect, completely uniform 130 or 140. No gradation of more done meat near the outside. Just a perfect roast.
Embarrassing to remember when my TV dinner showed up on the front page of the college newspaper with a picture of the fire department. My boyfriend and I never noticed it burning.
A way to have a jucier turkey is to put about a stick or two of butter in the EMPTY cavity and turn bird upside down. Not the prettiest bird, but tasty.
GREAT story! I remember my grandmother, not a great cook, coming out of the kitchen after having baked a layer cake. She had a layer in her hand and was bending it back and forth as if it was rubber. And laughing her head off.
Fascinating! Never heard of that approach but I LOVE butter.
You never noticed it burning?
What were you doing?
Oh.
(Blush)
Never mind.
I cooked a ham once. Had to cut it with a saw.
Chicken and turkey have salmonella in the meat and should be cooked at higher temperatures.
What you described is similar to braising after browning the roast. I've also seen it done in reverse: the oven set at 170F and roast to within 10 degrees of desired temp, then crank it to 500 degrees to sear the exterior.
BTW, in your original post you stated the oven temp was set to the desired meat temp. Rare beef is around 135F.
I have a mental image that I’m enjoying tremendously.
If the weather is inclement, just move your turkey fryer inside like William Shatner did. What could possibly go wrong?
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