CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
539
This version is fresh and uncooked cranberries. It’s got quite a nice punch to it, between the sweetness of the pineapple and tart from the crans, plus some crunch from the crans being uncooked. I don’t think it’s written down anywhere but if I see anything similar online I’ll shoot you a PM.
I’ve learned that my unsweetened whip cream comment was wrong, by the way. The daughter who put it together said Grammy told her an 8-ounce tub of Cool Whip. She knows I’m kind of biased against that stuff, so she made it with heavy cream, but trying to make it the same as Grammy does, she used confectioner’s sugar while whipping.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
540
I’ve been pretty lucky. The closest hospital is just down the street and I was there for a couple of weeks in August 2008, and the food was really quite good, both the patient in-room service and cafeteria food the wife and kids would get while visiting. My wife was there about 6 weeks across 2017-18 and it was still all good, and my MIL is there now, and same story.
But I’ve seen the other side of the coin, too. I ended up needing to be transported to another hospital during that Aug`08 episode, and that place had lousy food. I’ve had better food in the field from Army mess tents.
Turkey skin sliced in thin ribbons placed on the turkey in a turkey ‘sandwish’. One of the ‘delicacies’ of our Thanksgiving lunch this year. It isn’t for everyone.
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
542
I think this was my first year “dry brining” the turkey for Thanksgiving. (I might have tried before but not positive, and I’m sure I didn’t do it before for Thanksgiving.)
I agree there’s no way for me to have put butter under the breast or other skin because it was pretty dry and adhered down to the meat. And it frankly was of an unappealing appearance, with a lot of the meat showing through the dry, translucent skin looking like bruises (sorry for anyone of tender stomach, here).
But the herb/salt/olive oil mixture atop, and once roasted, still landed us with the whole thing looking like nice crispy golden-brown skin all over the bird. Kicking myself now for not taking a photo.
Once in the fridge afterwards (in a 2 gallon bag), the skin got flaccid again, but just a couple of minutes on a tray at 350°F crisped it up again.
One other thing my aunt said to me just today was that she wondered if the skin was too salty as a result of the dry brining, and that she might leave it out of the soup next year because even though she didn’t add any salt (just the skin and carcass and whatever juices collected later), the soup was on the salty side while the meat had been perfectly seasoned.
Maybe, or maybe it was that there was more salt in the internal cavity that ended up in the soup?
(Or maybe she added chicken broth that had some salt and didn’t think about that… I didn’t think of that till just now, but we ran into salty stuffing last year because of added broth and sausage on top of the seasoning already in the stuffing mix.)
Look at all those 'rooms! Yes, kitchen science sometimes requires protective gear!
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CCE
(Keyrock the unfrozen caveman lawyer; your world frightens & confuses me)
546
The pan juices did seem saltier to me this time around. Also, I think I mentioned above that the wing flats and the outer part of the thigh meat were pretty salty. But the rest of the bird was nicely salted, and I didn’t think the skin was too salty (I am a fan of the skin and eat discards from any kid that doesn’t like it).
So, in general I over-salted it. I can’t remember now if I followed the “Tbs kosher per 5 pound” advice, or if I did 1% by weight (boneless meats I often salt at 1.25% by weight, but back off to 1% for bone-in as a rough thumb-rule). Wish I’d written it down.
I make my gravy with a frozen stock from last time and the current pan juices, and normally add some salt. This time it didn’t need any salt, just pepper.
I got the carcass with a fair bit of meat made into broth before the girls went home so they could split it. I added my typical 2 pinches salt while sautéing/browning the carrots/onion/celery but that’s all I added, and the broth turned out with enough salt at my typical 1:1 dilution. What I mean is, after it’s done in the Instant Pot, I filter then concentrate down to about 2X strength, tasting a 1:1 dilution a few times as it evaporates until it tastes like the right strength.
Most of my frozen broth bags say “Dilute 1:1 and add 2-4g salt per 2 cups as diluted” but this time I wrote “do NOT salt”
Our Thanksgiving (just the two of us) was a bit of a mess but probably good for future anecdotes.
Intended menu was Field Roast roasts, mushroom/veggie stuffing/dressing, homemade dinner rolls, roasted sprouts with garlic, green beans with almonds, mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, store bought pumpkin and pecan pies with real whipped cream.
(Field Roast Roast, green beans with toasted almonds, sprouts with two heads of garlic, mashed potatoes.)
The messiness (click here to skip the drama and instead enjoy a photo of our resident polydactyl):
We have been battling a virus (Covid tests have been negative) for several weeks, so groceries weren’t purchased until Wednesday afternoon.
Intent was to prep most things (broth for the stuffing and for basting the roasts, prepping the sprouts, making the stuffing and mushroom gravy) after shopping. But once the groceries were unpacked (including the four pies [I only remember putting two in the cart!]), I was exhausted and decided to nap for an hour.
Cats woke me a little over five hours later.
Did the evening cat care stuff and decided to get up early to start cooking.
Slept for 11 hours, woke, and felt like crud. Told partner I was delaying the cooking until the weekend. Went back to bed.
Woke again late morning to sound of partner vacuuming and scrubbing; he’d decided that house needed cleaning (it did!) and so he was doing it.
Guilt is an excellent motivator, so I staggered out of bed, chugged a mug of coffee, found my apron, and reassessed the menu. Decided to start with prepping all the veggies.
It took me over two hours to trim and quarter the sprouts.
Reassessed the menu, again, and nixed the stuffing, gravy, and rolls. Used the fresh herbs (intended for the broth) on the roasts and basted with olive oil rather than broth).
Dinner, such as it was, was served at 7:30. Partner was surprised and appreciative (and had seconds), I made myself a plate, had a few bites, and was back in bed before 8:15.
Slept most of Friday, I think. Was more functional by Saturday afternoon.
I’m still making my way through this thread, but I wanted to respond while it was still relevant
We went to SoCal where my parents and my sister’s family reside. The menu was pretty straight ahead. WF prepped turkey ftw. 2 stuffings bc my sister insisted. Mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, brussels, gr salad, cran orange relish. Apple galette, pumpkin pie.
Noteworthy - stuffing balls rocked. Brussels finally achieved that perfect spot of soft and roasty, as opposed to hard in the middle or burned. More noteworthy - the first time almost everyone in the party had hands on, except our 11 and our 7 yo boys. The 14 and 17 cousins did the pie. My older son and H collabed on the veg. Dad did the potatoes. Mom did the gravy. Sis did the relish. I did the tart. BIL helped me prep all the onions, celery, and bread for the 2 stuffings. We were tripping all over each other in the kitchen all day from 10am to 6 pm, and frankly, it was the best day. Everyone was out of their rooms, off their phones, and actually interacting. Loved it! Finally, trying to forget what miserable novices the Seahawks looked against the niners. So fun to come back and share with this group!
