THANKSGIVING TURKEY: baked or fried??

[warhawk]

Hello fellow chrome domes:  I hope all is well with U and your families.  As I am posting this thread... I cannot believe that Thanksgiving Day is near.  We always have  fun discussions on food so what a better way than THANKSGIVING DAY.

I'll start.  We are going to have our Thanksgiving Day turkey baked.  My beautiful wifey will be preparing a delicious baked turkey along with other goodies.  So... how 'bout U?  Do U like your turkey baked?  fried?  both?  or neither?  What's your story?

WARHAWK

[tomgallagher]

Here at the ranch we are going to have it the traditional way...baked.

[Laser Man]

Roasted on a Weber Genesis gas grill!   

[TheSlyBear]

Brined and roasted.

[warhawk]

Brined and roasted.

Hi SB:  Kindly post a few pics of your TOTD (turkey of the day) on Thanksgiving Day if you don't mind.

WARHAWK

[Quetzalcoatl]

Fried here, but I have a big family, so we make two, one fried and one baked and I always partake in both.

What can I say, I'm a tryptophan junkie.

[TheSlyBear]

Hi SB:  Kindly post a few pics of your TOTD (turkey of the day) on Thanksgiving Day if you don't mind.

LOL!

I'll try. I'm usually juggling a lot of things at the last minute so I can't guarantee that a camera will be one of the things juggled!

Here are some pics from last year (alas, not of the turkey itself):

Make-ahead gravy:



Cornbread pudding and sweet potato casserole:



Cranberry relish:



The table (only one guest last year):

[warhawk]

Hi SB:  Kindly post a few pics of your TOTD (turkey of the day) on Thanksgiving Day if you don't mind.

LOL!

I'll try. I'm usually juggling a lot of things at the last minute so I can't guarantee that a camera will be one of the things juggled!

Here are some pics from last year (alas, not of the turkey itself):

Make-ahead gravy:



Cornbread pudding and sweet potato casserole:



Cranberry relish:



The table (only one guest last year):

Thanks for the food porn.  It looks dee-li-cious!!!

WARHAWK

[Mikekoz13]

I usually throw that rascal in the oven to roast around 5 AM. Everyone wakes up to the smell of roasted turkey filling the house.

AWESOME!!!

[Scottakist]

I'm probably going to catch some hell for this but....

I spend thanksgiving with my mother,
 I do love her very much and I'm not afraid to say it.

HOWEVER...

I hate her cooking.
My taste is extra flavorful... Spiced up
Not dry tasteless cardboard.  LoL

I bought a used gas fry set up
For 10.00 pot, lid, the thing that goes in the turkey, and something that looks like a coat hanger
Along with the stand and thing that hooks up to the tank.

I'm bringing that over and frying up a bird
As well as a ham and any other things I can put in there.

Any tips or recipes?
Thanks

[D.A.L.U.I.]

I really never cared much for turkey--to me it's rather lacking in flavor, has a huge tendency to be a dry, crumbly mess, and I really prefer much juicier meat.  If I have to I'd follow SlyBear's brined and roasted, but I prefer it brined then butterflied and broil roasted as Julia Child's receipe provides.  But, that's a lot of work for a dinner that just turns out to be turkey--that's just me.  I do love the oyster dressing, the mirliton stuffed with shrimp and garlic mashed potatoes--so I don't go away hungry.  Particularly if my wife makes enough pumpkin pies from scratch--that's really heaven.  Fortunately this year the dinner is at a relative's house where they also have a good supply of roasted wild duck in addition to turkey.  My wife will bring the stuffed mirliton and pumpkin pies--I will be satisfied. 

One brief story.  A dear friend of ours was, prior to retirement, the food editor of the local paper.  When the fried turkey business started up many years ago she wrote an article and some basic directions for frying turkeys in the paper about a week or so before Thanksgiving.  All fine and good, right?  Well, that year numerous fires happened in our area as people were just learning about fried turkeys.  They tried to do it in their carports, too close to flamable materials, too much oil, oil too hot, wrong type of oil, turkeys were wet & caused trouble, etc.  Our friend was beside herself as the news reports about the fires multipled that Thanksgiving night.  She thought the paper and she would be sued.  They weren't but it has been her "contribution" to fried turkeys!

[mrzed]

I think I've tried a bite or two of fried turkey.

But at our house, it's always a roasted turkey. Occasionally on the rotisserie.

If we did fry, it would be in coconut oil. Never canola.

We'll have fresh vegetables, 100% whole wheat bread or rolls. Yummy.  And I've got a yummy pumpkin pie recipe made without gluten and sugar. (uses xylitol and/or stevia for sweetner, and sweet pumpkin -- baked from the pumpkin itself).

Wish we could afford a fully organic, free range turkey.  But man they are expensive.

[Laser Man]

Saintc,

I agree turkey can be dry.  I use this bizarre-sounding method to help keep the white meat moist: I mix finely chopped shallots and tarragon with a good amount of olive oil, then take the mixture in my hand and slide my hand carefully between the skin and the meat, rubbing the meat with the oil / herb mixture.  The oily mixture basted the meat and the skin keeps the mixture from drying out.  Sounds weird, but it works!

[Slynito]

I got a date with a beautiful young Asian woman, so you know where we'll be feasting.

 

[Mike]

I had fried turkey for a couple years. The thing that gets me is that the pots are small so you can only fit a chicken sized turkey in them.
 It depends on who bakes the turkey on how it is made. We always get the 25+ lb turkey since we have a large family. When I make it, I put several slices in it and pack them with butter. I use at least 2 sticks of butter and it tends to keep them moist. Once it goes into the oven, it bakes for a bit before I cover it in Longhorn BBQ sauce. I'm sure most of you have never had longhorn bbq sauce, they sell it by the gallon here (we go through a gallon a month) and it is more liquid than the thick sauce. In total through the baking process, the whole gallon goes onto the turkey. That is how I cook it and that is how my grandfather made it and taught me.

 For sides, we have the classic cornbread stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, pumpkin pie/pumpkin cheesecake, and I know there are things I am forgetting