My first solo roasted turkey

[CaptainTom]

Came out pretty good considering I've never done one before.

All you ladies eat your hearts out. He's smart, he's handsome, he's humble, AND he can cook.......

Edit: That's a gold edged Noritake China serving platter. About the only thing my first wife left me when she moved out...

[d2creative]

Looks good to me.
So what's for dessert?

[Kalrog]

I've given up on roasting turkeys, but that one looks pretty dang good! I stick with fried or smoked now... at least when I am cooking.

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by d2creative

Looks good to me.
So what's for dessert?

Damned if I know. You don't think I'd be foolish enough to actually COUNT on eating turkey that I cooked ? I'm off to girlfriends family for dinner, and then to Dallas to more relatives for supper......
This turkey will get eaten tomorrow and for the next couple of weeks.

This would be a good place to submit leftover turkey recipes !!!

[andyz]

Captain, you probably know enough about food photography to use glycerin for shine, wood stain for color, etc. How do we even know that bird is cooked?

[venchka]

So I should take special care of Mom's Noritake?

[CaptainTom]

Originally Posted by andyz

Captain, you probably know enough about food photography to use glycerin for shine, wood stain for color, etc. How do we even know that bird is cooked?

That's a good point but I assure you that no shoe polish, WD40, or blow torches were used in the production of THIS bird.

[mkothare]

Looks golden brown delicious.

Here's a link to 'leftover' turkey recipes.
Turkey Leftovers Recipes

What got me was the introduction that said - "...I've gathered some unconventional recipes to help you use up those turkey leftovers. Obviously these recipes are good year-round, whenever you have an abundance of leftover turkey or chicken....." Please dont take that long.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Why is celery sticking out of the birds butt? (should chop it up into about 1 inch cubes when adding it to dressing).

One recipe that I picked up about 15 years ago that makes a very moist bird is to stuff it with pealed oranges, lemons, grapefruit andsome chopped pepper if you want to add some heat to the meat (of course this is all tossed out after baking) and then you make your dressing seperate in a caserole. Almost don't even have to baste the bird to get it to brown. Also covering the skin with butter helps make it brown up good.

Don't forget that you can mix chopped turkey with some ground pork and make hamburger type patties out of it. (pork needs to be extra fatty to keep it from getting dry).

[CaptainTom]

All I put inside the turkey was some spices and a cut up onion.

I actually got it to come out so well by screwing it up.
I had heard on TV that the people at Gourmet Magazine had tried 50 ways to cook a turkey and the best way was to put the bird in the oven with about a cup of water in the pan and cook it for two hours at 450 degrees. This is in opposition to the time honored method of 325 degrees and 15 minutes/lb.
I tried the new way. About 45 minutes into the cooking I had to open the doors to let out the smoke. The turkey was already browned, but not nearly cooked ( had a pop up thingy). So, I abandoned the 450 degree plan and turned the oven down to 325, covered the bird and waited for the pop up. About two hours later it was done, and came out golden brown and absolutely moist and juicy.
Most people cook the bird a long time and then try to brown it. This dries it out.
Go the other way around and get a nicely browned bird with no basting.

[Jeff_Green]

Tom, I am no cooking expert, but I am positive that cooking the bird for two hours at 45 degrees leads to nothing but BAD THINGS! lololol

[ttusa]

Great job there Captain!!

[J Eddington]

Originally Posted by andyz

Captain, you probably know enough about food photography to use glycerin for shine, wood stain for color, etc. How do we even know that bird is cooked?

Excuse me. We are talking about Tom. One thing we have in common is we would NEVER waste a good food! We only want the real thing. Fake stuff doesn't count.

[RKEnnis]

I forgot to photograph my turkey this year :/ I intended to, but I guess I was too anxious to eat it.

Anyway, it turned out to be about the best one I've ever done. I used an Alton Brown recipe. Brined the bird for about 15 hours. Baked at 500 degrees for the first half hour, then finished at 350.

We don't need to worry about how to prepare the leftovers - there aren't any...

[dbphotos]

Nice job Tom! Will make some great turkey and cranberry sandwhiches the rest of the week!