Cooking a turkey is easy...unless you've never done it before. I suggest you do a turkey test run. You can do it on one of the days leading up to Thanksgiving, or any time of the year. Here are some turkey tricks I learned the hard way:
1) If you need to buy a roasting pan, measure the inside of your oven so you buy one that will fit.
2) Allow lots of extra time for the turkey to defrost. Then allow even more time.
3) The turkey will have two cavities. These cavities usually come filled with either disgusting stuff or yummy flavor makers (it's up to you). Take them out. Do not cook the turkey with them inside.
4) Do not pick up a hot cooked turkey with your hands. Martha Stewart thinks these are the best for that task. (Then again, she does make them.)
5) Do not carve the turkey in front of your guests. Rachael Ray even recently mentioned that she makes two turkeys. One goes on the table for presentation while the other gets sliced up in the kitchen. Later, she brings the second turkey to the kitchen and carves that one.
6) Freeze some of the cooked, sliced turkey to make sandwiches in the future.
2 comments:
I sure wish I had read this before the first time I roasted my own turkey back in my younger days. Oh, it turned out okay, but like you, I had to learn the hard way - especially item #2. And I agree with #5 whole heartedly. In fact, carving the turkey is the most difficult and tedious part about the whole thing. It's also the messiest part. Yech.
My husband had to take over the rinsing part of the turkey making because it felt to me too much like I was washing a dead corpse. Which of course is exactly what it is.
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