Mary bought an 18 lb. ButterBall turkey on Thursday before the Sunday event. This cook used our version of a creole style poultry seasoning blend in one of Kit Whol’s books we have. Although we doubled the amount of sage, rosemary, and thyme from what she cited. Everyone was very complimentary of the turkey. It did turn out well.
Per Chef JJ it will take until Monday to thaw in the refer so we have to accelerate the thawing. We put it into the sink with cold water for about 2.5 hours that evening. When dried and put back into the refer the outer 1″ or so was thawed. The water in the sink was VERY cold. It stayed in refer until Saturday afternoon when I opened it up and removed the giblets. Trimmed the fat, loose skin, tail and wing flaps.
- 12/16/2017, Saturday, mid-day – Applied the poultry seasoning on the outside of turkey and opened up the skin on the breast and leg/thigh area and sprinkled it in there. Had a Spice Sage pre-mix poultry seasoning and shook a lot of it inside the cavity.
- 12/17/2017, Sunday, 6:30 AM, Ambient temp is 48 and expected to reach low 60s by midday. Used butcher twine to truss the wings and legs and place turkey back in the refer uncovered to dry out for crispy skin.
- 9:00 – With the turkey legs down in the Pam-sprayed cooking basket, fired up the Big Easy with the turkey. Put the screen cover on it.
- 11:00 – Inserted the Chefworks temperature probe in a breast and found they were at 150+ in the upper areas. The screen cover is holding a lot of heat and it is cooking unevenly. Spun it around to help balance the heat hopefully and left the cover off.
- 11:30 – Alarm sounded so turned off the cooker and took the cage with the turkey inside to the sink and covered it with a dish towel. There are still cooler spots that are down to 150 but only a few.
- After about a 30-minute rest removed the turkey from the cooking basket. The ITs are all now 160+ so carved it.
It was moist and very tasty. Everyone was very complimentary.
Other dishes served were:
- Oven-baked dressing
- Inna’s gravy made with butter, onion and heavy cream
- Asparagus Casserole
- Cranberry Waldorf salad
- Potatoes Au Gratin by G. Katherine
- Pound cake baked in skillet
- Banana Bread
- Tube rolls made by Kelley after they arrived provided by Susan
- Corn casserole by Kelley
- Very large pecan pie brought by G. Katherine
Jay and Lynn Osburn joined us.
