Reply to First time making a turkey--HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Forum Index » Food, Cooking, and Restaurants

Reply to "First time making a turkey--HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]OP - You'll be fine.  I've fixed (take that, snarky PP) Thanksgiving dinner pretty much every year for 24 years.  I've never screwed up the turkey.  I've messed up side dishes and desserts, but turkey is just not hard to do.

I agree with the PP who stressed thawing the turkey well in advance.  It will take a 24 pound turkey at least 3 days to thaw in the fridge.  I would give it longer.  Take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge by Sunday.  If (God forbid) it isn't completely thawed, you can put it in cold water but that's a pain in the ass.

I'm from Mississippi and we don't stuff our birds in the deep south.  We make dressing instead.  I have no advice at all about how to properly stuff a turkey.  I put some onion and celery and salt and pepper in the cavity and throw it away after the turkey is done.  I make cornbread dressing instead and it is literally amazing.  Also, stuffing a large turkey is usually not a great idea anyway.

Just follow the directions on the turkey.  Generally speaking it will take a 25 pound turkey about 4 1/2 hours to cook at 350.  You don't have to continually baste the turkey, but make sure you to baste it a few times.  Take it out and let it sit for about 20 minutes before you carve it.  Just cover with a piece of foil to keep it warm.  Like the PPs said, use that time to get everything else on the table.

People always ask me how I pull of Thanksgiving supper for so many people.  My secret?  I do almost everything in advance.  All of my side dishes are made days in advance and frozen.  All of my desserts are baked a day or two before.  I set the table the day before.  Literally the only thing I have to worry about on Thanksgiving Day is the Turkey.

You'll do great!  People make a huge deal about cooking a Turkey.  Really, it's one of the easiest things to prepare.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics