Excellent turkey!

koshergrl

Diamond Member
Aug 4, 2011
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So I enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner with a dear lifelong friend and her family. I have eaten many holiday meals with them, and she has eaten many with my family as children, and young adults, but it has been a long time.

Anyway, so I gathered with these people I haven't seen in 30 years (my friend and 4 of her siblings and their families. Her oldest sister is in Alaska). My friend made the turkey (and I helped) She soaked a cheesecloth in melted butter and white wine, and draped that over the turkey to cook instead of covering it with anything else, and we just basted and kept that thing damp (after letting it dry out and initially sort of burn).

And it was FABULOUS. I have never seen such a perfect color on a turkey...and the legs didn't dry out or anything. The pan drippings/juice was fabulous and it made the best gravy I've ever had (I'm partial to wine and butter sauces).

Has anyone ever used this method before? The cheesecloth? I've never heard of it, but my gf said that she saw it on a show and decided to try it. Anyway, it's the way I'm doing my Christmas turkey. Or goose...
 
I looked it up online and it's like a Martha Stewart method, too...

Well it turned out pretty spiffy is all I can say.

Oh and when I was looking at the online thing, I noticed the image they had, which shows the turkey on a huge rack in the pan. Well I have a rack just like that that I've been using (not very efficiently) as a dish rack. I picked it up at St. Vinnie's, I thought it was some sort of kindling rack or something..it's a flipping rack for big hunks of meat! It's the same one that Martha uses!

Yes, Thanksgiving and the days following have been full of revelations for me, and that's a fact.
 
Never did it that way. My daughter cooks her turkey in champagne. I like it that way. Sometimes I just buy a turkey breast and cook it in champagne.
 
Well it all depends on how you look at it.

I like turkey more than champagne.
 
Koshergirl, I considered cooking the turkey this year in that method. But I had too many unknown variables in the mix and so I was afraid to add another degree of complexity. Now I will def try next time!

I will say that my turkey came out fab and I was told several times that it was the best turkey ever. I didn't stuff it - only squeeed a lemon, salt pepper, a couple of carrots an onion, some celery tops and parsley for the inside. But...I cooked the bird breast side down. It was super.
 
I was a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant when I was a young girl, and the owner was always cooking turkey foot soup. She loved that stuff.

I, on the otherhand, didn't last so long. I was fired after having a few drinks with her husband in the bar, then dropping a bunch of dishes in the fryer.

They shouldn't stack dishes over the fryer anyway.
 
I was a dishwasher in a Chinese restaurant when I was a young girl, and the owner was always cooking turkey foot soup. She loved that stuff.

I, on the otherhand, didn't last so long. I was fired after having a few drinks with her husband in the bar, then dropping a bunch of dishes in the fryer.

They shouldn't stack dishes over the fryer anyway.

I need to spread rep...:lol:
 
I cook turkey, breast side down. I like to splash it with OJ and add about a cup of a dark fruity wine, sprinkle with poultry seasoning and black pepper. Always get compliments.
 

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