We’re treating cooked turkey like chicken here, and making a sweet, salty, crunchy salad fit for eating on a leftover dinner roll or atop a bed of greens. I wasn’t into it, having never eaten at a restaurant for Thanksgiving, but the moment I walked in the door and saw the place packed with people from all over the country, I felt at home. The cut-off for turkey orders is Monday, November 23. All photos by Sydney Kramer.
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The holiday menu is priced at $80 per person for adults, and $35 per child (4-12 years old), and is free for any child age 3 and below. Do not fall for this! These are not ridiculously expensive or hard to get. Follow the directions that come with the turkey you bought. If you’re looking for the ideal bird for your family meal, we’ve rounded up a few options. The packages include a roast turkey breast dinner for four people that includes homestyle mashed potatoes, traditional herb stuffing, cranberry orange relish and turkey gravy.
“The average turkey takes hours to cook”.
You’ll get a much moister, better tasting turkey if you do this the day before Thanksgiving. Also, while this turkey is wonderfully delicious as is, this is Thanksgiving, after all, and folks expect gravy with their turkey. If you want more of a selection, you can still order from the a la carte menu, too.
This open-air restaurant at The Kāhala Hotel & Resort is offering a Thanksgiving brunch and dinner buffet with a traditional roast turkey carving station and all the fixings.
Williams also told NBC News of a standard practice in turkey production that most consumers probably don’t realize. The real reason is salt. Add water to roasting pan with turkey juices and scrape up any browned bits from pan bottom. So, a 16 lb. bird that will be brined needs to start thawing in the fridge the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Plan to defrost a 20-pound bird for five days. Rinse off the turkey, inside and out, then thoroughly dry with paper towels. Add the apple juice (or cranberry juice or water) and the dried fruits (along with any liquid that has collected in the bowl).
Don’t have the time or patience to brine? If it makes you feel like spitting it out, it is too salty. Add the stock and wine, whisking until the flour-butter roux is well blended. Sleep soundly and set your alarm for 8 AM. Cooking your bird outside will also free up the oven for yummy side dishes like sweet potato casserole, or pumpkin pie.
You’re going to hate me for this, but now is the time to bake the often-maligned Christmas fruitcake. “The cheesecloth slowly releases the butter onto the bird”, she said.
The brine helps retain moisture and the skin will crisp in the oven.
This is actually the easy part. First, preheat your oven to 375° F and then look up the approximate roasting time for an UNSTUFFED turkey.
A properly thawed turkey can be kept in the refrigerator for an additional one to two days before cooking. For example, an 18-pound turkey will need 3-4 days in the refrigerator to thaw.
Don’t try to cook the bird on a grill, microwave or deep frying. Is it still really stiff? It’s done. Pull it out and tent it with tin foil.
Using a food processor or box grater, coarsely grate the zucchini. Go with the wiggle method. If you are anal and insist on a thermometer, you’re looking for 170° temperature in the thigh. (That is, if they’re not full from Thanksgiving dinner.) Check out Julia Child’s classic pate brisee sucree crust recipe from the Press Herald.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Let the breast rest for at least 20 minutes before discarding the twine and cutting into 1/2-to-3/4-inch slices. When you do that, you spread sticky chains of salmonella bacteria around in the sink, where they can contaminate other foods and make you and your family sick. If you don’t own a sharp chef’s knife, buy one or get yours sharpened.
For those pies, pecan, apple and even pumpkin pies can be frozen. Congratulations! You have not fucked up Thanksgiving.
Instead of cooking up a whole bird, why not go with a turkey breast? It’s not the end of the world.
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Bake the cakes about 60 minutes for muffins, 75 minutes for medium loaves and 2 hours and 10 minutes for large loaves.
